St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Owings Mills MD
May 15, 2022
Year C: The Fifth Sunday of Easter
Acts 11:1-18
Psalm 148
Revelation 21:1-6
John 13:31-35
Love is a Verb
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
So, as some of you know, my birthday was the other day.
It wasn’t a major milestone but it was a number big enough to get me thinking more than usual about my life’s journey, with all of its twists and turns.
For a number of reasons, I’ve been reflecting a lot about the first church I served as a priest.
When I was ordained about fifteen years ago, one of the few jobs available was curate – or assisting priest – at Grace Church in Madison, New Jersey.
Madison is a beautiful and relatively affluent suburban town, only about 25 miles west of my hometown of Jersey City.
But, when I first thought about moving there and serving there, Madison looked and felt like a world away, the kind of place where I had never imagined I would work and live.
So, I wasn’t sure I really wanted to go there.
But a priest’s gotta work, so I accepted the job, bringing my insecurities and uncertainties, wondering if I would have anything in common with these well-to-do suburbanites, not sure if we would have much to talk about.
Somehow, I even imagined that these people must have their lives pretty much together and so there might not be much pastoral work for me to do.
Well, I got started and, to my surprise, from day one it was an amazingly joyful experience.
From Grace Church’s rector, The Rev. Lauren Ackland (some of you met her a few months ago at our Celebration of New Ministry), I learned much of what I know about being a priest, and from the parishioners of Grace Church I learned that people are people – and that beautiful houses and green lawns don’t exempt anyone from the human condition, the ups and downs of life.
And, yes, that was a lesson I remembered before my most recent big move.
Anyway, on one of my first Sundays at Grace, the youth group gathered outside after church to tie-dye t-shirts, selling them as a messy, but fun, fundraiser for their next mission trip.
I still have mine.
On the back are written the words, “Love is a Verb.”
“Love is a verb.”
I don’t know where the kids came up with that, but I remember being so struck by it – love is a verb – love is action – love is motion – and love can take us to some unexpected places.
“Love is a verb.”
Although our “Alleluias” remind us that it is still Easter, today’s lesson from the Gospel of John takes us all the way back to the Last Supper.
Jesus has gathered with his friends for one final meal. And during that intense and emotional gathering, with time running out, Jesus tries to teach some most important lessons:
He will always be with us when we gather around the table, when we share the Bread and the Wine.
We are to offer lowly service, like washing each other’s feet.
And, as we heard today, Jesus says, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
I don’t know if the disciples spent a lot of time later on debating what exactly Jesus meant when he commanded them to “love one another.”
But, we know that they remembered the love of Jesus – a love that was shared as he traveled from village to village, healing and teaching and embracing those who were lost and suffering, caring for rich and poor alike, welcoming the outcast back into the fold.
Love is a verb.
And so, after they receive the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, that’s exactly what the eleven and the other first disciples did – they went out into the world healing, and teaching, and embracing and welcoming as many people as they could.
And, love took them to some unexpected places.
After the Resurrection itself, probably the biggest surprise for the early Church was the fact that non-Jews – the Gentiles – wanted to be part of the community, too.
As we heard in today’s lesson from Acts, this unexpected development raised complicated questions about rules and identity – challenging the church to draw the circle wider and wider.
Ultimately, the Gentiles were included – and love continued to carry the Good News throughout the world, eventually all the way to Jersey City, to Madison, and to Garrison Forest and Owings Mills, and beyond!
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
In just a few minutes, I’ll have the privilege of baptizing Hutton and Lillian.
These two children are too young to know exactly what they’re getting signed up for – although at yesterday’s rehearsal two year-old Hutton expressed some perfectly reasonable hesitations about it.
Hutton and Lillian may be too young to understand Baptism, but they are not too young to know about love.
In ways too deep for words, Hutton and Lillian already know that love is a verb – love is providing good food, love is offering cleansing and comfort, love is a gentle embrace, and love is a song softly sung.
The baptismal promises that will be made on Hutton and Lillian’s behalf – the baptismal promises that we will all renew – are all about love, too:
With God’s help, breaking bread together, praying together, asking for forgiveness when we mess up.
Love is a verb.
With God’s help, sharing the Good News, seeking and serving Christ in absolutely everyone, striving for justice and peace.
Love is a verb.
With God’s help, and with some assistance from all of us, that’s what Hutton and Lillian will continue to learn and share in the years ahead – and someday they’ll look back at their own journey and marvel at all the love that guided and strengthened them along the way – the love that will take them to some unexpected places.
Jesus and his first disciples, and the youth group at Grace Church in Madison, and the St. Thomas’ parishioners who carried and sorted and sold all of that stuff at this weekend’s White Elephant Sale, all of them – all of you - teach us a great truth:
Love is a verb.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Amen.
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