August 11: Another Dimension....

The Rt. Rev. Steven Charleston wrote: “Worship is our acknowledgment of the transcendent. It is how we seek to express our awe, our curiosity, our wonder. We believe there is something — a presence, a mind, a consciousness — far beyond the reach of our control, but still accessible to us, aware of us, engaged with us. Worship is standing at night on a high hill beneath the sky, feeling like you could cry from happiness.”

Growing up. I thought worship was about me. Going to church on a Sunday morning—maybe you called it “church” or “communion” or “mass” or “worship”---whatever you called it, I thought Sunday morning was about MY report card with God. 

And so was attending Sunday School, being Confirmed, joining committees and ministries, knowing my catechism and the Bible. I understood it all as being about me. What I had to do to be good enough to make it into heaven. What I had to do to be good enough for God to love me.

Beloved, I stand here before you today and call: B.S.  I had it all wrong. It isn’t first and foremost about me, or about you, or about our neighbor and their goodness/worthiness/value.  Well, it is and it isn’t. But what both Jesus and Paul are trying to convince us today is that it is, and always has been, all about Love. That we are all already loved. And worthy. And enough. Our purpose isn’t heaven. Our purpose is Love. And when Love is what we live, when Love is what we know–about ourselves AND our neighbors—then heaven is laid bare for all to see and taste and touch. Because heaven is simply where God dwells, where Love lives and has her being.

Let us remember, Jesus never asked us to build church buildings and create institutions. Nor did Jesus tell us to craft creeds, catechisms and dogma. Those are all things humanity has created—--I would even say with good and faithful intention—to help us do what Jesus actually calls us to do:
LIVE LOVE. BE LOVE. 

I mean, that’s it. Jesus says follow me; I am the Way, the Truth, the life.  Jesus’ only catechism is to live as Jesus lived: the Way of Love, with the Truth of  Love which then begets a Life of Love.

In essence, today’s reading from the letter to the Ephesians, Paul writes this letter to tell us that if we know and believe the gospel story (the story of Jesus’ life and death) then our lives should mirror the Gospel. That’s it. Its all that easy and all that hard.

But, you and I, we have been sidetracked by good intentions. Humans, when asked to do challenging things, often get mucked up in the instructions or the doing of something rather than the being. And with good intentions, so has the church.  Some of the Christian church even believes that our work is to “save others.” But Jesus has already saved all of Creation. Yep. We are all already saved. Because we have all already been shown how to live out Love in the flesh. That’s our salvation–living into the truth of Love. Because it’s the living Love out loud that restores creation, that heals Creation, that causes Creation to flourish and thrive–and every creature in it. 

And Beloved, death is a part of that. Death is not failure nor a sign of things gone wrong or a punishment. Death is a part of Creation’s ongoing life-cycle. God’s promise, Love’s promise, has never been: If you believe in me and live righteously you will not suffer and die.  Jesus suffered and died.  Love’s promise is: This life has suffering and death, but Love will accompany you through it all: the good, the bad, and the ugly—and Love will sustain you in it, pull you through it, and walk with you on the other side. BECAUSE there is another side. There is more beyond death.

Beloved, I believe there are two dimensions in which we live, or at least two in which we can live. We all live in the historical dimension—this dimension of our daily lives that is bordered by time and space. This dimension between our birth and our death—this dimension of here and now. But concurrently, there is another dimension—an eternal dimension. It is the stream of Love, sometimes called “Kairos”--God’s time, Love’s time.  It is this dimension that always has been and always will be that even death cannot diminish.

And, when we are rooted and grounded in love, we have the capacity to have our feet in both dimensions. And the eternal dimension–this stream and current of Love—it intensifies the good and joyful and gives us eyes and ears to see Love all around us, even in our most challenging moments and our darkest places.  And this current of Love also is what carries us through those challenging and dark times and places. 

Love is what sits with us in the pain and suffering, the loneliness and discomfort. Love sits with us so we can take a breath and then the next one until we have the strength to rise up and move forward—beyond the pain and discomfort, beyond the suffering and despair. But it doesn’t always release  us from the pain or the discomfort. Sometimes what Love does is give us the capacity to still know joy and peace and strength—even while the pain still exists. 

But, if we stop trusting that the Love stream is there or we do not know how to access it, then at times, it may seem as if this Love dimension is a fairy tale. I mean, this is the purpose of church (which is simply a gathering of folx who believe in and claim this Love dimension to be in their lives). Here, as Church, we practice reaching into the eternal dimension of Love; here we tell stories so we can keep believing; here we live out examples of it happening in our daily lives; here we encourage one another, build up one another so that we can shine the truth of this Love dimension out into the world as a beacon for others to follow, to reach for, to join in.

This is who we are, Beloved, this is our purpose. Bridgers of dimensions. Believers of eternity. Beings of Love. It’s all that simple. And all that hard.
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So, today, I am wondering: what have you believed or have been taught that would have to be reconsidered for this view of being Church to be true in our life? What are the obstacles?  Or —what clicked for you today? What makes sense? What questions arise?

​Daily Practice: 
Start of the Day: What can I do/am I doing today to prepare myself to be Love in the Flesh?  

End of Day? Where did I miss the mark of Love? What can I do to turn that around?