Let Love Float

So you know that I’m getting ready for a long awaited summer vacation with my family…any envy that you may have that I’m traveling to Europe for my sister-in-law’s wedding, please remember I’m flying with a, turned 6, 10 days ago old and 20-month-old toddler. The toddler just learned to scream for whatever she wants…and the 6-year-old daydreams a lot; not listening, until he remembers where he is and starts asking questions nonstop. 

In all honesty I am looking forward to this trip; even if I’m not looking forward to presiding at the wedding. 

My trepidation isn’t because of the usual difficulty of corralling  the emotions of others: jealousy, generational expectations; and micromanaging family members; rather, it’s managing my own emotions. 

This is my little sister. This is the girl I have known since the month she turned 8 years old. I was sad years ago when I realized I should no longer hold her hand in public….which I think was the day I took her to an upper manhattan park to play in the sprinklers and realized that though I was her brother taking pictures of her having fun. Other people saw a middle aged white guy taking pictures of a young black girl in a swimsuit…

I’m even more sad now that Taliah has graduated from college…is beginning law school in the fall and getting married this summer. 

I’m sad…and I’m proud. 

I’m sad that one era has ended fully and finally; and I’m proud of Taliah and her decisions and her hard work and I’m excited about the new era she’s about to begin with a partner. 

Is this full of emotions—and not quite sure how to express them a fair place to begin the story of Jesus commissioning his disciples to stop just being with him and start sharing with people in need good news—that Heaven has come near to them. This is the son of God we are talking about and it’s his followers being sent 2x2 into villages to share presumably versions of Jesus first sermon. You know the one where Jesus is in the temple and he stands up and reads: 

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

There are some scholars who are historians who want to describe the scene and offer a best short hand of people and institutions… the expectation of the messiah is he would fulfill the scriptures (as Jesus says has happened when he sits down and says, “today in your hearing the scripture is fulfilled.”) however, the prevailing thinking of that time is that fulfillment of the prophets would be political and probably accompanied by a military campaign—some kind of revolution—which would leave a lot of people dead. 

There are some contemporary social theorists who talk about the power of  teams and reference the well known proverb “if you want to go fast go alone and if you want to go far go together…”

But what if…and this is an outlandish guess. 

It really is. 

What if Jesus really didn’t give his followers, who he send out in teams, much to say?

We don’t have much in the Gospel text. What does Jesus say?

“Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals, and greet no one on the road.”

Seriously, that’s not much. 

Even when Jesus is specific it’s vague, “Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ and “If a person of peace is there, your peace will rest on that person…”

…That wedding I’m presiding next week I have written a draft my sermon. 

It’s exactly 7 minutes long. 

Not too short. 

Blessedly, not too long…and though I’m going to ask my wife and brother-in-law to listen and offer suggestions one thing I already know is;  it doesn’t really say anything. 

There’s no introduction; organizing story; or words of profound spiritual or life advice. 

It is kind of funny in some places. 

It is earnest. 

But mostly, it’s a bunch of feelings that I think those sent out by Jesus into villages also have…

What I do do, is over and over say, “Love.”

I wonder where love comes from. 

I say it comes from God.

I wonder where love leads,

I say it leads to faith. And I promise love will transform us completely…

But I actually talk about love in far less than specific ways a future attorney might hope for.  I talk about love in almost the same way that prayer sometimes works for many of us…kind of conjuring love as a spirit that is out there.

I invite love to rest on the couple…and true to the example of Jesus giving his first sermon about the poor, the oppressed and the prisoners for love to rest on all who hear my words.

That’s the good news of this story of Jesus…maybe. The way in which faith is shared is vague…it’s closer to wishing people peace….wishing people grace and peace…so that when their lives are falling apart or they’re overwhelmed…something good just shows up and makes everything ok. 

That’s maybe an incredibly naive idea of faith; or it may be exactly how faith works…That’s what I’m counting on with a wedding sermon that doesn’t say anything…but the sermon is for a little girl who isn’t little anymore is filled with love—and that love is a prayer that God’s love will be enough for everything that comes in the days ahead. 

May it be so for us. Amen