And now in the name of our loving, liberating and life-giving God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
From
the Song of Solomon in the Bible: Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a
seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, passion fierce as the
grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame. Many waters
cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it.
The
late Dr Martin Luther King Jr once said, and I quote: "We must discover
the power of love, the redemptive power of love. And when we do that, we
will make of this old world a new world, for love is the only way."
There's power in love. Don't underestimate it. Don't even over-sentimentalize it. There's power, power in love.
If
you don't believe me, think about a time when you first fell in love.
The whole world seemed to center around you and your beloved.
Oh
there's power, power in love. Not just in its romantic forms, but any
form, any shape of love. There's a certain sense in which when you are
loved, and you know it, when someone cares for you, and you know it,
when you love and you show it - it actually feels right.
There
is something right about it. And there's a reason for it. The reason
has to do with the source. We were made by a power of love, and our
lives were meant - and are meant - to be lived in that love. That's why
we are here.
Ultimately, the source of love is God
himself: the source of all of our lives. There's an old medieval poem
that says: 'Where true love is found, God himself is there.
The
New Testament says it this way: "Beloved, let us love one another,
because love is of God, and those who love are born of God and know God.
Those who do not love do not know God. Why? For God is love."
There's power in love. There's power in love to help and heal when nothing else can.
There's power in love to lift up and liberate when nothing else will.
There's power in love to show us the way to live.
Set me as a seal on your heart... a seal on your arm, for love is as strong as death.
But
love is not only about a young couple. Now the power of love is
demonstrated by the fact that we're all here. Two young people fell in
love, and we all showed up.
But it's not just for and about a young couple, who we rejoice with. It's more than that.
Jesus
of Nazareth on one occasion was asked by a lawyer to sum up the essence
of the teachings of Moses, and he went back and he reached back into
the Hebrew scriptures, to Deuteronomy and Leviticus, and Jesus said:
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul,
all your mind and all your strength. This is the first and great
commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself."
And
then in Matthew's version, he added, he said: "On these two, love of
God and love of neighbor, hang all the law, all the prophets, everything
that Moses wrote, everything in the holy prophets, everything in the
scriptures, everything that God has been trying to tell the world ...
love God, love your neighbors, and while you're at it, love yourself."
Someone once said that Jesus began the most revolutionary movement in human history.
A
movement grounded in the unconditional love of God for the world - and a
movement mandating people to live that love, and in so doing to change
not only their lives but the very life of the world itself.
I'm talking about power. Real power. Power to change the world.
If
you don't believe me, well, there were some old slaves in America's
Antebellum South who explained the dynamic power of love and why it has
the power to transform.
"They explained it this way.
They sang a spiritual, even in the midst of their captivity. It's one
that says 'There is a balm in Gilead...' a healing balm, something that
can make things right.
"'There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole, there is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul.'
"And
one of the stanzas actually explains why. They said: 'If you cannot
preach like Peter, and you cannot pray like Paul, you just tell the love
of Jesus, how he died to save us all."'
"Oh, that's the balm in Gilead! This way of love, it is the way of life. They got it. He died to save us all.
"He
didn't die for anything he could get out of it. Jesus did not get an
honorary doctorate for dying. He didn't... he wasn't getting anything
out of it. He gave up his life, he sacrificed his life, for the good of
others, for the good of the other, for the wellbeing of the world... for
us.
That's what love is. Love is not selfish and
self-centered. Love can be sacrificial, and in so doing, becomes
redemptive. And that way of unselfish, sacrificial, redemptive love
changes lives, and it can change this world.
"If you don't believe me, just stop and imagine. Think and imagine a world where love is the way."
Imagine our homes and families where love is the way. Imagine neighborhoods and communities where love is the way.
Imagine governments and nations where love is the way. Imagine business and commerce where this love is the way.
Imagine this tired old world where love is the way. When love is the way - unselfish, sacrificial, redemptive.
When love is the way, then no child will go to bed hungry in this world ever again.
When love is the way, we will let justice roll down like a mighty stream and righteousness like an ever-flowing brook.
When love is the way, poverty will become history. When love is the way, the earth will be a sanctuary.
When love is the way, we will lay down our swords and shields, down by the riverside, to study war no more.
When love is the way, there's plenty good room - plenty good room - for all of God's children.
"Because when love is the way, we actually treat each other, well... like we are actually family.
When love is the way, we know that God is the source of us all, and we are brothers and sisters, children of God.
My brothers and sisters, that's a new heaven, a new earth, a new world, a new human family.
And let me tell you something, old Solomon was right in the Old Testament: that's fire.
Pierre
Teilhard de Chardin - and with this I will sit down, we gotta get you
all married - French Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was arguably one
of the great minds, great spirits of the 20th century.
Jesuit, Roman Catholic priest, scientist, a scholar, a mystic.
