What the world needs now is love, sweet love
It's the only thing that there's just too
little of
What the world needs now is love, sweet love,
No not just for some but for everyone.
Every
Sunday morning I am awakened by the incomparable Dionne Warwick singing those
words. It is one of the ways that I remind myself about the tasks ahead. You
might ask why I don’t have that reminder set for every day. That’s because, on
most other days, I am awakened by Dave Matthews, screaming, “Pick me up, love,
every day!”
You
might find it odd that I feel the need to be reminded so blatantly and so often
that I am bolstered, carried, and even dragged out of bed by love, but it is
very true. You may find it hard to believe that I have to remind myself every
Sunday that the heart of what I am called to do is to answer the greatest need
in the world by proclaiming that we are, in fact, loved, but it is very true.
While
I’d like to say that the world needs love now more than ever, a longer view of
human history says that the need never really changes. Somehow, we seem to
think that there will come a time in which we have loved enough, and everyone
will just get along. Somehow, we reach points along the way where we feel like
we have been there and done that, and all we have to do moving forward is try
our best to be good, decent humans. The rest can sort itself out, as long as I
am responsible and do my best not to harm anyone else.
How
different our lives would be if Joseph had taken that position. How very
different our Biblical story would be if Joseph had followed through on his resolution
to dismiss Mary quietly and go about his business. The child was not his. He
was within his rights to dismiss her. In fact, he was doing her a favor! If he
had said anything publicly, she might have been stoned to death – and the child
along with her. It could still happen – even with a quiet dismissal – but he
would still be seen as a righteous man.
The
story continues that he was visited in a dream by an angel and convinced that
Mary’s pregnancy was of God’s doing, and the child would be the one foretold to
save people from sin. He would be the very presence of God with us in human
form. He then awoke, and he embraced Mary as his wife.
This is
a story of love, and it is a story of courage. While I admit that the thing I
don’t like about this story – or at least Matthew’s version – is that it
focuses on the courage and the actions of Joseph apart from Mary, I also have
to admit that the poor guy really does not get much of a part in the story from
this point forward.
I’m not
sure that he really needs it, because from this point forward it’s no longer
his story. The story is about their family as they receive the confirmation of
others that Jesus is indeed the messiah of God and the story is about what God
is doing through Jesus and those who love him and follow him.
That
includes you and me. We are caught up in the story of the one Paul said was
attested by the prophets, proven through his resurrection, and calling those
who follow him to include those who are outside of the covenant, yet beloved by
God.
Now,
that is a love that takes courage. It takes courage to welcome the outsider. It
takes courage to recognize that even we, who seem to agree on so much, can just
as easily find ourselves outside of the tents of those we suddenly disagree
with. It takes courage to sit at a table and not argue an ideological point,
because the need to love outweighs the need to agree. Oh, we need to love,
because we simply must find a way to agree on sin and human suffering. If our
ideology gets in the way of even seeing the suffering of others and the
complicity of our own sin, then we may as well be causing the suffering we
deplore.
Now, I
know that line of thought can be taken too far. I remember taking a group of
youth on a hiking trip in Belize on an off day from our mission trip. I’d been
telling them that they need to be aware of the trash that we brought from all
of our individually packaged snacks. More than that, I said, “Pick up any trash
that you see, or else it’s the same as leaving it there yourself.” Well, we
happened to go past an area where there was a lot of tourist traffic and not
enough trash cans. One of my more astute youth took great pleasure in pointing
out all the trash that I was passing by. “Rev. Zach, you left that shoe.”
We
could have, of course, spent the day picking up trash – in fact, we did in one
village – but the reality is that it takes more than a few acts of kindness to
change a system. It takes people coming together and recognizing that we are
not just responsible for ourselves,
we are “responsible selves” who are connected
by God’s grace.
It is
that grace, that unearned love, that helps us wake up and sing a new song. It
is that love that gives us the courage to recognize, like Joseph, that simply
doing no harm doesn’t stop the vulnerable from being harmed.
There
are, of course, countless examples in our past and present of those who love
courageously, and it is so easy to see them as superheroes and say, “Thanks be
to God for them!” Our service personnel in the military and police and
firefighters are certainly wonderful examples of those who love with great
courage every day, yet I wonder if we sometimes miss out on our own calling to
be courageous when we focus on those whose lives are inherently dedicated to
acts of bravery.
Maybe
the key is found in looking to those who seem to be outsiders like the gentiles
of Paul’s time. Maybe the key to our courage is found in looking to the
vulnerable and expecting God to be present in them, just as the angel helped
Joseph to do.
Wherever
we find the motivation, the truth is that the world needs love, and it needs it
now, and it’s never going to stop. Love isn’t something we save for one Sunday
or for one candle or for one person or group of people! Love can’t wait. Love
is the way, for those who follow Jesus.
Bishop
Michael Curry of the Church of England spoke about the type of love we need in
a royal wedding not too long ago. He began by quoting the late Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr, who once said:
"We
must discover the power of love, the redemptive power of love. And when we do
that, we will make of this old world a new world, for love is the only
way."
Then he went on to say:
There's power in love. Don't
underestimate it. Don't… over-sentimentalize it. There's power, power in love…
Imagine this tired old world where love is the way…
When love is the way, then no child
will go to bed hungry in this world ever again.
When love is the way, we will let
justice roll down like a mighty stream and righteousness like an ever-flowing
brook. When love is the way, poverty will become history. When love is the way,
the earth will be a sanctuary. When love is the way, we will lay down our
swords and shields, down by the riverside, to study war no more. When love is
the way, there's plenty good room - plenty good room - for all of God's
children. Because when love is the way, we actually treat each other, well...
like we are actually family.
When love is the way, we know that
God is the source of us all, and we are brothers and sisters, children of God. My
brothers and sisters, that's a new heaven, a new earth, a new world, a new
human family.”
As idealistic as that may be, I have to say, if that’s not the
goal then what are we doing? If we are ok with children living in generational
cycles of poverty; with a rising infant mortality rate; with private prisons
profiting from the separation of families over misdemeanor offenses; with
children that have lost their childhood in a complicit and dispassionate legal
system; if we’re ok with suffering and sin then what’s the point?
Maybe you feel paralyzed by the enormity of it all. I sure do, but
then I remember you. I remember that God has elected to be present in the world
through the church, which is the body of Christ. Then I remember that this
covenanted community of people who follow Jesus do not simply wait for a candle
to be lit or a special day to celebrate in order to love.
In our lives together – and in our lives apart – we explore, we
express, and we experience God’s love: courageously, openly, and honestly. We
don’t always get it right, and that’s why it takes courage to love – even here
and even now. As we move closer to our celebration of the birth of the one who
by God’s grace gives us the courage to love, let us remember to look toward the
outsider. Let us remember to expect God to be present in the vulnerable and
let us be challenged not only to be righteous but to do the right
thing in every given relationship and every chance encounter.
I promise you that God is waiting like a mother with outstretched
arms waiting for a toddler’s first step, and she will embrace you, comfort you,
and encourage you no matter how well you step. Love is like that. It just can’t
wait, and neither should we.
Amen.
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