The Ones We Love Make Us Who We Are

These are everyday sermons, usually not the same sermons Deacon Michael delivered on Sundays.  He takes the liberty of personally addressing the people who came to the 6:30 communion service, whom he loved so much, and who loved him.

Deacon Michael was a history major. His home was filled with many history books. This is one of the sermons where his love of history shows in his analysis.

Be patient. Like many of Michael’s sermons, it comes together in the end.

IF YOU LIKE, READ ALONG WHILE YOU ARE LISTENING:

I am in a profession that is not well-loved.  I mean, let's face it.  People don't like trial lawyers.  And I can't really say they're wrong, so let's not even go on to that point, but I remember something quite vividly. 

If you ever want to meet someone who is totally and completely full of himself or herself, talk to a law school graduate right after they are starting practicing law, going to work for a big law firm or some other good job.  They are full of themselves.  And then put on top of that, which is my circumstance, you go to work for the United States Department of Justice.  Whoa!  I used to be able to pick up the phone and say, "This is Michael Weston.  I'm with the Department of Justice."  I had people's attention.  That was really neat.

And, one of the first grand jury investigations I had, worked on, was down in Houston.  And the people we were investigating, I mean, the people we wanted to put in jail, asked the judge to delay the grand jury investigation. 

Oh! Talk about an insult!  We were just absolutely indignant.  And we went to the judge, Woodrow Seals, down in Houston, a wonderful man, and we went, "Judge you can't, you don't have, you can't...blahblahblah!"  And he looked at us and said, "Look, the Lord is not going to ask me whether I caused inconvenience to a grand jury investigation, He's gonna ask me, what did I do to feed the poor."

And I went, "Whoops!  I think my perspective is a little bit off."  That has stayed with me for over 40 years.  What did he do to feed the poor?  What in the reality of our lives, we see Jesus talking about faith, and following, and listening, and following Him.  And that is something that we listen to in our lives.  "We played the flute for you but you did not dance.  We sang a dirge for you but you did not weep."  We came to you with the Savior of the world, and you did not participate; you did not believe.  You said you believed, and you did what?

And St. Paul's reading directly relates to that.  We are people of faith.  We believe in Jesus, the Savior.  We believe in the promise of eternal life.  We believe in His Holy Catholic Church.  But if it isn't part of what we are, it is nothing.

If we do not have love, all the other things are nothing.  Where are we? (Good morning, it is good to see you again.)  If we don't have love, what does it matter?  What have we accomplished? Oh yeah, I believe in Jesus.  And...?  Love.

"The clanging bells"... nothingness.  But if we believe in Jesus, and we have love, something wonderful happens. 

Love.  It's a noun... but it is also a verb.  It is a verb that is relational.  It is an active verb that requires a relationship. 

Carol, do you love?  The answer to that question is, "Yes, I love Frank, I love my children, I love... and the list grows.  But without an object of the love, and I am not talking about, "Yes, I love chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream," without a relationship based on love, our faith is meaningless.  "Faith, hope and love, and the most important of these is love," because without it, faith and hope do not work.

And we are called to be in relationship with each other, just as Jesus came to earth wholly human, wholly divine, to be in relationship with each other.  Because God so LOVED the world He wanted to be in relationship with us, that He gave His only begotten Son.  Who LOVED us so much he died on the cross.  Who COMMANDED us to love our neighbor. 

And without love, a truly participatory love that involves relationship, our faith, our hope are illusions.  Because love is integral to it all.  It is important to it all.  And if we don't perceive in our fellow man, our neighbor, something to love, as an object of love, [someone] to be in relationship [with, something is wrong]. 

Love is not a passive thing, it requires relationship.  It requires us to love, and that love is a participatory thing.  I care.  I love.  And as an example, one of the reasons, again, that I brought up the Goodbye, Mr. Chips [movie].  That scene that I was describing, Beth remembers it.  The definition of that scene is love.  He had loved generations of young men coming to that school.  They were part of what he was.  Just as in our lives, the people that we love are part of what we are, and they form who we are.  We are different from what we would be without love.  Each and every one of you, and I am looking at you cataloging things in my mind, each and every one of you has formed me to be what I am, by the relationship of love.

I pray that that formation of which you are participating is going to be sufficient to bring me to heaven.  But it is the relationship of love.  Faith in Our Lord Jesus Christ, the hope that comes from Christ, and the love of God and the love of neighbor, that is going to be the thing that effectuates the transition from being merely me, to being something special in God's eyes.  And when we go out into the world, look at someone you love, and realize how much they are part of you.

I'll pick on Joanie right now.  We've had a history with Joanie and I've known her for a long time, since I got to this church.  I look at Joanie and the first thing that I think of, if you look at her blouse, or whatever that is, her sweater, is "flower power."  Joanie used to be the lady who was always bringing flowers into the church.  That's part of knowing her and loving her.  That is part of what it means to be loved. 

That is part of what we are called to be.  We are called to live our lives in relationship with others, in a relationship that is defined by love.  That's what Paul is talking about.  That's how we respond to Christ.  That is the very core.  I can have faith and hope, but if I don't have works of love, I'm nothing.  St. James, by the way Betty, that is the one that Martin Luther does not want to have in the Bible, because it says, because you cannot do it without… faith, yes,… hope, yes... belief in Jesus, yes... but you cannot, with all of the things that Jesus does, make yourself a passive vessel and say, "Well, just dump it in me and that's all I need to have," because Jesus defines himself, God defines himself with an active verb, the verb of love.

September 2, 2018