Happy
Mother’s Day! What a lovely day this promises to be, though we
really could use the rain.
I was
fortunate enough to have spent time yesterday in Steamboat Rock with
my family—my mom’s side—my aunts and uncles, cousins, my
grandmother, my parents who came down from Wisconsin, and my middle
child, who is my first daughter and mother to two of my grandsons.
All told, we had FIVE generations present, and I feel grateful that
my grandsons have gotten to spend time with their great-great
grandmother. I feel thankful to God for the time spent with my
family.
On my
drive home, my thoughts ranged from my family (and friends) to this
week’s lessons, upon which I’ve been meditating all week,
especially the Gospel and the reading from 1 John. As you may or may
not have figured out about me as I’ve been preaching among you for
the last few months is that one of my passions is looking for the
spiritual in pop culture and literature sources. And so, being my
parents’ child and a product of my time, lyrics from a Beatles’
song popped into my head after reading the Gospel, which uses the
word “love,” a total of nine times and contains Christ’s
greatest commandment to his disciples, and through them, to us, part
of which is to “abide in my love.”
Now the
Beatles’ song that popped into my head is not the one that you
might think is the obvious choice: “All You Need is Love,” though
a line from that song has been in my head for other reasons that I
won’t go into today. No, the lyrics I’ve been playing, both in my
head and on my car’s CD player, are from “Across the Universe”
and they go like this: “Limitless undying love / which shines
around me like a million suns/ and draws me on and on / across the
universe.” As this song was written while they were in their
Maharishi phase, John Lennon, who wrote the lyrics, quite possibly
was not thinking in Christian terms. But he captured, for me, a large
part of the essence of the words Christ uses: “abide in my love”
and “love each other as I have loved you.”
And so
this week, I’ve been amazed by the intensity of this love and how
many ways in which it manifests itself—echoing over and over. When
I first listened to this song a couple of months ago on my trip to
Texas--I actually hadn’t been really familiar with it prior to then
other than knowing it was a Beatles song; the cover of it I’ve been
listening to is by Rufus Wainwright, who has a marvelous voice. But I
digress. When I listened to these lyrics, I thought in terms of that
all-encompassing love from God, but a higher, abstract love—an epic
love, if you will. However, over the last months, including
yesterday, I considered all the more concrete, down-to-earth examples
I’ve seen recently: a friend who is busy, stressed, angry, and
tired from the situation in his department and on campus at the
university where he works and from an intense job search, yet willing
to answer texts sent at inopportune moments and to “scheme” (his
word) in order to help me see a way along the next stage of my path;
parents who show their love and support, even offering to come up and
help me go through all my stuff—a daunting task; children who take
the time to worry about and support their siblings; cousins and
parents who drive five hours ONE way just to spend a few hours with
family. I hope and pray that you are all finding examples of this in
your own lives as I’m speaking. THIS is limitless undying love
shining around each of us, in so many little ways; that in which God,
through Christ, is calling for us to abide. In one of this week’s
meditations in the Forward Day-by-Day, the author noted that the word
“abide” (a word we don’t use much any longer) is not quite the
the best translation of the original Greek word, which apparently
conveys a sense of intertwining, of intimate connection.
I don’t
know if anyone here is familiar with Julian of Norwich, whose feast
day was this past Tuesday (and I’m sure I’m not the only one
referencing her in a sermon today). She was a fourteenth-century
mystic and anchoress, who was possibly the first woman who wrote a
book in the English language—I love her. I think she got it right
in many ways when she expanded on others’ ideas of Christ being as
a mother to us. I’m still working on understanding her writings,
but I believe that she could see, using our limited language and ways
of seeing, that the metaphor of motherhood made for an excellent,
easily understood way of sharing her vision of our relationship with
Christ, with God—that limitless, intimate connection that we share
with our mothers. Julian was a wise woman—I would highly recommend
reading her work.
As we
consider today’s Gospel and Christ’s command to love one another,
as he has raised us to be friends, brothers, sisters to himself and
to each other, as we go forth, let us remember this joy. This faith
in God’s love, that he is father and mother to us all, is that
which helps us to conquer the world, not in terms of violence, not in
epic ways, but by conquering our own little and big fears with that
knowledge of God’s love, shown in so many aspects through those who
love us. Then we can carry that love forward to others, whether biologically
related to us or not; this is what draws us on and on—across the
universe. Amen.
Given at St. James Episcopal Church, Independence, Iowa
Readings from the Revised Common Lectionary:
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