Looking for Love: Reflections for the 5th Sunday of Easter

'Jesus Washing Peter's Feet' by Jim Forest

RCL Easter 5C [i]

18 May 2025

 

Church of the Epiphany

Surrey BC

 

            This morning I am sharing with a work in progress, what one of my colleagues at Vancouver School of Theology called ‘from text to sermon’.  I have not yet reached the sermon that I would want to share with you, but I hope that you will be patient in listening to me working my way towards that sermon.  What I am sharing with you is more like an oral Bible study.

            There was a revealing moment during the first interview given by Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spence after the announcement of their engagement.  A reporter asked the couple, ‘Are you in love?’  After a moment of awkward silence, Prince Charles answered, ‘Yes.  Whatever being in love means.’  Over the following years we witnessed the fact that theirs was not a love-match.  And it fell apart in the full view of the international public.

            Trying to answer the question, ‘Are you in love?’, is a universal human experience.  We all know of or have experienced ourselves the painful task of ‘looking for love in all the wrong places’. [ii]  We have probably asked ourselves the question, ‘How do I know that I am in love?’

            In today’s short reading from the Gospel according to John, Jesus gives his disciples a new commandment:  “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 that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” [iii]  And for two thousand years we have sought an answer to the unspoken question of the disciples:  ‘How do we love one another as Christ has loved us?’

            It is beyond the scope of one sermon to share the many answers that Christians have given to this question, but there is one answer to be found in today’s reading from Leviticus.  Christians do not often turn to the Hebrew Scriptures to find an answer to the question of how to love one another.  Generations of anti-Jewish propaganda, the active persecution of Jews by Christians and the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians have created a subtle but pervasive blindness to the richness of the wisdom to be found in the ancient Hebrew texts.  They are the source to which Jesus himself and the earliest followers of Jesus turned.

            For the writers of the Hebrew Scriptures love is an action, a conscious choice, not an emotion.  If I want to know if you love me, says the writer of Leviticus, then I will look at how you treat me, how you speak to me, how you speak to others about me.  Today’s reading lays out clearly what it means to love our neighbour including the ‘alien’, another word for ‘immigrant’, to love as God has loved us and continues to love us.

            1.  If we are trying to love our neighbour as ourself, then we will not allow our neighbour, whoever that neighbour might be, go hungry.  Hunger leads to desperation and desperation leads people to act on their ‘worse angels’ rather than their ‘better angels’. [iv]

            2.  If we are trying to love our neighbour as ourself, then we will not steal or deal falsely or lie to our neighbour, whoever that neighbour might be.  Stealing, dealing falsely, lying leads people to become suspicious and suspicion leads people to face others with fear and hostility.

            3.  If we are trying to love our neighbour as ourself, then we will respect the dignity of every human being, especially those over whom we may have power, whoever that neighbour might be.  Misuse of power causes empathy to evaporate and the evaporation of empathy leads us down a path where we use other people callously rather than lovingly.

            4.  If we are trying to love our neighbour as ourself, then we will do justice to our neighbour, whoever that neighbour might be.  Injustice leads to people to violence, whether physical, emotional or political, and violence destroys both the one who uses violence and the one who suffers it.

            5.  If we are trying to love our neighbour ourself, then we will recognize that neighbour is a descendant of the same ancient parents from Africa, whoever that neighbour might be.  To harm a neighbour is a form of self-harm and self-harm destroys someone who is beloved of God, made in God’s image and striving to live in the likeness of God.

            During my final year of theological college, one of my classmates asked Bishop Michael Ramsey what to do when one does not feel like praying.  Bishop Michael answered, ‘Pray.  And if that does not help, then pray to want to pray.  And if that does not help, then pray to want to want to pray.’  My friends, loving is never easy, whether we’re talking about our family, our friends or the next-door neighbour who plays their music too loud.  But loving is like praying – it is something we do more than it is something we feel.  Loving is something that God has designed us to do, as difficult as it is to believe this when we know the suffering of people throughout the world.  But loving begins with the choices we make this morning, then this afternoon, then this evening, and then we begin again tomorrow.

“Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part, but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. . . . And now faith, hope, and love remain, these three, and the greatest of these is love.” [v]

 

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[i] Leviticus 19.9-18; Psalm 24.1-6; Acts 11.1-18; John 13.31-35.

 

[ii] “Lookin’ for Love” written by Wanda Mallette, Bob Morrison and Patti Ryan (1980) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lookin%27_for_Love accessed 17 May 2025.

 

[iii] John 13.34-35 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition).

 

[iv] The phrase ‘better angels’ is taken from the 1^st inaugural address of Abraham Lincoln on 4 March 1861.  See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln%27s_first_inaugural_address accessed on 17 May 2025.

 

[v] 1 Corinthians 13.8-10, 13 (NRSVue).

