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Sermon and Prayers
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LOVE - THE UNIVERSAL WISDOM So says Jesus after expressing his disappointment and frustration at the refusal of so many to respond either to him or John the Baptiser. But the niggardly response could not negate what was offered. In a prayer spoken for all to hear he observes, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants.” What is such wisdom that infants may know it yet the learned may not see it? Surely it the wisdom of love, the one wisdom a child knows intuitively and responds to unreservedly. Today we have heard a small extract from one the most beautiful love poems ever written, The Song of Solomon. My beloved speaks and
says to me:
“Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away, for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come.” The church has spiritualised this poem, seeing it as an allegory of the love between Christ and the church. That may be instructive, but it tends to hide its essential character: it is shamelessly and beautifully erotic. In the church we have made much of that selfless love, agape, and have been rather suspicious of the passionate Eros. As a result, I suggest we have had little to say constructively to the young who struggle with the urgency of their ripening sexuality. If one can judge from what is portrayed on television, the tendency now seems to be bed first and after that you may ask, if you feel inclined, “Who are you that I may begin to know you?” What is presented as love-making is often no more than raw, indulgent sex, a meal devoured without any genuine hospitality in the offering or receiving. The Puritanism of an earlier time has been overthrown by today's pornography, for I suspect that much that parades as erotic is more truly characterised as pornographic. Our youth have been sold a counterfeit, sex masquerading as love. We talk a lot about love in the church, but I wonder if we don't forget its many colours, from the passionate red of romance to the cool blue of justice and the fertile green of generosity; and its various seasons, from the joyous harvest of summer to the grief of winter, from the mellow sanctification of autumn to the resurgent life of spring. We need the Song of Solomon because it helps loosen and humanise religious thinking that too readily becomes restrictive and narrow, moralistic rather than moral. This beautiful poem reminds us of love's vibrant mixture, its various manifestations. We do not live in a monochrome universe. It was rigid religious thinking that Jesus too often encountered, thinking that quibbled about his eating and drinking and socialising with sinners because it did not conform to particular religious prescriptions. Have you noticed that today's reading from the Song of Solomon ended with an invitation? And so did the reading from the gospel: Arise, my love, my
fair one,
and come away. “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest ...” This is the language of love. It is the language of invitation and entreaty, not of coercion and imposed prescriptions. Love rejoices in a free response. It does not lay on another a heavy burden of expectations and obligations. “Come to me, all you
that are weary and are carrying
heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you,
and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you
will find rest
for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Love sets the beloved free; it does not bind in life-cramping servitude. This is the love of God that Jesus invites people to enjoy with him, a love in which they will find themselves enlarged and completed as they are united with the Lover of the Universe. Love delights in mutual fulfilment. Children know the truth of love intuitively and respond spontaneously. This is their wisdom, a wisdom we sometimes need to rediscover as we grow and encounter the challenges of loving others. It is the wisdom of knowing we are loved by God and rejoicing in it. It is the love of God that shapes and ensures our humanity. It is in this capacity to respond to love and to give love that we find the image and likeness of God Imprinted on our human being. This more than our intellectual capacities, more than any catalogue of human creativity and achievements however impressive. Without love these other qualities would mean little. Indeed, without love there would be little to motivate us to create and achieve. There is a love that drives the scientist's enquiry. Love, by its very nature cannot be earned; it can only be offered and responded to. Unfortunately, some begin to learn as children that they will only be loved if they are good and obedient. There have been times when we have been guilty of promoting that most damning of heresies in the church. God loves us freely, unconditionally, and invites our free response. From all this it follows that our worth is never measured by any physical or mental capacity or achievement. The person lost in the wilds of dementia is no less precious, no less a person and never any kind of liability because of their frailty. They are as precious as a new-born baby. Think about the consequences of that for the way in which we as a society treat our elderly and chronically infirm. From all of this it also follows that sin is not so much a list of bad deeds and omissions; it is first and foremost a failure in loving. I think we all understand the dilemma Paul describes: I do not do the good I
want, but the evil I do not want is
what I do.
While there may be many actions or neglects I regret, it is the poverty of my loving, the nagging self-centredness that confines my spirit and closes me to the needs of others that concerns me most. We struggle to love one another as Christ loved us. We cannot make ourselves more loving. It is only as we are drawn more and more into the love of Christ that we may find our capacity to love enlarged. You cannot legislate for love; you cannot demand love be given. What an intolerable burden it would be to have to love because we were told we must! Or to be good because we were told we would not be loved unless we were. These are the burdens Christ would set us free from in order that we might learn the joy of being loved with an everlasting, unfailing love, and so be freed to love as we have been loved. Love is the universal wisdom because all things have been created in love. Love is the beginning, love the response, and love the end. A world shaped by deeds of love is a good world indeed. ___________________________________________________ A sermon presented by the Rev David Leach at St Aidan's
Uniting Church North Balwyn, on 3rd
July, 2005. IT MAY BE
REPRODUCED WITH ACKNOWLEDGMENT. |
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Page updated 5/07/05