In
some of his writings, he said, from his scientific background as well
as his theological one, in some of his writings he said - as others have
- that the discovery, or invention, or harnessing of fire was one of
the great scientific and technological discoveries in all of human
history.
Fire to a great extent made human
civilization possible. Fire made it possible to cook food and to provide
sanitary ways of eating which reduced the spread of disease in its
time.
Fire made it possible to heat warm environments
and thereby made human migration around the world a possibility, even
into colder climates.
Fire made it possible - there was no Bronze Age without fire, no Iron Age without fire, no Industrial Revolution without fire.
The
advances of fire and technology are greatly dependent on the human
ability and capacity to take fire and use it for human good.
Anybody
get here in a car today? An automobile? Nod your heads if you did - I
know there were some carriages. But those of us who came in cars, fire -
the controlled, harnessed fire - made that possible.
I
know that the Bible says, and I believe it, that Jesus walked on the
water. But I have to tell you, I did not walk across the Atlantic Ocean
to get here.
Controlled fire in that plane got me
here. Fire makes it possible for us to text and tweet and email and
Instagram and Facebook and socially be dysfunctional with each other.
Fire makes all of that possible, and de Chardin said fire was one of the greatest discoveries in all of human history.
And
he then went on to say that if humanity ever harnesses the energy of
fire again, if humanity ever captures the energy of love - it will be
the second time in history that we have discovered fire.
Dr
King was right: we must discover love - the redemptive power of love.
And when we do that, we will make of this old world, a new world.
My brother, my sister, God love you, God bless you, and may God hold us all in those almighty hands of love.
And now in the name of our loving, liberating and life-giving God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
From
the Song of Solomon in the Bible: Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a
seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, passion fierce as the
grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame. Many waters
cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it.
The
late Dr Martin Luther King Jr once said, and I quote: "We must discover
the power of love, the redemptive power of love. And when we do that, we
will make of this old world a new world, for love is the only way."
There's power in love. Don't underestimate it. Don't even over-sentimentalize it. There's power, power in love.
If
you don't believe me, think about a time when you first fell in love.
The whole world seemed to center around you and your beloved.
Oh
there's power, power in love. Not just in its romantic forms, but any
form, any shape of love. There's a certain sense in which when you are
loved, and you know it, when someone cares for you, and you know it,
when you love and you show it - it actually feels right.
There
is something right about it. And there's a reason for it. The reason
has to do with the source. We were made by a power of love, and our
lives were meant - and are meant - to be lived in that love. That's why
we are here.
Ultimately, the source of love is God
himself: the source of all of our lives. There's an old medieval poem
that says: 'Where true love is found, God himself is there.
The
New Testament says it this way: "Beloved, let us love one another,
because love is of God, and those who love are born of God and know God.
Those who do not love do not know God. Why? For God is love."
There's power in love. There's power in love to help and heal when nothing else can.
There's power in love to lift up and liberate when nothing else will.
There's power in love to show us the way to live.
Set me as a seal on your heart... a seal on your arm, for love is as strong as death.
But
love is not only about a young couple. Now the power of love is
demonstrated by the fact that we're all here. Two young people fell in
love, and we all showed up.
But it's not just for and about a young couple, who we rejoice with. It's more than that.
Jesus
of Nazareth on one occasion was asked by a lawyer to sum up the essence
of the teachings of Moses, and he went back and he reached back into
the Hebrew scriptures, to Deuteronomy and Leviticus, and Jesus said:
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul,
all your mind and all your strength. This is the first and great
commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself."
And
then in Matthew's version, he added, he said: "On these two, love of
God and love of neighbor, hang all the law, all the prophets, everything
that Moses wrote, everything in the holy prophets, everything in the
scriptures, everything that God has been trying to tell the world ...
love God, love your neighbors, and while you're at it, love yourself."
Someone once said that Jesus began the most revolutionary movement in human history.
A
movement grounded in the unconditional love of God for the world - and a
movement mandating people to live that love, and in so doing to change
not only their lives but the very life of the world itself.
I'm talking about power. Real power. Power to change the world.
If
you don't believe me, well, there were some old slaves in America's
Antebellum South who explained the dynamic power of love and why it has
the power to transform.
"They explained it this way.
They sang a spiritual, even in the midst of their captivity. It's one
that says 'There is a balm in Gilead...' a healing balm, something that
can make things right.
"'There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole, there is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul.'
"And
one of the stanzas actually explains why. They said: 'If you cannot
preach like Peter, and you cannot pray like Paul, you just tell the love
of Jesus, how he died to save us all."'
"Oh, that's the balm in Gilead! This way of love, it is the way of life. They got it. He died to save us all.