 

From Sympathy to Empathy: Reflections for the 4th Sunday in Easter

 

RCL Easter 4C [i]

11 May 2025

 

Church of the Epiphany

Surrey BC

 

            One of the more challenging dimensions of teaching or learning another language is understanding how that language uses prepositions, those little words “that (connect) a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase to other words in a sentence, showing relationships of time, location, or direction”. [ii]  For example, I grew up saying ‘I am going to the store.’  But I have a friend who grew up in Wisconsin a state in the midwestern region of the United States.  During the nineteenth and early twentieth century many German-speaking immigrants settled there.  Their German language influenced the English that people speak.  So my friend says, I am going bythe store.’  His use of ‘by’ parallels how prepositions are used in German.

            I could give you many other examples, but I won’t today.  This one example is all I need to open a window for you on today’s readings from the prophet Isaiah and the evangelist John.  Both of these readings invite us to consider the difference between sympathy and empathy.  And the difference between sympathy and empathy is the difference between two prepositions, ‘with’ and ‘in’.

            In final chapters of the book of the prophet Isaiah there are series of passages called the ‘Servant Songs’.  While there is still a debate among biblical scholars as to whether the ‘servant’ is an individual or a community or a group within a community or the Messiah, one thing is clear:  the Servant reveals to the world what God is doing.  What God is doing, the Servant says, is bringing all of humanity back into right relationship with God.

            And how does the Servant reveal this?  The Servant has more than sympathy for humanity.  Sympathy literally means ‘feeling with’ another person.  Sympathy is a good thing, but there is always some distance between the two people.  You may be going through a rough patch in your life, and I may feel some sympathy for you.  I might send you a card or call you on the phone or even take you out for lunch or dinner.  But after I send the card or hang up the phone or leave the restaurant, I probably leave what you’re going through behind me.  I have given you support – a good thing, don’t get me wrong – but I haven’t taken your burden upon my shoulders.

            What the Servant shows is that God has empathy for humanity.  Empathy means ‘feeling in myself’, identifying with the other person and feeling their pain or difficulty as my own.  I might still send you a card or call you or take you out for a meal, but even after I send you the card or hang up the phone or leave the restaurant, I carry you with me.  I look for ways to reduce your suffering; I look for ways to change the circumstances you may find yourself burdened by; I make a commitment to stay by your side for the long haul.  So long as you are burdened, I am burdened.  You are ‘in’ me.  Empathy for another person has an enduring effect upon me.

            At the end of today’s reading from the Gospel according to John, Jesus says to those who are asking questions about Jesus’ identity, Jesus says, “The Father and I are one.” [iii]  The biblical scholar Gail O’Day writes that “Jesus is not saying that he and God are one person, but that he and God are united in the work they do.  Jesus’ work and God’s work cannot be distinguished, because Jesus shares fully in God’s work.” [iv]

            In Jesus God has more than sympathy for us; in Jesus God has empathy for us and for the whole creation.  Jesus is more than a card, more than a phone call, more than a friendly meal.  Jesus is the one in whom God shares in the joys and sorrows, the hopes and fears, the successes and failures of human beings.

            As I said earlier, sympathy is a good thing.  But for the followers of Jesus, sympathy leads us into empathy.  In recent days we have been learning more and more about the life and ministry of the newly-elected Pope Leo.  More than thirty years ago he chose a path that led him to become a missionary priest and then diocesan bishop in Peru.  Along that path he decided to do more than just walk with the people of Peru – he became a Peruvian citizen.  These last thirty years have been a journey from sympathy – feeling with another – to empathy – feeling in myself, a journey from keeping a little distance to identifying with the other.  In his new role, Pope Leo will be called upon to begin a new journey from sympathy to empathy with others who have been alienated from the life of the Church.

            The journey from sympathy to empathy is our journey as well, both as a community of faith and as persons of faith.  As we draw ever closer to the appointment of a new Rector and to discerning a path forward for how we use our land for the mission of God in this place, we should cultivate sympathy – feeling with those within our community who may be anxious as well as those who are hopeful – so that our sympathy might blossom into empathy – feeling in ourselves the needs and concerns of others, both within and beyond our Parish community, so that we are transformed into agents of God’s healing and renewing love.  The prepositions do matter; they are the difference between keeping our distance and ‘drawing the circle wide’. [v]

 

 

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[i] Isaiah 53.1-6; Psalm 114; Acts 9.36-43; John 10.22-30.

 

[ii] AI Overview on Google as sourced on 10 May 2025.

 

[iii] John 10.30 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition).

 

[iv] Comment on John 10.30 in The New Interpreter’s Study Bible (2003).

 

[v] Gordon Light, ‘Draw the Circle Wide’ in Common Praise (1998), #418.

 

Carving Certainty But Embracing Uncertainty: Reflections for the 3rd Sunday of Easter

 

RCL Easter 3C [i]

4 May 2025

 

Anglican Church of the Epiphany

Surrey BC

 

            For Paula and me the months between September 1986 and June 1987 were perhaps filled with more uncertainty than either of us had ever experienced.  At the beginning of September I was contacted out of the blue and asked to apply for a teaching position at Vancouver School of Theology.  By the end of September our first child was born with some special medical needs.  The beginning of October saw me in Vancouver for an interview, then November we were in Denver for David’s first surgery.  I was asked back for a second interview in December and offered the position.  Between January and May I was completing my doctoral candidacy exams as well as one more surgery for David in Denver.  Then we packed up our car with a nine-month-old son, two cats and other baggage for our trip to Vancouver.  We arrived on the 23^rd of June for what we imagined would be a three-year stay.

