“Let Us See What Love Will Do”
June 12, 2022
1 John 2:9-11
Shawn McConaughey
Good morning, Friends.
I was reading some of the history of Western Yearly Meeting. WYM is the group of Quaker Churches that formed in 1858 and which still exists today. Indianapolis First Friends is a part of that.
I was happy to note that when this group of Quaker churches officially formed WYM, they established 4 committees. Quakers can’t do anything with committees. Nothing has changed.
I digress, the list is not anything like our committee list today, any guesses as to what the 4 committees were?
Books and Tracts
Indian Civilization
Education
Concerns of People of Color (this included abolition efforts, education, and lobbying efforts).
In time an orphanage was established that served more than 3000 African American children. Of course, John Williams’ bequest for his estate to go to this effort and the faithfulness of Quakers for more than a century gets us to this point.
I was reflecting about what might have caused Quakers in the 1800’s to make this such a high priority. That their actions and concern would carry through to today. These scholarship recipients are an on-going testimony to that concern.
What is it that leads a group of people to go to such lengths and risks as the underground railroad, setting up schools and educational experiences, to help freed men find their way?
I think it was love.
Love is sort of a smarmy concept. Why not justice, or peace, or liberty? Those things seem more righteous. But all of those concepts are encapsulated in love. I’m sure it was far from perfect with motives that were not always pure.
But I can’t get away from this idea that obedient love really played a role in this effort. Now obedience does not sound much like a word that describes love. It sounds like work, it sounds like duty, it sounds like risk. We prefer to think of Love as free flowing, emotional, and makes us feel warm inside. Right?
Jesus is asked, “what is the greatest commandment?”
We read of his reply in Matthew Chapter 22. He responds, “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
A command to love? We might say, “I can’t just love on command?” But any of us who have moved beyond the initial flirtations of attraction to a deeper relationship based in love, know that often it is a daily decision to love. It is to act in loving ways, to put the other’s needs ahead of our own, to serve even when there is no promise of love returned. Truly loving our neighbor is often not easy but it is the center of anything good in our world.
Jesus makes this concept even more outrageous by stating that love is not just reserved for those we like but even for our enemies.
Jesus keeps on with this kind of talk. He tells ludicrous stories of the scum of the earth, who in the minds of his listeners is someone no better than a dog, who dares help his bitterest enemy after he gets jumped by thieves. In this “love story” the concept of love gets turned upside down.
Jesus tells of a disrespected Jewish father that is so foolish as to give his son his inheritance. The son in turn goes and wastes it on a lifestyle that would make good Jews blush and turn their backs. But this father, this distinguished father, does not even wait for his bedraggled washed up, spent out son to stagger up the driveway on his knees. No, he gathers up his robes and runs, not to hurt his son, not to scold him, not to disown him but to throw his distinguished arms around his son in a fools embrace.
You must understand that to his hearers, Jesus’ stories were ridiculous. We think of them as a story that challenges our spiritual life. No one talked like this, especially the religious. Jesus was so over top. Most were left picking their jaws up off the floor. I’m sure that some stormed out in a rage, (quiet pause) but some…well some were strangely drawn to this absurd love that was so profound. I am sure that amidst the skepticism, many were attracted to this love. They were warmed by it, ached for it. Especially those who were the outcast, the spat upon, the bottom rung of society.
You see, this kind of nonsense had the power to completely upset the political and religious power structures of the day. This kind of talk….. well this kind of talk could get you crucified…….
Jesus then has the audacity to not only say these kinds of things, but to say them out loud, in the public square where everyone could hear, and then, maybe the most radically of all- he then goes about living his life according to this absurd, dangerous kind of love.
Friends, the times we live in are no different. There is still a maddening scramble for the top, to be in charge, to rule, to have power, to only love those who deserve it. It’s not just people out there, sadly it's people who call themselves Christians, who get into bed with the temptation to power. The culture wars are doing great damage and unfortunately some of it is being done in the name of God. The weapons of this war are fear-mongering, disinformation, shouting others down, rancor, ridicule, homophobia, racism, sexism…..all the isms.
Friends, it is my desire this morning to urge you to set aside the scramble to the top that tramples all over one another? To set aside these weapons of war. See all of these will never ultimately win. They may for a time, but they will rot your soul in the meantime.
I’m not suggesting that we should not stand up for justice, or for what is right that is part of love. We should do our best and strive to succeed, be a bright light in our community, but as the apostle Paul reminds us.
“If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mystery and all knowledge, and have great faith so as to move mountains, If I give away all my possessions, and if I sacrifice my body… so that I may boast….If I have all of this but do not have love- I gain nothing, I am nothing.”
Love is work Friends. Should we decide today and tomorrow to live out Love, we must recognize that this love is often upside-down from the way our world describes it. Love, like so much of the Kingdom of God, is so opposite from what we are bombarded with. Love involves sacrifice, turning cheeks and patching up our enemies. Praying for our persecutors. Love is not necessarily meant to be a martyrdom unless that is what is required, loving is not worm-theology or self-hatred. Love rejoices in truth, it bears, believes, hopes and endures all things.
It is choosing daily how to respond amid a darkened world that longs for the Light. Jesus describes both himself and his followers as the Light of the world. To be able to truly love we must reflect the Christ-light. We cannot love most completely without knowing the one who is the light of the world.
I pretty much think that anywhere in the NT where the word light is used, we could replace it with the word love, especially in Jesus’ words. “You are the Love of the World. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket. But on the lampstand, and it gives light/love to all in the house. In the same way, let your love shine before others….”
I am imagining each of you as the bright light that you are and that you will become. Light guides us, Light warms, Light exposes Darkness, Light Heals, Light Purifies, Light draws us, Light makes it possible for us to see, Light gives life. Will you be that?
Where is God calling you to be light to demonstrate this love? Do you consider how you reflect this Christ-light into your circumstances? Where in your life are those who need guidance, warmth, healing?
Friends, In the beginning God spoke Light into being. May we live into the calling to be the Children of Light. Let there be light in the homes, neighborhoods, schools, and jobs where we find ourselves.
In the words of Quaker William Penn, “Let us See What Love Will Do”.
1. What Light/love does my own heart and soul need right now?
2. Where in my life am I seeing the Light/love shine most brightly?
3. Into what darkness might God be nudging me to shine Light/love?