“Revolutionary Love - Take 2”

Karen Sloan 16/05/2021

Readings - John 15:9-17, “The Book of Love” - a parable by Peter Rollins, A Story from “The Prayer of the Frog”

Three readings on love.  How do I start this sermon, when love is a term used over and over again?  It’s in our songs, and poems and novels, and in our movies and on our TVs, and in our bible.  Jesus uses the term a lot, and we have heard countless sermons on it.   

Well, I want to start with the reality of our lives today.  I was recently listening to Radio National and in one hour I was subjected to a litany of violence, war, and grief, from places such as Syria, Afghanistan, and now Israel that made me wish I was listening to 94.5 and some music no matter how modern. Each report seemed to get worse.  On top of what we have experienced on our television in the past few weeks, the terrible images from Covid ravished India, the violence in Myanmar and Hong Kong to the violence in Northbridge, and the sorrow of lost children it leads one to wonder about the world and society in which we live. And what we can do to change things. Or even if we can  change things.

So, after pondering this sermon, I am not going to concentrate on what is wrong in the world but rather I am going to talk about what is needed.  And what is needed is love. Yes, we are going there again, because I am fundamentally an optimist and there is always hope.

A famous philosopher once said “For in truth, in this world hatred is not appeased by hatred, hatred is appeased by love alone.  This is the eternal law”.

We can find, if we look, places where hatred or at least neglect and loneliness and poverty is being appeased by love. 

People who care for their neighbours, their friends, their family during this crazy time, who support those who they don’t know and never will, with time and money.  Who set up charities and organizations to help the most vulnerable with food and shelter and education.  Who rescue people with no thought for their own safety.

We can all think of many organizations that we may be involved in, set up by incredible selfless people to help others.

I am currently part of a global virtual walk, a virtual Camino, designed to assist people whose livelihoods have been devastated by the lack of pilgrims walking the famous 800 km path to Santiago in Spain.  This includes those who own hostels, and have small cafes and places where the pilgrims would stop for food and drink. Money is donated, and thousands have joined, to support, to connect and to walk in their own neighbourhoods.  It’s called the “Camino for Good”, devised and run by a few committed people.

A small thing, but it helps so many. And yes, I have done over 300kms so far!

Love, it is so much more than a feeling, it is a movement and a way of life. A commitment to the other.

When we are talking about these examples we see they requires great courage and compassion and are much more than a flutter of the heart. This type of love engages the mind and will, and  seeks out the other even when there is a huge cost.  It urges us to step out of our own lives for others, to show them compassion and even at times protect and save them regardless of our own safety.    Agape love as Richard said a few weeks ago.  

Richard Rohr would call it revolutionary love,

“Love is more than a feeling.  Love is a form of sweet labour, fierce, bloody, imperfect and life giving, a choice we make over and over again.  In order to transform the world around us. It is not a formal code or prescription but an orientation to life that is personal and political and rooted in joy. “

But why are we drawn so much towards it.  Where does the urge for this sweet labour come from? Particularly in our science and technology driven world. 

Bruce Sanguin, in a past sermon, suggests we have been told by many, including our own religious traditions that humans are naturally sinful.  That we are by nature violent, self-centered and greedy and that our genes are geared only for survival regardless of who we hurt in order to live.  The father of modern psychology Sigmund Freud concluded that the human being was basically little more than a pleasure-seeking organism, using others for our own purposes.  And Adam Smith, the father of modern capitalism believed that the economic system was fuelled by little more than self interest.  It relied on the belief that we have a selfish instinct that will override almost everything else.  The British philosophers Thomas Hobbs once said that “life of man is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short”. As Bruce says, not a great picture of our modern-day society.

The problem, as we well know, is there is a great deal of truth in these statements.  We live in a society where the gap between rich and poor, either of people or nations is huge.  We live in a society where we are fearful of difference and protective of our money and possessions.  We live in a society where it seems that violence is endemic and is seen as the only solution to personal and global problems.  And amongst all of this the environment remains a punching bag that is forever dropped to the bottom of the list when the topic of jobs and productivity is raised. Particularly when a terrible pandemic is ranging.

When we see violence and hatred, and the outcome of such things, the grief and heartache and despair that they generate we ask ourselves what many ask, religious or not.   Is there any hope for a better more just world, a world where love rather than hate rules? 

Sanguin would argue that there is, if you take into account the God factor. 

This God factor is not from a remote deity, that intercedes occasionally, but from a divine presence at the very heart of all creation.   An immanent presence that leads to life, a creative, loving, and compassionate life.

More and more we see there is a different story to the story that says we are determined by our genes and our quest for survival, and by our psychology to be violent and self-centered. We are so much more than our genes.

