The More Excellent Way
1992 (Year C) 26 July / Pentecost 7
St Peter de Beauvoir Town
So, ‘Love is patient; love is kind and envies no one. Love is never boastful, nor conceited, nor rude; never selfish, not quick to take offence. Love keeps no score of wrongs; does not gloat over other peoples sins, but delights in the truth. There is nothing love cannot face; there is no limit to its faith, its hope, its endurance.’
And these are not just Christian insights into love. The same thoughts are expressed in other religions. They are restated in ordinary folk tales. A Hindu story tells of a woman, Savitri pursuing the King of the Underworld in order that her dead husband’s soul may be returned to his body. Eventually, after a great deal of effort she wears the devil down, and he frees her husband’s soul and thereby his life. An old folk tale from Cornwall has Tarn Lin, half man and half elf, being released from his elfin state by the love of a woman. ‘There is nothing love cannot face; there is no limit to its faith, its hope, and its endurance’. Wherever there is love, people are freed. Love creates endless possibilities, for love is from God.
The glimpses of human love that come our way, the embraces, the feeling of warmth and wholeness, of being at one with another person and with creation; any way we want to describe it. They are divine moments, for they all come from God. They are as close as we can get to God in this world and they have an enriching and empowering effect on our lives. We feel creative. The songs say that we can do anything when we’re in love, and they’re true.
As we go along now, choose a person of whose love you are completely certain. Recall the times when you felt this person’s love ... relive those times in your mind, allow yourself to feel the joy they bring... for in doing so you will drink in love and life and God. And then picture this person sitting here with you ... imagine that you are holding hands... let their love flow into you and feel how enlivened you are. Now let your love flow into this person ... an atmosphere of love is generated around us.
What you’ve just done if you have thought about someone you love is recall an experience, and now you’ve got a yardstick, by which you can measure other events in your lives. Just remember what it was like when you realised you were loved. How it makes you feel when you knew deep down in the very deepest part of you, that you were loved and cherished and accepted. It probably made you excited, full of energy and life. Why even when you did something wrong it was still acceptable for you were not ridiculed or shouted at.
Maybe it was a teacher, a friend, or a member of your family that gently and patiently pointed out your shortcomings, but my goodness far from feeling put down you fell enriched. You felt as if you’d really learnt something, as if you’d grown and taken part in something really special.
These experiences of love not only provide a reference point for seeing God in our lives, but also for the Limes when we’ve been made to feel that he is absent. As we remember them we are also reminded of the pain when we experienced love being withheld or abused. The times when we’ve been told by someone that we are loved yet we feel bad or that we’re simply being possessed by them.
All these experiences actually change the way we behave, for the lover is always ready to forgive the one who has done wrong. St. Paul says love bears no record of wrongs. Love always seeks to forgive. God the creator, lover, is recorded in the old Testament reading this morning as allowing himself to be so vulnerable that he finds himself in such a position ‘When Israel was a boy, I loved him... but the more I called, the further they went from me’... yet... ‘My heart is changed within me, my remorse kindles already, I will not let loose my fury... for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst’.
The Lord of All permits himself to be bound in a loving covenant with creation. Because of this covenant, this bond of love, some actions are no longer permissible. God forgives rather than punishes, creates relationships rather than destroys them, seeks our joy rather than our sorrow, endures rather than gives in, hopes rather than despairs. If that is what our God does – surely we should go and do likewise. AMEN