February 15, 1998

Today is Love Sunday at Tellico Village Community Church. It’s the day after Valentine's Day. It’s a moment to reflect upon this amazing thing we call love, and the even more amazing truth that love is one of the tangible realities of the presence of God.

A number of years ago, Peter Yarrow of the folk group Peter, Paul and Mary was getting married. His good friend Paul Stookey wanted to give Peter and his new bride a very special wedding gift. So he wrote a song. It’s a very well known piece today, still performed at many weddings. Its simply called Wedding Song.

Well, Paul Stookey, who is a devoted Christian, wanted the song to speak not only to the joy of a new marriage, but also to his dear friend Peter's inability to believe in God. Peter used to muse about not being able to believe in something you can't see. And so Paul wrote these words:

And later, at the height of the song's beautiful emotion, as Paul Stookey describes the experience of love that brought together his friend Peter and his bride, he points to that love and asks the crucial question:

Can't see it. Can't touch it.

But you can experience it.

And to experience love in life is not only to be touched by something you can't see or put your finger on, it is in truth to be touched by the hand of God Himself. The hug of a child, the simplicity of a Valentine's card, the tender touch of your mate's hand, the help of a neighbor are all streams that flow directly from the well of God's agape love.

And what thrills me about this great Biblical truth is that it opens and broadens my understanding of how God has touched my life over all these years. Where once I thought that I had experienced God in various moments of religious ecstasy that usually took place in church, or on retreat, or during a time of deep prayer, or some other ostensibly religious setting, now I realize that God even touched me on that Valentine's Day during my sixth grade year at Thorndyke Road Elementary School.

I was overcome by love for this little dark-haired Irish girl by the name of Maryann Sullivan.

Do you remember how they used to set up a Valentine's Day "post office" in your classroom? And everyone would put their Valentines in the brightly decorated mailbox? And the night before, you'd go through a store-bought package of Valentine cards, selecting just the right one for each person?

I remember how there were mostly small cards in those packages. And you would address those small cards to all the people in your class except for one - the one you were in love with. Remember?

That person - the one you really had a crush on - would get the BIG card in the box. The one that said something like, Roses are red, Violets are blue, I'd like to spend the rest of my life with you!

Well, I remember that day in my sixth-grade year at Thorndyke Road Elementary School. For when the Valentine cards were distributed, the little cards came first, making a deep pile on my desk. But at the very end of the delivery came a BIG card.

From Maryann Sullivan.

I didn't know it then. But now I do. In the brush of Maryann Sullivan's love against my heart, I was touched by the hand of God. And it was warm. And joyous. And life-giving.

Several weeks after that Valentine's Day, Maryann Sullivan and I and most of our friends were at Miss Jane Defalco's Ballroom Dancing School which was held on Friday nights at my church. It was the moment, I knew, when Maryann's love for me and my love for her would be - well, consummated (in a sixth-grade kind of way) - by actually getting to dance together. As the evening went on, my heart raced faster and faster in anticipation of the moment. And then it came.

The dance was a waltz. And Miss Jane Defalco announced it was a lady's choice. And from across the hall, I saw Maryann stand up and fix her gaze on me. And she started walking across the floor.

It was an almost unbelievable thing. Suddenly, the hall was miraculously transformed into a meadow of beautiful wildflowers. There was a warm breeze blowing, and everything was in slow motion. Maryann's long, dark hair bounced ever so softly against her shoulders as she walked toward me, and all of a sudden, Frank Sinatra appeared, singing Strangers In The Night - even though Strangers In The Night had not yet been composed let alone recorded.

And I opened my arms to my beloved, my whole being aimed toward the moment we would embrace. And just as we came together, Maryann Sullivan…walked right past me and danced with my best friend, Gary Thomas.

Who among us can fully describe the joyous wonder of love when it touches us? And who among us can begin to express the depth of pain it sometimes brings?

Let me note here that this is not a sermon about adolescent infatuation, and I do not want to suggest in any way that good old Maryann Sullivan was acting as an enemy of God. In fact, by the time she got through with Thorndyke Road School, Maryann had loved and left just about every guy there, and the experience bonded us guys together in a remarkably redeeming way! Thankfully, Maryann's parents sent her to parochial school after that!

What I want us to look at today is what I would describe as the danger of misappropriated love. And on the other side, the beauty of love well-aimed.

Did you notice that our Scripture Lesson from Luke is a smaller version of the Beatitudes found in Matthew's Gospel? In fact, there are a number of differences here that are noteworthy. For one thing, Matthew has Jesus preaching this sermon on a mountain, but Luke brings Jesus down from the mountain to a plain where great crowds are gathered. The significance of Jesus coming down to where the people are should not be lost on us.

A second difference between the two accounts is that where Matthew names eight blessings, Luke includes only four. And to go along with the four blessings, Luke adds four woes.