"He
didn't die for anything he could get out of it. Jesus did not get an
honorary doctorate for dying. He didn't... he wasn't getting anything
out of it. He gave up his life, he sacrificed his life, for the good of
others, for the good of the other, for the wellbeing of the world... for
us.
That's what love is. Love is not selfish and
self-centered. Love can be sacrificial, and in so doing, becomes
redemptive. And that way of unselfish, sacrificial, redemptive love
changes lives, and it can change this world.
"If you don't believe me, just stop and imagine. Think and imagine a world where love is the way."
Imagine our homes and families where love is the way. Imagine neighborhoods and communities where love is the way.
Imagine governments and nations where love is the way. Imagine business and commerce where this love is the way.
Imagine this tired old world where love is the way. When love is the way - unselfish, sacrificial, redemptive.
When love is the way, then no child will go to bed hungry in this world ever again.
When love is the way, we will let justice roll down like a mighty stream and righteousness like an ever-flowing brook.
When love is the way, poverty will become history. When love is the way, the earth will be a sanctuary.
When love is the way, we will lay down our swords and shields, down by the riverside, to study war no more.
When love is the way, there's plenty good room - plenty good room - for all of God's children.
"Because when love is the way, we actually treat each other, well... like we are actually family.
When love is the way, we know that God is the source of us all, and we are brothers and sisters, children of God.
My brothers and sisters, that's a new heaven, a new earth, a new world, a new human family.
And let me tell you something, old Solomon was right in the Old Testament: that's fire.
Pierre
Teilhard de Chardin - and with this I will sit down, we gotta get you
all married - French Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was arguably one
of the great minds, great spirits of the 20th century.
Jesuit, Roman Catholic priest, scientist, a scholar, a mystic.
In
some of his writings, he said, from his scientific background as well
as his theological one, in some of his writings he said - as others have
- that the discovery, or invention, or harnessing of fire was one of
the great scientific and technological discoveries in all of human
history.
Fire to a great extent made human
civilization possible. Fire made it possible to cook food and to provide
sanitary ways of eating which reduced the spread of disease in its
time.
Fire made it possible to heat warm environments
and thereby made human migration around the world a possibility, even
into colder climates.
Fire made it possible - there was no Bronze Age without fire, no Iron Age without fire, no Industrial Revolution without fire.
The
advances of fire and technology are greatly dependent on the human
ability and capacity to take fire and use it for human good.
Anybody
get here in a car today? An automobile? Nod your heads if you did - I
know there were some carriages. But those of us who came in cars, fire -
the controlled, harnessed fire - made that possible.
I
know that the Bible says, and I believe it, that Jesus walked on the
water. But I have to tell you, I did not walk across the Atlantic Ocean
to get here.
Controlled fire in that plane got me
here. Fire makes it possible for us to text and tweet and email and
Instagram and Facebook and socially be dysfunctional with each other.
Fire makes all of that possible, and de Chardin said fire was one of the greatest discoveries in all of human history.
And
he then went on to say that if humanity ever harnesses the energy of
fire again, if humanity ever captures the energy of love - it will be
the second time in history that we have discovered fire.
Dr
King was right: we must discover love - the redemptive power of love.
And when we do that, we will make of this old world, a new world.
My brother, my sister, God love you, God bless you, and may God hold us all in those almighty hands of love.
And now in the name of our loving, liberating and life-giving God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
From
the Song of Solomon in the Bible: Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a
seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, passion fierce as the
grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame. Many waters
cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it.
The
late Dr Martin Luther King Jr once said, and I quote: "We must discover
the power of love, the redemptive power of love. And when we do that, we
will make of this old world a new world, for love is the only way."
There's power in love. Don't underestimate it. Don't even over-sentimentalize it. There's power, power in love.
If
you don't believe me, think about a time when you first fell in love.
The whole world seemed to center around you and your beloved.
Oh
there's power, power in love. Not just in its romantic forms, but any
form, any shape of love. There's a certain sense in which when you are
loved, and you know it, when someone cares for you, and you know it,
when you love and you show it - it actually feels right.
There
is something right about it. And there's a reason for it. The reason
has to do with the source. We were made by a power of love, and our
lives were meant - and are meant - to be lived in that love. That's why
we are here.
Ultimately, the source of love is God
himself: the source of all of our lives. There's an old medieval poem
that says: 'Where true love is found, God himself is there.
The
New Testament says it this way: "Beloved, let us love one another,
because love is of God, and those who love are born of God and know God.
Those who do not love do not know God. Why? For God is love."
There's power in love. There's power in love to help and heal when nothing else can.
There's power in love to lift up and liberate when nothing else will.
There's power in love to show us the way to live.
Set me as a seal on your heart... a seal on your arm, for love is as strong as death.
But
love is not only about a young couple. Now the power of love is
demonstrated by the fact that we're all here. Two young people fell in
love, and we all showed up.
