Today is Pentecost Sunday.
I’ve spent my life in Mainline Protestant congregations where this is the one day each year the Spirit is set free. It is the one day when it is not only permissible, but expected to celebrate the birth of the church and the continued evolution of the church. It is a day when all are invited to be the church and to become the church.
The Power of Love
I had no plans to wake up early and watch the royal wedding yesterday. I imagined my only knowledge of it would be through seeing a few pictures and reading short blurbs on social media. I was wrong.
After seeing so many mentions of the sermon, I made time to watch it in its entirety.
The Most Rev. Michael Bruce Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States, preached a wedding sermon that is like none I’ve ever heard. And, like all good sermons it is best experienced by listening. (This link to the New York Times will allow you to read and/or view the 13 minute message on the power of love.)
The following excerpt speaks of the world changing power of love:
Love . . . can change this world. If you don’t believe me, just stop and think or imagine. Think and imagine, well, think and imagine a world where love is the way. Imagine our homes and families when love is the way. Imagine neighborhoods and communities where love is the way. Imagine governments and nations where love is the way. Imagine business and commerce when love is the way. Imagine this tired old world when love is the way, unselfish, sacrificial redemptive.
When love is the way, then no child will go to bed hungry in this world ever again. When love is the way, we will let justice roll down like a mighty stream and righteousness like an ever-flowing brook. When love is the way, poverty will become history. When love is the way, the earth will be a sanctuary. When love is the way, we will lay down our swords and shields down, down by the riverside to study war no more. When love is the way, there’s plenty good room, plenty good room, for all of God’s children. Because when love is the way, we actually treat each other, well, like we are actually family. When love is the way, we know that God is the source of us all and we are brothers and sisters, children of God. My brothers and sisters, that’s a new heaven, a new earth, a new world, a new human family.
So What?
I invite you to read and reread the two paragraph excerpt of Bishop Curry’s sermon. As you do so, start a conversation with at least one other person about this love
- How do live your life in a way that prioritizes love (always placing love ahead of profit, self interest, and all other competing priorities in your personal and professional pursuits)?
- What can you do to help encourage the spread of this love in your community?
- Is your church intentional about developing this love and deploying it in the world? If so, explain. If not, give some thought to how you might invest yourself in making love a more central component of the mission of your community of faith.