Last month I had the privilege to preside at my first wedding as an ordained pastor. Here is the sermon.
[Song of Songs 8:6-7; Rom. 12:9-18]
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
As the great 20th c. poet Haddaway once said: "What is love, baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more."
What is love?
In our modern-day society the majority of answers to that question will in many instances be about warmth and connection, about feel-good relations, about caring and partnership, about personal and mutual growth and communication, perhaps even about some kind of spirituality, however fluid and undefined.
And of course all of this is absolutely true!
But what about love as giving, sacrificing -even on the Cross- suffering even, looking on from a distance, love just out of reach or unrequited, diminishing, love that is unequal or relentless, love under constant pressure from the outside.
All of these are just as true and just as real.
Our readings today speak of love:
In the Song of Songs there is the love that is passionate, fiery, all-consuming almost.
And it was because of its erotic context that the Jewish sages in 1st c. had a fierce debate on whether or not this book should be part of the canon, part of the Bible at all.
In the end they decided that this sexual poem, this dialogue between two people in fact represented the love of God for His people Israel.
Christians later added the interpretation that it is a metaphor for the union between
Christ and His Church.
The love that is.
And in the letter of Saint Paul to the early, budding Christian community in Rome there is the love in action, the practical side of love, hands-on in the real world.
'Love, live, bless, rejoice, etc...', these are all very active and realistic verbs, these are the tangible results, the responses to God's love.
The love that does.
So, are there different kinds of love?
It seems that way, at least in our limited human language when we are trying to explain the different levels of love: hetero- and homosexual, parental love, the difference between a friend and an acquaintance, sibling love and sibling rivalry, the love for one's pet, neighbourly love, and so on...
However, the Scriptures and the confession of the Church offer a different perspective, an unexpected twist.
They teach us that those who love are of God because God is love (I Jn. 4:7-8), and Christ told His disciples that they should love one another as He loved them (Jn. 13:34).
These are very intimate descriptions of love, very intertwined, they go down to the very core of both the human ánd the Divine.
They teach us that God is love...not GodS, not loveS, but one God and one love...there are no plurals, no differentiations.
So instead of looking at the different kinds or types of love or loveS, they invite us to contemplate the one and only Love (with capital L).
Instead of classifying in our muddled and limited human ways and languages and attitudes, the Scriptures invite us to think of all love that comes from the same Source and all will one day return to that same Source.
Maybe it's an invitation even to contemplate a shift in language: not kinds of love or loveS, but expressions or realities or perhaps even revelations of the same Love.
Maybe this way of thinking about the one, unified loving God will have more of a unifying effect, in society, in the Church, in politics, in socio-economics, in the whole of creation.
"What is love?", Haddaway sang.
In our readings today there seem to be two sides to the same coin that is love: be and do.
But these are not separated, they're not at odds, we don't have to pick sides.
Instead we can grow in love, also God's unending and unfailing love, becoming more loving day by day.
But we can equally go out, hands-on and show and reveal all those expressions of that same, unifying Source of love to the world.
And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.