But it's not just for and about a young couple, who we rejoice with. It's more than that.
Jesus
of Nazareth on one occasion was asked by a lawyer to sum up the essence
of the teachings of Moses, and he went back and he reached back into
the Hebrew scriptures, to Deuteronomy and Leviticus, and Jesus said:
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul,
all your mind and all your strength. This is the first and great
commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself."
And
then in Matthew's version, he added, he said: "On these two, love of
God and love of neighbor, hang all the law, all the prophets, everything
that Moses wrote, everything in the holy prophets, everything in the
scriptures, everything that God has been trying to tell the world ...
love God, love your neighbors, and while you're at it, love yourself."
Someone once said that Jesus began the most revolutionary movement in human history.
A
movement grounded in the unconditional love of God for the world - and a
movement mandating people to live that love, and in so doing to change
not only their lives but the very life of the world itself.
I'm talking about power. Real power. Power to change the world.
If
you don't believe me, well, there were some old slaves in America's
Antebellum South who explained the dynamic power of love and why it has
the power to transform.
"They explained it this way.
They sang a spiritual, even in the midst of their captivity. It's one
that says 'There is a balm in Gilead...' a healing balm, something that
can make things right.
"'There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole, there is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul.'
"And
one of the stanzas actually explains why. They said: 'If you cannot
preach like Peter, and you cannot pray like Paul, you just tell the love
of Jesus, how he died to save us all."'
"Oh, that's the balm in Gilead! This way of love, it is the way of life. They got it. He died to save us all.
"He
didn't die for anything he could get out of it. Jesus did not get an
honorary doctorate for dying. He didn't... he wasn't getting anything
out of it. He gave up his life, he sacrificed his life, for the good of
others, for the good of the other, for the wellbeing of the world... for
us.
That's what love is. Love is not selfish and
self-centered. Love can be sacrificial, and in so doing, becomes
redemptive. And that way of unselfish, sacrificial, redemptive love
changes lives, and it can change this world.
"If you don't believe me, just stop and imagine. Think and imagine a world where love is the way."
Imagine our homes and families where love is the way. Imagine neighborhoods and communities where love is the way.
Imagine governments and nations where love is the way. Imagine business and commerce where this love is the way.
Imagine this tired old world where love is the way. When love is the way - unselfish, sacrificial, redemptive.
When love is the way, then no child will go to bed hungry in this world ever again.
When love is the way, we will let justice roll down like a mighty stream and righteousness like an ever-flowing brook.
When love is the way, poverty will become history. When love is the way, the earth will be a sanctuary.
When love is the way, we will lay down our swords and shields, down by the riverside, to study war no more.
When love is the way, there's plenty good room - plenty good room - for all of God's children.
"Because when love is the way, we actually treat each other, well... like we are actually family.
When love is the way, we know that God is the source of us all, and we are brothers and sisters, children of God.
My brothers and sisters, that's a new heaven, a new earth, a new world, a new human family.
And let me tell you something, old Solomon was right in the Old Testament: that's fire.
Pierre
Teilhard de Chardin - and with this I will sit down, we gotta get you
all married - French Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was arguably one
of the great minds, great spirits of the 20th century.
Jesuit, Roman Catholic priest, scientist, a scholar, a mystic.
In
some of his writings, he said, from his scientific background as well
as his theological one, in some of his writings he said - as others have
- that the discovery, or invention, or harnessing of fire was one of
the great scientific and technological discoveries in all of human
history.
Fire to a great extent made human
civilization possible. Fire made it possible to cook food and to provide
sanitary ways of eating which reduced the spread of disease in its
time.
Fire made it possible to heat warm environments
and thereby made human migration around the world a possibility, even
into colder climates.
Fire made it possible - there was no Bronze Age without fire, no Iron Age without fire, no Industrial Revolution without fire.
The
advances of fire and technology are greatly dependent on the human
ability and capacity to take fire and use it for human good.
Anybody
get here in a car today? An automobile? Nod your heads if you did - I
know there were some carriages. But those of us who came in cars, fire -
the controlled, harnessed fire - made that possible.
I
know that the Bible says, and I believe it, that Jesus walked on the
water. But I have to tell you, I did not walk across the Atlantic Ocean
to get here.
Controlled fire in that plane got me
here. Fire makes it possible for us to text and tweet and email and
Instagram and Facebook and socially be dysfunctional with each other.
Fire makes all of that possible, and de Chardin said fire was one of the greatest discoveries in all of human history.
And
he then went on to say that if humanity ever harnesses the energy of
fire again, if humanity ever captures the energy of love - it will be
the second time in history that we have discovered fire.
Dr
King was right: we must discover love - the redemptive power of love.
And when we do that, we will make of this old world, a new world.
My brother, my sister, God love you, God bless you, and may God hold us all in those almighty hands of love.
