It was a beautiful summer Sunday in a small Southern church, songs had been sung, and the preacher was about to begin his sermon. There was suddenly a loud boom of thunder, and in a bright flash and smell of burning brimstone. And Satan appeared at the pulpit. It terrified the congregation, and they began flooding from every door and window. All except one old woman on the second row. She sat quietly reading the church bulletin. Satan pondered the matter and thought this woman must be deaf and blind or surely she would have departed in terror. Satan asked, “Can you see me?” “Yes, of course,” replied the old woman, still casually reading. “Do you know who I am?” asked Satan. “Certainly.” said the woman, not even bothering to look up. This angered Satan greatly. “Don’t you realize that with the utterance of a single word, I can take your life and condemn you to an eternity in hell?” “Sure.” replied the old woman, now appearing to be a bit bored, but still not looking up from her reading. Satan, now bewildered, asks, “If you know who I am, and what I can do to you, why are you not terrified like the rest?” For the first time the old woman looked up at Satan and replied, “Because I was married to your son for fifty years, and I figured you were just here to get away from him.”
I have been preaching on the topic of love pretty often. You’ll find, as we get to know each other better, that in one way or another, love creeps into most of my sermons. But this morning, the word “love” and its meaning in our lives, is clearly in the center of things. In the reading from the 1st Letter of John, this morning, there are 14 verses, 326 words, and St. John uses the word “love” 29 times! So it is pretty easy to figure out that the author wanted to get a message across with this letter. But there is a problem for those of us who read and discuss this letter in English. We do not have a word in our language for what John was talking about.
In English, the word “love” is a very squishy thing. I love Donna. I love my children and my grandchildren, and my other relatives. I love being a priest. I love this congregation. I love college football. I love playing guitar. I love a good meal, and a good single malt scotch whisky. You see? I used the same word as the verb in every one of those sentences. But the quality of my feelings for each object of the verb is vastly different. St. John the Evangelist though, wrote this letter in Koine (or ancient) Greek. And the Greeks have multiple words for what we simply call, “love.”
There is eros (eros). That is the love of lovers. When we say that we love a
spouse or significant other, we are (at least partly) saying that we feel eros for them.
Then there is filea (philia), or affectionate love. It is partially filea that we are referring to when we say that we love our siblings and other relatives. Parenthetically – the word filea is the reason that Philadelphia is referred to as the City of Brotherly Love. filea -- delfoi (delphoi) literally translates to brotherly love city.
And there is storge (storge), which is familial love. It is, again partly, storge that we refer to when we speak of loving our children (or grandchildren). There is a sense of desiring to protect the ones for whom we feel storge. This word is also used to describe love of country.
There is ludus (ludus) or playful love. This is what we mean when we talk about young people who have crushes on others. It is a love that is felt deeply, but it has no roots and thus disappears quickly.
There is also µania (mania). We are pretty familiar with that one because it comes from Greek to English, almost unchanged. When I say that I love college football, think µania. Although I admit that my mania has subsided a bit in recent years.
There is even philautia (philautia), or self-love. In my experience, there is no concept of love that is less understood in this country than is philautia. In America today, either you go so overboard with how much you love yourself that you become a narcissist, or you care very little for yourself. There seems to be no middle ground with most folks.
Finally, there is the kind of love that John was talking about. And that is agape (agape). Agape is that love that is self-sacrificing. To feel agape for someone else, is to care about their well-being even more than you care about your own.
Agape refers to boundless compassion and endless empathy. It is the quality of the love that God shows us.
With that definition of agape in mind, you can see why I said that my love for Donna was “partly” eros. Another aspect of my love for her, and for my children, grandchildren, and this congregation, is agape, or at least that is what I strive to show.
It is agape that St. John used when he said, “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.” And, “Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. [I]f we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.”
Having a working definition of agape in mind, we can see what St. John, and before him, Jesus, were trying to tell us. God loved us so much that the creator of the universe – the one and only supreme being of all that is – was willing to humble God’s self to the point of becoming human, thereby saving us from ourselves and from a life of captivity to sin. The level, the depth of that love is beyond measure. And God, through Christ, calls us to love that same way.
Every day – and I mean every … single … day, there are multiple stories in the news about the latest headline-grabbing murders in this country. You cannot read or listen to the news without learning about some new place where someone senselessly shot multiple people; or ran a car into a crowd; or saw someone who did not look or speak as they did and decided to beat them to death because of that difference. America is absolutely, undoubtedly, addicted to violence – both as a solution to perceived problems, and as a way to make a statement.
Do you know what the opposite of agape is? It is not hate. It is violence. The polar opposite of caring about what is best for another person over caring about what is best for self, is doing violence to another person. Nothing could be farther from loving as God loves than is committing violence on someone else. America has a violence problem and our lawmakers need to set aside their ongoing war with each other, and come together to address this problem. I know. First they will have blame someone, some group, some video game, some movie, or something that allows them to absolve themselves of the problem. But at some point, after the posturing, the speechifying, the talking point spewing, they need to address what the real root problem is, and how we can begin to get a handle on it.
The root problem in this country especially, but in the world generally, is a lack of agape. We need more selflessness. We need more empathy. We need more compassion. So what can we, the few people of St. Joseph, Louisiana do to make a difference? Love the Lord your God with all you heart, soul, mind, and strength. And agape your neighbor as yourself. Oh, and one more thing, stop reading and listening to the people in the media (whether paid media or social media) who tell you to fear or hate another group. That will never help. That is not agape.
In the name of the Risen Lord, Amen.
[Easter 5B Sermon 050221, Acts 8:26-40; Psalm 22:24-30, 1 John 4:7-21; John 15:1-8]
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