And a third difference is that, while Matthew seems to spiritualize the sermon, for instance describing the "poor" as the "poor in spirit", Luke is much more literal. He speaks of the poor, the hungry, the sorrowful, the rich, the satisfied, and the happy as actual groups of people.

I think this is because Luke was a physician. As a medical doctor living in a world where ninety percent of the people lived as peasants - pretty much in abject poverty, Luke must have had a stomach-full of tragic experiences in which poverty produced malnutrition, and malnutrition resulted in the death of the weak, most especially children. The poor, the hungry, the sorrowful, and those who were persecuted because they tried to stick up for them were most likely the very patients Luke saw in his clinic every day.

And on the other hand there were the ten percent of the people who owned everything, consumed most of the resources, were happy as larks and were well-connected and respected because they'd never dared to rock the boat or challenge the status quo. They were the elite, and they made their living off the backs of the peasant class.

And in the way he presents this passage, I think Luke is asking the rhetorical question, Where is God in this situation where 90 percent of the people suffer and 10 percent have all the advantages?

Before we try to answer that, let me tell you about an insightful Hasidic rabbi by the name of Levi Yitzhak who lives in the Ukraine. The rabbi used to say that he discovered the true meaning of love from a drunken peasant. The rabbi was visiting the owner of a Polish tavern one day when he saw two peasants at a table. They were both rip snorting drunk, singing and laughing, and throwing their arms around each other as they slobbered into each others' face how much they loved each other.

I love you more than you love me, Peter! slurred Ivan.

Oh no! I love you more than you love me! the bleary-eyed Peter retorted, spitting all over his friend.

Really? asked Ivan. Well, if you truly love me, then tell me what hurts me?

How should I know what hurts you, Ivan? answered Peter.

Ivan thought for a moment and then answered.

A crucial part of being a Christian is learning about what hurts people. If you are a person like Luke who, in the course of your own life-experience has become aware of the deep hurts of people, you should know that this sensitivity is born in the love of God. You know it, you feel it, you sense it not only because you are perceptive, but because God is revealing it to you.

And what we discover about this Christian doctor in this passage is that Luke believes that God is the God of the hurt. Where is God in this unfair world where 90% go without and 10% live contentedly?

Why, God is with those who suffer!

Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.

God is the God of the poor, the hungry, the sorrowful and the persecuted!

But what about the other ten percent? The comparatively wealthy? Those with plenty to eat? The happy-go-lucky ones? The well-connected?

Us?

Jesus uses an interesting word to describe us. He says, Woe!

Now, I don't agree with those who claim that God has a bias for the poor and is against the rich. What I believe the Bible teaches is that God has a bias for all of us who hurt, and against any of us who misappropriate God's blessing.

You see, God is with the 10 percent, too! One of the points of the passage is that God and his love are in the blessing! Our wealth, our food, our joy, our connections are all God's gifts to us to be used for…who?

The poor. The hungry. The sad. The advocates of the 90 percent.

Jesus teaches us here that, if we are consoled by our wealth while others are inconsolable in their poverty - and do nothing about it - we are indeed people of woe. If we are satisfied with plenty to eat while others grovel in hunger - and do nothing about it - we are truly woeful. If we are filled with laughter while others weep tears of pain - and do nothing to move our brother from sorrow to joy - someone ought to come and mourn for us because we are dead without even knowing it. If we enjoy good reputations and grand political and social and business connections and don't use them to help those who stand up for God's principles and are martyred for it, we are of all people to be ashamed.

You see, there are many people who see their good fortune as blessing. They count their blessings, and name them one by one…

…never realizing that the very reason God has blessed them is to enable them to bring the touch of heaven to the poor, and the hungry, and the sad, and those who stand up for God.

On a ballroom dancing floor many, many years ago, I learned a valuable lesson in the wondrous power of love, and in the terrible hurt of rejection. Since then, my life has been full of such contrasting experiences, and I'd be willing to bet yours has too.

As a Christian, I've learned three lessons from this. First, whenever love has touched my life, its been drawn from the well of God' own love - a tangible experience through others of my Father in heaven. Second, whenever hurt has come my way - and it has, over and over again - God has used it to deepen my sensitivity to the hurts of others. And third, I've learned from Jesus that I have been given the experience of both love and pain so that I can touch them together in the lives of others!

And bring blessing to the people God loves.

This week, may you learn to count your blessings…but not for the sake of counting them. Not for the sake of feeling good about them. Not for the sake of gloating over your good fortune. Rather, count your blessings for the purpose of seeing the tools that have been given you to bring heaven to the poor, sustenance to the hungry, joy to those who are sad, and strength to those who stand up for the things of the amazing kingdom of God!

And then go use those tools, and bring glory to God Almighty!