Love is the Last Word
John 17:20-26
20”I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
24Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25“Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. 26I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
Love is the Last Word
I was reading this week of two men who sat next to each other on a plane. After exchanging names, one asked with real passion, “So, do you go to church?” “Funny you should mention that,” the man replied, “we were just talking about church yesterday.” He went on to explain that the previous year, he and his family had let themselves get totally over-extended. Between work, social commitments, and the activities of their two children – one in elementary school, one in junior high – they were exhausted by Christmas. They were determined that this year would be different. So after going to church as usual the day before, they held a “family council” over lunch to review all of their commitments in light of how each helped them be the kind of individuals and family they wanted to be. After an hour and a half of conversation, they made their decisions. And church was one of the things they had decided to stop doing. Girl Scouts remained, but church was out. “It’s just not that meaningful,” the man explained. “We go each week and finally realized we’re not getting anything out of it. It doesn’t connect with the rest of our lives, let alone help us lead those lives. So we’re done.” (WorkingPreacher.org., 5/9/10)
In this day and age of split loyalties and competing demands, church membership is often viewed more as a comfort than a commitment. It begs the larger question: how important is the life we share as a church? What is it that binds us together as a church community? Certainly relationships are a factor. Perhaps it is common experiences like shared grief. Maybe it is just habit for some. But the common thread in all of our experiences is the story of God and his creation. Every time we gather for worship—whether in some small rural community or some great cathedral—we are engaging the story of God with his people. If church attendance is secondary or we say or conclude that it is just not that meaningful, what then are we saying about our relationship with God?
Some time ago I heard an interview with someone from the orthodox tradition of Christianity who was engaged in a conversation about churches in general and the trends in churches of our day and the cult of personality that so often drives church communities. He stated that in his tradition, the life of the church does not ebb and flow with the priest but the liturgy. Some priests would come and stumble there way through the liturgy but it was never about the pastor. It was the liturgy—the spoken word that held the congregation together.
We are of a different tradition than the orthodox branch of Christianity but I think we can still grasp what this parishioner was saying. In our tradition as Covenanters—we talk about the centrality of God’s Word. (In reality we are talking about the same thing even though we may express it differently.) Another way of saying it that might be common ground in our traditions is to talk about story. We are held together as a church, not by singular leaders whose strengths and weaknesses ebb and flow in the life of the church but by the Story. Every Sunday that we gather we hear the story of God and find ourselves in it. It is through the Story that the Holy Spirit knits our lives together.
The power of story is that we hear it through the filter of our own lives. It can touch each one of us differently but it is the Spirit who uses the same story to knit our lives together. Yet so many people in the 21st century place the church at best, on the periphery of their lives.
