Dive into the Deepness of God's Love
Easter 7 – May 12, 2013
St. Mark's Lutheran Church – Waukesha
*To hear this sermon as it was preached that Sunday, go here, scroll down (and down and down) to the date, listed as "Mother's Day" and click on the play button. (I couldn't figure out how to link directly to that one sermon, sorry.)Most of you probably know that Pastor Andy & Norah & Declan and I were away in Orlando recently. The first part of our trip there was for a conference and then we had some time for vacation. We stayed at our time share, which has a beautiful, huge pool, just right for families with younger kids. See, the one side of the pool is the kind you walk into and it just gradually gets deeper, til you get out to the middle where there's one of those rope dividers – with those plastic things that bob up & down in the water? But even there, the pool's only 3 feet deep. Norah loves it, and Declan thought it was pretty great too.
Now I have to tell you, every year, I give Pr. Andy a hard time about the way he gets into the water. It's not just this pool. It's every pool or lake or ocean we get into. Andy is cautious. He takes it slow. One step at a time, not wanting to get in too fast, trying to let his body adjust. Me? I just get in and get under as soon as I can. Figure I might as well get it over with. :) But every now and again, Andy will decide to get brave on me. Because there's another side of the pool, where the water is deeper. And on that side is a water slide. So he'll get out and walk around the edge of the pool and go up the stairs and stand in line until he gets to the top, and then down he comes in a great mighty rush, spiraling down the slide until he lands in the deep end with a splash! Plunging in all at once, head and all, and getting everyone around him a little bit wet too, smiling when he comes out. It's quite a change when he finally decides to go all in.
I tell you this story this morning because I hear in the gospel an invitation for us to go all in – to move out of the shallow end of the pool and dive into the depths of God's love for us. See, even though we are just now coming up to the end of the Easter season, in the biblical time line, the gospel passage we just heard happens on what we call Maundy Thursday. It's the night of foot-washing, the night of the Last Supper. Soon, Jesus & the disciples will go out to the garden, and Judas will betray Jesus into the hands of the authorities who will have him put to death on a cross. But before that happens, Jesus prays for his disciples, and for all who will come to believe because of their message. We listen in with them as he lifts us all up to God the Father, and we hear him pray a prayer of love, for love – that all who will be drawn in to this community of faith would know the love the Father and the Son have for each other and for the world; that they would see and experience this deep, intimate, self-giving love that is at the heart of their relationship, that makes them one. Jesus prays that his followers would be one just as Jesus and the Father are one, that they would experience this love, that it would overflow into their relationships with each other, so that the world may know that the Father sent Jesus and loves them. Jesus prays that his followers would swim around in the deep end of God's love, this immense, abundant, never-failing love that God has for each of us and for the whole creation and that that love would splash on to everyone around us, that God's love would be reflected in our relationships, in the ways that we move and act and speak to one another.
This is what Jesus prays for, this is what he longs to see happen. And we know that that's not always what happens. The early disciples and the ancient church had their squabbles and disputes. There were times when they let money or class or gender get in the way of living out God's love. But sometimes, as we read the stories from Acts and read the letters written by Paul and other leaders to the ancient congregations, we see examples of Jesus' prayer being answered. We see God's love changing people's lives and we see them overflowing with love for those around them – making sure that widows and orphans are taken care of, comforting the sick, burying the dead. We see followers of Jesus giving generously to each other, sharing what they have. We see them drawing close to one another, praying together, worshiping together, eating together. They lift one another up, rejoice together, weep together. These are the folks who have given up wading in the shallows, but instead have plunged in over their heads into God's amazing love, letting that love spill over into the lives of everyone they meet, not just fellow believers, but everyone.
This is still Jesus' prayer for us who follow him today, that we would know and see and experience God's love for us and for the world and that our lives would be transformed, that our lives would reveal God's love to those around us. And that means going deep with each other, which, let's be honest, isn't always easy. Our lives are filled with so many distractions, so much to do, sometimes so much hurt from previous attempts to go deep with someone that it often feels easier, safer to just stay on the shallow end of the pool. Our culture isn't so great at connecting with each other anymore, is it? We have amazing technologies at our disposal, ways to keep in touch that our ancestors never could have dreamed of – telephones and computers; texting and Facebook; and if anyone had told me when I was watching the Jetsons when I was growing up that someday we'd have video phones, I'd have laughed and told them they were crazy! Yet despite all the ways we have to keep connected, it's usually just on the surface. We're not intimately involved and invested in each other's lives the way that God the Father and God the Son are, the way that Jesus prays that we will be with each other.
But when we are, church, when we manage to wade out past the shallows and get into the deep end, oh, amazing things happen. When we take the time to be the hands and feet and eyes and heart of Christ, when we open ourselves up to the people around us, to be really, fully present wherever we are and seek to go deep – that's when our lives witness to the love of God that lives in us, that's when the world around us who doesn't yet know this love begins to sit up and take notice. It can be in big, obvious ways, like the woman who arranged for the burial of the alleged Boston Marathon bomber, because, as she said, “Jesus says to love our enemies,” or less noticeable things -- less noticeable, but no less important - like taking someone to the airport or bringing food to someone after a birth or an illness or a death. It can be watching the neighbor's kids so she can get a little break or taking an elderly friend to the grocery store. It's praying together, laughing together, crying together, eating together, playing together. We go deep when we get real, get vulnerable, get involved, when we let God's love flow into us and through us. This is when we become part of the Love that put on flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood, when we become part of the Incarnation, when we dive deep into God's never-ending supply of love and let it splash up onto the people around us, so that they too may come to know how much God loves them, loves all of us.
So that's the invitation, that's the call: to let Jesus' prayer for us be answered in our lives. Look around you. Start where you are – in your family, in your neighborhood, in your school, in your workplace. Dive deep into the deepness of God's love – and let that love splash onto those around you.
Amen.
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