Abundant Love

Homily for Sunday, May 29th, 2011


The Lessons:
Psalm 66:7-18
Acts 17:22-31
1 Peter 3:13-22
John 14: 15-21

The Collect:
O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Have you ever heard of "prosperity theology"? It is also called "Name it and claim it," as in "Ask the Lord for something you really want, and he will give it to you." Proponents of prosperity theology believe that God rewards all true believers with health and wealth. In churches that promote this belief system, living the Abundant Life is the theological focus. But I don't think the theology of abundance in such churches has a whole lot to do with the words in our collect for today. Sure, someone could read "O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding" and imagine great wealth and all the luxuries that attend it. In fact, that is exactly the kind of abundant life the "name it and claim it" churches preach, but you and I know that is NOT the abundance Christ offers us. In fact, wealth is so removed from what His kingdom means that Jesus said it would be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter his kingdom. The abundance Christ holds out to us is a kingdom of love.

The next words of the collect are like instructions for how to enter his kingdom: "Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire." Loving the Lord in all things and above all things guarantees our entrance into the kingdom. It sounds like it should be pretty easy, doesn't it? What are the things in human nature that prevent us from the kind of wholehearted love Christ asks of us? Sometimes, we have a hard time loving our neighbor because we don't love ourselves. In fact, we can be downright hateful in the things we say to ourselves in the mirror. Most of us don't take very good care of ourselves, and that's not loving ourselves, either. If we truly believed we are the "offspring" of God, as today's lesson from Acts tells us, or that God and Jesus "live in" us, as John's gospel says, we ought to treat our bodies as sacred space. We ought to recognize the indwelling of the divine in everyone around us. In doing so, we may come closer to loving God in and above all things. Still, it's very hard.

Human nature being what it is--fearful, suspicious, selfish--the kingdom doesn't seem to be so near as Jesus promises. Remember the rich young man who was attracted to Jesus' teaching and wished to follow him? He asked the Teacher what he needed to do in order to be his disciple, and when Jesus told him to give up all of his wealth, the rich young man turned sadly away. Jesus was sad, too, because he saw the potential goodness in the young man. I may have told myself that, not being rich, I am not like the young man; however, I know there are many things I would rather not give up in order to love Christ with my whole heart. (Comfort being a big one!) I wish it didn't have to seem so hard!

As I write these words, I am reminded that we are at the 6th Sunday in the season of Easter. All of the lessons for the Sundays since Easter have concerned the disciples and their reactions to the death and resurrection of Jesus. The second Sunday focused on Thomas and the way he expressed doubt and was reassured by the resurrected Lord. On the third Sunday, we read the story of Jesus' encounter with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. In this story in particular, as you read it you may want to shake those disciples and ask them why they are so blind. Why can't they see they are talking to the Lord? Priest and writer John Dominic Crossan says that we have our own Emmaus road encounters all of the time. Like the disciples, we don't recognize the Lord until we invite him in. Our ability to enter the kingdom with the Risen Lord, to live in love as Christ loved us, is completely dependent on our willingness. We have to want Him in our lives in order to see that He is already there.

It's really that simple, although we humans like to complicate everything. In today's Gospel lesson from John 14, we see Jesus preparing the disciples for his death and resurrection. (As usual, they don't get it.) Could his language have been any plainer than this? "I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you." Jesus speaks these words to us as well. He lives in our hearts. Since he is inside all of us, we are connected by his presence, all members of the same family and "offspring" of God. We are asked to be willing to pour out our love for him in the way we love one another. Our willingness to love abundantly grants us the abundant life of the eternal kingdom. Welcome, brothers and sisters!