 

            The uncertainty of the nine months between September 1986 and June 1987 did not end.  Throughout the first three years we were in Canada, Paula and I consider returning to the certainty of the United States where we had grown up and where we had family and friends.  But, in those three years, we had two more children and Vancouver School of Theology expressed its confidence in me as a teacher that I was granted a full-year sabbatical to complete my doctorate.  Paula began her theological studies in the fall of 1991 and by the end of 1995 she had been ordained, and we had become Canadian citizens.  Although we craved certainty, we ended up embracing uncertainty.

 

            In today’s readings from the Acts of the Apostles and the Gospel according to John, we encounter two men who are craving certainty yet end up embracing uncertainty.  Let’s start with one of my favourite stories from the Gospel according to John.  Peter, along with a number of the apostles, has decided to run away from the uncertainty that followed their experience of the resurrection of Jesus in Jerusalem.  Peter returns to the certainty of fishing in the Sea of Galilee where three years earlier Jesus had plucked him, his brother and the sons of Zebedee to make them ‘fish for people’.  I can understand Peter’s desire to find something familiar, something more secure, to hold on to.  He needs to figure out what all this means for him.

 

            But Jesus does what Jesus seems to do always.  Jesus will not let us hide in our certainties.  He comes after us and presents us with new possibilities and new challenges.  And he does this by asking us, ‘Do you love me?  Will you be my friend?’  And we cannot resist him.  And Peter puts down his nets and follows Jesus all the way to Rome and to martyrdom.

 

            Saul of Tarsus considers the disciples of Jesus, the Followers of the Way, to be a threat to the certainty of the Judaism in which he was raised and in which he finds his identity.  He is so intent on craving the certainty of that path that he is willing to arrest, to imprison and, as we know from earlier in Acts, to condone the execution of Jesus’ followers.  He is so committed that he takes it upon himself to travel to Damascus, a city outside of the official jurisdiction of the religious authorities in Jerusalem, to pursue the movement.

 

            But Jesus does what Jesus seems to do always.  Jesus will not let us hide in our certainties.  He comes after us and presents us with new possibilities and new challenges.  And he does this by asking us, ‘Do you love me?  Will you be my friend?’  And we cannot resist him.  And Paul puts abandons his path of persecution and follows Jesus all the way to Rome and to martyrdom.

 

            What happens in the lives of Peter and Paul is perhaps more dramatic than what happens in our lives when we decide to love Jesus, to be his friend and to follow him where he leads.  It’s made less dramatic because we live in a time when the followers of Jesus fill the known world and have created institutions that provide us with a degree of certainty that Peter and Paul and the earliest disciples did not have.  But we are living in a time when the certainty that the institutions we have created is uncertain.  Other religious traditions are claiming their place on the stage of human society.  The voices of those who believe religious faith to be irrelevant at best and dangerous at worst are heard throughout the media.

 

            Twelve years ago, during the conclave that elected the Argentinian cardinal Jorge Bergoglio as Pope Francis, Cardinal Bergoglio offered a reflection upon the familiar image of Jesus standing knocking at the door.  The tradition reading, he noted, is that Jesus is knocking to be admitted, to come into our hearts, to enter our lives.  But what, he wondered, if Jesus is knocking for us to come out instead, to join him in the world outside. [ii]  What if, I wonder, Jesus is daring us to come out of our certainty and into the uncertainty of the world?  What if, I wonder, Jesus is reminding us that we are the salt of the earth, that we are a light to the world, the yeast to leaven the flour God is using to bake the bread of life, especially in these times? [iii]

 

            Here at the Church of the Epiphany we are moving closer to the appointment of a new Rector who will bring fresh insights to our ministry here.  We are moving closer to the redevelopment of our land so that we can be more effective and responsive in our ministries of service, of worship, of evangelism, of education and of pastoral care.  There will be uncertainty throughout this journey.  We will be tempted to crave certainty rather than embrace uncertainty.

 

            But Jesus does what Jesus seems to do always.  Jesus will not let us hide in our certainties.  He comes after us and presents us with new possibilities and new challenges.  And he does this by asking us, ‘Do you love me?  Will you be my friend?’  And we cannot resist him.  And we will step out on an unexpected path and follow Jesus on the road to faithful witness and renewed community life.  This is what we have down, generation after generation.  God is working out in tranquillity the plan of salvation, so that the whole world will see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection in Jesus Christ our Lord. [iv]

 

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[i] Isaiah 61.1-3; Psalm 90.13-17; Acts 9.1-6; John 21.1-19.

 

[ii] A story told by the Rev’d John Stendahl and posted on Facebook by Anne Andert on 21 April 2025.

 

[iii] Matthew 5.13, 14; 13.33.

 

[iv] The Book of Alternative Services 1985, 328-329 adapted.