Tag Archives: Love

Loving Our Way to a New Heaven and a New Earth

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Icon of the Revelation to St. John

The Revelation to St. John

“I saw a new heaven and a new earth,” St. John says. “I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.” I heard “the one who was seated on the throne [say], ‘See, I am making all things new.’”

In the last two weeks I have seen and heard something very different. A bombing in Boston. An explosion in West, Texas. An earthquake in China. A collapsed building in Bangladesh. These things are happening not only at the state, national, and global levels. They are local too. I know that for some of you the ground under your feet is shaking and unstable, the structures of your life have collapsed, your world has exploded.

With all that I have seen and heard I go back to the Revelation to St. John but I don’t want to read his words again. I want to see what he saw. I want to hear what he heard. I don’t think I am alone in that. The people of Boston want to see and hear. The people of West want to see and hear. The people of China want to see and hear. The people of Bangladesh want to see and hear. Many of you want to see and hear. The darkness of the circumstances, however, makes it difficult to see and hear that all things are being made new. Continue reading →

Love Could Not Bear That

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Over the last week the many statements, opinions, and responses to the bombing in Boston have been broad, varied, and filled with emotion. They expressed, appropriately so, shared pain, sorrow, grief, and anger. They offered gratitude, pride, and support for the courage, compassion, and love shown by the many heroes who responded and cared for the dead, the injured, and those still in danger. Others, not surprisingly, focused not so much on the bombing but specifically on the alleged bombers and generally on Islam. They were vicious and malicious.

These last reactions reminded me of the hermit in a story from the life of St. Silouan (1866-1938), a monk of Mount Athos. The story is told by Archimandrite Sophrony on page 48 of his book, St. Silouan the Athonite.

I remember a conversation between [Silouan] and a certain hermit who declared with evident satisfaction,
‘God will punish all atheists. They will burn in everlasting fire.’
Obviously upset, [Silouan] said,
‘Tell me, supposing you went to paradise, and there you looked down and saw someone burning in hell-fire – would you feel happy?’
‘It can’t be helped. It would be their own fault,’ said the hermit.
[Silouan] answered him in a sorrowful countenance:
‘Love could not bear that,’ he said. ‘We must pray for all.’

I am not condoning or excusing the bombing in Boston or any other act of violence. I recognize, however, how easily “all atheists” can be replaced with the name of our favorite person or people to blame. This is true not only for the bombing in Boston but for all the times we or those we care about have been hurt by another. Sometimes they are guilty. Other times they are not. Regardless, “Love could not bear that.”

Icon of St. Silouan

St. Silouan the Athonite (source)

A New Position and Role as Lover, John 13:1-17, 31-35

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It’s not hard to imagine that after the supper fiasco in Bethany – Mary anointing Jesus’ feet, Judas’ outburst, and Jesus talking about his death – the disciples might have been looking forward to a quiet evening, just a regular supper, just some food and conversation. That’s how tonight’s supper began but that’s not how it will end.

This night would be different. It would not be like the supper at Bethany. This time it was their feet. This time it is Peter’s outburst. This time it is Jesus talking about and showing love. It was, however, another supper interrupted.

“During supper Jesus got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him.”

Jesus is taking their relationship to the next level. They had been with each other for three years. Now they will become a part of each other. They had shared much over those three years, conversations, meals, experiences, prayer, time, life. Now they will take a share in Jesus and in each other. He in them. Them in him. They in each other. That’s how love is. Continue reading →

“Lord, who is it?” A Sermon on John 13:21-32

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He was the one they had waited for. They had grown up hearing stories of his coming. Then one day he showed up and chose them to be his friends and students, to follow and learn. He took them new places. He taught them new ideas and ways of living. He revealed God and showed them things they had never before seen. Water was turned into wine, a crippled man got up and walked, five thousand were fed with a few pieces of bread and a couple of fish. One day he walked on water. A blind was made to see and a dead man came back to life.

They believed in him. They followed him wherever he went. They spent all their time together. They walked together. They talked together. They ate together. They worshipped and prayed together. They lived together. They were a part of each others’ lives. Jesus wouldn’t have it any other way, then or now.

It was the perfect combination. Friendship, love, and intimacy. They are, I think, what we most long for. They are the ways of God and they show his presence in and among us. They are also the ground in which betrayal takes root. We can never betray one who has not first given and entrusted himself or herself into our hands and life, and Jesus knows that. “Very truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me.” That Jesus can even be betrayed is proof of his love. Jesus has made his own betrayal possible not only with the disciples but in all times and in all places, even here, now, with us. Continue reading →

Limits or Love? A Sermon on John 12:1-11

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Icon of Mary anointing JesusThree hundred denarii is just too much money to waste. That’s nearly a year’s worth of daily wages, an annual income. Who does that? Why would anyone do that? That’s neither practical nor reasonable. It makes no sense.

Why does all of it have to be poured out? Something that valuable should at least be saved for a special time and place. Surely it could be put to better use than feet. Jesus’ feet may smell sweet now but it won’t last. It won’t be long before he leaves the table and steps back into the street, into the dirt and muck of everyday life. Soon his feet will sweat and stink. They will bleed. The fragrance that fills the house today will linger only as a memory, a story in scripture. What difference could Mary’s perfume possibly make anyway? Continue reading →