Sermons

Mar 27 - The Rev. Brian C. Taylor

It’s hard to know what we can place our trust in these days. Money? The fluctuations in the stock market, unstable oil prices and Alan Greenspan’s varying reports all keep us on edge. How about politicians? Can we count on them? The media? The courts? The church? The security of our nation? The safety of our schools?

The relative instability of all these things makes us feel, at times, as though we are walking on thin ice. It is hard to know what we can really place our trust in. What will never fail us? What can we count on when things fall apart?

As pious church-goers this Easter morning, you’re probably all thinking The answer he’s looking for is “God,” of course. End of sermon. But I wonder if that’s a completely honest answer. One way of finding out is by imagining that you have just received some shocking news. Our nation has been invaded. A friend was in an accident. Your house is on fire. The IRS decided they didn’t need money any more. What’s the first thing you would do? Drop to your knees and pray? Is that what you did when you heard about the attacks on the World Trade Towers? Maybe.

But if you are like me, the first thing you do in situations like that is get on the phone and call people you love. We drive to the hospital right away to be with our friend who has been hurt. We rush home and hug our kids. We make sure everyone is alright before we do anything else. We surround ourselves with people we care about most. Why?

Because we know that we can count on love. When things fall apart, it is only love that helps. When a tornado smashes our home, when we’re undergoing chemotherapy, we may not be able to count on much else, but we can count on love. If we are with people with whom we share love, we can get through just about anything. Love heals, comforts, and renews us. We can count on it more than anything else.

The Bible tells us that God is love. As the first letter of John puts it, Those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. So it turns out that the pious answer, the one you thought I was fishing for, is the right one after all. We can count on God because God is love, and love will see us through when nothing else will.

Which brings me to Easter. When Jesus went through his last days, when he died on the cross, what did he do? He opened his heart to God, counting on love to see him through his suffering and death. Into your hands I commend my spirit, Jesus aid on the cross. Into the hands of love he entrusted himself.

Jesus opened his heart to the One who had always loved him, to the One who had loved others so completely through him. His hope was not in vain. He counted on love, and love raised him from the dead. How did he do this? When everything came crashing down around him, how did he place his confidence in God’s love?

By living a life that was grounded in love. Jesus loved the rich and the poor, sinner and saint, outcast and insider. Jesus loved everyone as God’s children, regardless of their imagined deserving or undeserving. He loved and healed lepers, the unclean, the possessed, and the sinners who had been condemned by everyone else. He made no distinctions. He demanded no prerequisites. He offered divine love to others simply because they so badly needed it.

Then when he came to his own darkness on that Good Friday, Jesus already knew what he could count on. He already knew what was lasting and true. So there on the cross he was able to place his trust in that divine love which he knew so well. And three days later in the tomb, this love began to stir. It brought him new life. It saw him through.

The same is true for us. If we are grounded in love, then when things fall apart, when we must carry our cross, we will have something solid to fall back upon. We will be able to entrust ourselves to something that we already know quite well: to those people and those things in life that we have loved deeply.

When I’ve gone through crises in my life, the only thing I’ve been able to do is open my heart. It’s too vague to say that I’ve trusted in God. I’ve trusted in love. I’ve trusted in people who love me. I’ve trusted in my love for the aching beauty of the desert landscape. I’ve trusted in my love for music and silence and creative work and worship.

When difficulties come, I have been seen through again and again because I have placed my confidence in what and whom I already love. When things have fallen apart for me, when I have carried my cross, it is by trusting in love that I’ve been resurrected. I have never been disappointed by love. And I’ve only been able to do that because I already knew love for family and friends, for the land, music, silence, creative work, and worship.

Yes, God raised Jesus from the dead. But God is love, so love raised him. Jesus placed his confidence in the love he already knew so well to save him in his hour of need. That is why it is so important to live a life that is grounded in love.

In The Brothers Karamozov, one of Dostoyevsky’s characters said:

Love people, even in their sin, for that is the semblance of Divine Love and is the highest love on earth. Love all God’s creation. The whole and every grain of sand in it. Love every leaf, every ray of God’s light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love.

This kind of life is not only important because it will make us happier and create a better world around us. It is important because a life like this is the only foundation that will withstand the storms that will come. It is the only thing that will resurrect us in our times of crucifixion. Love is the only thing that will carry us into the next life.

As Dostoyevsky’s character proclaimed, when we love everyone and everything, we perceive the divine mystery in life. We actually see reality more clearly, for everyone and everything is made of God. Every particle of creation is infused with the presence of divine love, and we are made in the image of the One who is love. Love holds all things together. Love works, because it is the foundation of all that is in this sacred creation.

Now I’m no scientist, but I keep noticing that quantum physics and string theories and subatomic research keeps pointing towards something that unifies everything, inter-relating every part, healing creation when it is broken, pushing all of life ceaselessly to adapt and evolve, to survive and to flourish. Faith tells us that this something is love. It is God, who is love. Love literally makes the world go ‘round.

Love works. When we care for those who need compassion, healing happens. When we try to understand and to forgive, there is reconciliation. When we love the beauty of the earth, we will care for it responsibly. When we express our love by protecting the vulnerable and fighting for human and civil rights, people are made free. Love works, because this sacred creation is made of divine love.

So the more we can love the earth and the light and the animals, the more we can love people even in their sin, the more we can love those who suffer and the more we can love even the difficulties we must endure, the more we perceive the world as it really is. A life grounded in love is a life grounded in reality at its deepest level.

Easter celebrates the ultimate victory of this divine love that already fills every particle of creation, filling even our darkest and most hopeless places. Easter proclaims the fact that love raised Jesus from the dead. As we place our trust, every day, in those people and those things we love, we will come to perceive the divine mystery in all things. And love will resurrect us in our darkest times. In this we can place our trust.