Current research in evolutionary biology has revealed that cooperation and connectedness, rather than selfishness can and does drive the development of a species.  There seems to be a new science of empathy emerging.   Barbara King, who is a Professor of anthropology, has written a book on ape and monkey behaviour.  She tells us that religious instinct has its evolutionary origins in the impulse to belong.  To feel as though we belong we need an other, a caring mother or a nurturing community to love us into being, to show us we have a place in the universe.  While other observers of apes and gorillas see only an aggressive instinct she sees elaborate nurturing rituals that represent the first religious impulse. 

As Sanguin suggests the need to belong, to connect, to become one with others, through rituals of love is what seems to be built into the fabric of our evolutionary being. 

Life it seems may not be solely about the instinct to survive.  Rather it is about the sense of belonging and being connected.  And it evolves, both in the universe and in us. 

From the moment the universe was born God’s spirit was at its heart driving even its most basic elements to connect.  I believe that at every level this spirit urges  communion and relationship, so that atoms combine with atoms, molecules with molecules, cells with cells, and people to people.  We have this urge to connect with one another, as though it is in our DNA. 

God is the divine mystery that holds us, nurtures us and nourishes us into being.  The one in whom we belong, and who drives us to belong to others.  We are interconnected to one another and all of creation in ways that seem so sacred and gives us such hope. Which is why the ancients referred to God as love, as a shorthand way of describing this presence.

Tragedy and suffering and violence seem part of the story about what it means to be human.  But it is not the full story.  And it’s not inevitable.  Because there is also the story of love.  We are hard wired for love, we seek it, we give it away and when we do, we connect to the most basic and beautiful element of the cosmos, God. Or spirit or breath or energy, however you want to name it.  What we find is that life means nothing without love. 

And if we widen our view, as we should, we will see, that the social form of God’s love is justice, fairness and equity for all, regardless of race or religion or gender or sexuality.  Everybody and everything are encompassed within the divine presence, held in love.  The Christian life, accordingly, is about developing a relationship with the spirit that responds to that love and transforms us and those around us into more compassionate caring people.

But if we are not careful this revolutionary love can and does get lost in our modern world.  Stories get mixed up; suddenly we become confused about what is important.  Suddenly we have no hope that things will be different or that we are any different.  We need a light in the darkness, a call from the wilderness of commercialism, violence and injustice.  Jesus, for us, is that light. 

We hear his voice today, through John’s gospel, a gospel that speaks of love more than any other. We hear a message from Jesus to his disciples that seems like a last prayer or set of instructions, “love each other as I have loved you, and as the father has loved me”. Jesus wasn’t giving out too many rules or regulations, doctrines, or things to believe in, instead he was speaking of love.  He has already spoken about love being the greatest commandment, love of God and neighbour, and he speaks about it again here.

He is calling the disciples to love one another as he has loved us, as the father has loved him. And he calls them to go and bear fruit. Out into the world.

By this they and we will be known as his disciples.  Friends, who have seen in Jesus the way to live and love in God. And who follow suit.

And we know that Jesus did not just say it but lived it. 

So today, for us, it means, we are to practice an inclusive love, where everyone, and everything including all of creation is of value.  It means we are to practice hospitality, justice and sharing of our resources, it means we are to be open to people with different ideas and traditions, and it means welcoming the stranger, the outcast, the lonely and the lost. We are to break down the barriers and distinctions between people.  And we are to care for the earth, for its own sake and because the people who will suffer the most during climate change are the poorest.

It means loving ourselves, for we are children of God, full of the spirit which gives light. 

And as Richard Rohr said, revolutionary love can only be practiced in community, so, it means getting out of the church, which often becomes an insular club.   We are to see the spirit in all things everywhere, living in the world, and participating in bringing to reality a new heaven and a new earth.  A new heaven and a new earth, in which God will and does dwell “within all of life”

So, as I end this sermon, I always come back to the same thought.  Sometimes it would be easy just to believe a few things and go on our merry way.  But Jesus message is so, so challenging, even in its simplicity. What matters is love. As Peter Rollins surmised in his parable, the Book of Love, “The book was refined into a single word and that word was sent out on the lips and life of a messenger”. And that word was love.

If we embrace the idea that love is at the core of life, that God is at the core of life, and that Jesus embodies that love, maybe we will become better human beings. And the world will become a better, more welcoming place.

And while this path may entail great cost there can be great joy and great hope. 

Because you can’t kill love, no matter how hard you try. 

Amen

Acknowledgments

Bruce Sanguin sermon – “Idle tail or loves testament”.