Without Love

7 Epiphany, February 24, 2019

St John’s, Newtonville, Massachusetts

The Rev. Nancy E. Gossling

We have platitudes for when we don’t understand something, especially when suffering is involved. For instance, we say. “This is my cross to bear.” Or “God has a reason for this happening to me.” Or we say, “This was part of God’s plan.” Such was Joseph’s reframing of his brothers’ betrayal of him. Because of jealousy, rivalry, and envy, his brothers had sold him into slavery to merchants returning to Egypt. For years, Joseph would work for the enemy of his own people. And yet, Joseph said that this was all part of God’s plan, not only for Joseph but also for his family.

When we live in hostile territory, we must be careful. We learn when to speak up and when to be silent; we decide who we can trust and who we should fear. Joseph, in his wisdom and over time, had managed to gain the trust of the Pharaoh and move from a position of slavery to a high level of administration in the Egyptian government. Depending upon God for guidance through dream interpretation, Joseph had predicted years of famine in Egypt, and so he prepared the Egyptians for their future by collecting food for everyone, and storing it in national barns.

Two years into the famine, Joseph’s brothers suddenly arrive from their own country, seeking to buy food from this foreign government. With dismay, they find that their brother Joseph is in charge of food distribution and sales. They were so fearful about him taking revenge on them for their past behavior that they could not speak in his presence. They could not even answer his simple question, “Is my father still alive?”

There is another common phrase that people will use when someone does something hateful. “Where’s the love?” we ask. A parishioner once confessed to me his discouragement because he had not heard the word ‘love’ in the first 6 months of their new priest’s sermons. In fact, all he heard was a message of judgment, exclusion, and condemnation. And yet, today’s collect reminds us that our Lord teaches us that ‘without love’ whatever we do is worth nothing. Which begs the question for me. What does life look like without love?

I recently finished reading a book called “The Nightingale” by Kristin Hannah. It’s an historical fiction novel that tells the story of two sisters who struggle to survive the German occupation of France during World War 2. Emotionally destroyed by his military service in World War 1, their father had returned to his family a changed man. Light seemed to have gone out of his life, and despite the best loving efforts of his wife and two girls, he sank into an existence of despair. When his wife died, he shipped the girls off to live with a stranger. Bereft over the loss of their mother, and feeling abandoned and unloved by their father, each girl responded to the German occupation in very different ways.

The story of the Jewish people and people’s responses to them, like our own shameful history with slavery, is a story that cannot be forgotten so that history cannot be repeated. Just this past week in France, swastikas appeared on Jewish tombstones and business storefronts. We all know how people are complicit with systems and powers that are greater than us. We all know that unhealthy dynamics are at play when people are fearful. We all know that some people benefit from certain privileges while others are oppressed by them. We all know about prejudice, abuse, oppression, and hate - don’t we?

Fear and anxiety are especially prevalent during unsettled times; and there are many techniques that we use for survival. Some of us join the enemy, judging and condemning people who are different from us. Perhaps, like Joseph’s brothers, we “go silent” for fear of judgment, condemnation, and retaliation. We may have feelings of guilt when we try to protect ourselves at the expense of others. Some of us feel powerless and do nothing, while others go “underground” actively but secretly resisting the enemy, providing safe places to preserve life, and helping others to find new life.

Denial is not a river in Egypt, as they say, but rather a very human response to particularly painful situations; and fantasy is its twin sister. We imagine the “what-ifs.” What if we no longer had Jews or Muslims, conservatives or liberals, Donald Trump or Nancy Pelosi, guns or drugs, immigrants or native Americans? What if we had a society where everyone was the same, and we all agreed, wouldn’t our world be so much better? How do we preserve life when when we’re fighting battles in our courts and behind closed doors, through social media and public policy, when the enemy has many faces and various allegiances. We raise our flags and bend our knees, protesting and supporting this one nation under God in very different ways, and hot spots are everywhere. We never know who the enemy is. And so I wonder, “Where is the love?” “And does God have a plan for us all?” Friends and foe alike.

I recently lead a vestry retreat for another parish in Massachusetts, in which we focussed on their identity and vocation. I asked them to break into two small groups and look at the seven “I am” statements spoken by Jesus in the gospel of John. Pick only two of them that most represent your identity as a church, I said, and then let’s talk. No one chose the statement that Jesus made when he said, “I am the Resurrection and the Life.” “Why?” I asked.  And I learned that they only heard it at funerals and so it reminded them only of death.

Last week, we heard St. Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, write, “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain.” Today, St. Paul writes about the resurrection of the dead using the metaphor of a seed. We can plant seeds of hate and seeds of love, both of which grow in the dark, and often start underground. Both need light. Hate needs the light of day to die; and Love needs the light of day to grow.

I don’t like to think of myself as having many enemies, but I do, simply by the fact that I am an American. I also confess that there have been times when I have “hated” people and counted them as my enemy. I have responded in fearful ways, and said those things and done those things that I wished I had not. As we move from the season of Epiphany into Lent over the next few weeks together, it’s a good time for us to reflect. What light can we shine into those dark places of our lives? What light will help the seeds of love to grow. And what plan does God have for you and me? 
Joseph claimed that God sent Joseph into Egypt for a reason: to preserve life. So too did God send Jesus to be among us: to show us the Way of Love. “Listen,” he said. “Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who abuse you. Do to others as you would have them do to you.” Yes, life is complicated and love is not easy, and yet “when we know that we are loved, we will quite naturally love in return,” said Brother David from SSJE.

We are a people who can tell the story about God’s Love, how we receive it and how we can share it. We are a people of faith, with the hope of resurrection and new life, because Jesus has shown us the Way. We know that there is enough hate in our lives to make the world go round; for the seeds of hate are very real. And yet, "I have decided to stick with love,” said Martin Luther King Jr. “Hate is too great a burden to bear.” Or, as our Presiding Bishop is fond of saying, “We are the Episcopal Branch of the Jesus Movement, and if it’s not about love then it’s not about God.”

Love is not always about chocolate and red roses, sweetness and light. It endures all things, believes all things, and hopes all things even when war is raging in our hearts, in our country, and throughout our world. Our churches are intended to be sanctuaries, safe places for people who are on the journey from birth to death, from our earthly home to a spiritual one. Our churches are intended to be sanctuaries where all people are welcome, all people belong, all people are accepted because together we reveal the beauty, diversity, and unity of God’s creation. Made in God’s image, from dust to dust, we are preserved now and forever in Christ Jesus, who is the Resurrection and the Life.

The Trappist monk, Thomas Merton, once wrote “Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone – we find it with another.” (Love and Living, 1965) As members of this Christian community, receive God’s love today, and then share God’s love with others wherever we go, for “the measure we give is the measure we get back,” said Jesus.

God has a plan for you and me. To forgive and preserve life like Joseph. To shine light in darkness like Martin Luther King Jr. And to be seeds of Love like Jesus; for without love, whatever we do is worth nothing.

Genesis 45:3-11, 15
1 Corinthians 15:35-38,42-50
Luke 6:27-38
Psalm 37:1-12, 41-42