May 9th, 2010

The Rev. Rob Fisher

St. Dunstan’s Church, Carmel Valley

Texts: Acts 16:9-15; Psalm 67; Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5; John 14:23-29I

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit – Amen.

It was a dry, hot summer, and I was an eighth grader at Scout camp.

Late one afternoon, two counselors and about ten of us scouts hiked out to a remote area, far away from the commissary and the camping sites over ridges of rolling hills dotted by gnarly oak trees.  We were there to earn our Wilderness Survival Merit Badge!

Our final requirement for the merit badge was simple.  We had to build a shelter before sundown, and to sleep in it overnight.

We broke into groups of two, and set out to find enough branches and other coverings to make a cozy lean-to that would protect us from the elements.

After we all our very shabby sleeping quarters, which looked like an animal burrows, we walked up to a clearing on the top of the hill to join our counselors for a campfire.

We huddled around the campfire, shivering partly from cold and partly from nervous excitement.  One of the counselors stood up to tell us what he claimed to be a true story.

He described in gripping detail his experience of being out in the wild and being stalked by a mysterious animal lurking in the bushes.  He could not see it, but he heard it howl, and he knew he was being watched.  Eventually, it grew bold enough to come out of the dark and he saw that it was a fearsome sasquatch-like creature as it tried to attack him.  He tried to get away, but it grabbed his leg as he tried to flee. The story ended with the creature clinging on to his leg, pulling his leg—as he put it—just like he was pulling ours.

At the conclusion of this charming story, they dismissed us to our terrible shelters for the night.

Without flashlights, we had to make our way down the side of the hill on this very dark, moonless night.

It was easy to imagine all sorts of nasty things that could be waiting in the little pit of a shelter we had made.  The little hole where we were supposed to sleep was pitch black.

This was one of those moments when logic and reason give way to imagination.  Anything seemed possible.

Maybe there would be a snake?  Maybe a badger?  Maybe a very, very small sasquatch?

It is amazing how scary the world can be when you are in the dark.

I remember being volunteered by my friend to be the first one to go in, which I did, my heart racing.  I literally held my breath as I crawled in.

Once we were both inside, we set our heads in silence against the cold dirt ground.  Little leaf bits and specks of dirt drift down onto us from the ceiling of the shelter, just inches above our faces.

It seemed like we would never fall asleep that night, but eventually we did.  We opened our eyes to the morning light shining between the twigs and branches.

The sunlight transformed everything.  What had been scary was now revealed to be totally harmless.

Looking around it was hard to believe we had been afraid.

The only difference was the presence of light.

***

Listen again to the words of the Book of Revelation that we heard this morning:

“And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.

“…And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.”

God’s love is the light, and it transforms the world.

The writer of Revelation was a poet.  He was painting a spiritual picture, and using profound imagery to do it.  And the picture he paints is of a city drenched in God’s light.  It is a light that transforms all things.

When the light shines on the darkness, the darkness cannot overcome it.

But this light is not limited to his vision.  It is offered to us today as well.  It is found in love.

***

In the Gospel reading, Jesus commands us to love.

Jesus says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandment,” which is to love one another.

Jesus does not ask us to like one another.

I doubt that the disciples all liked each other, and certainly not all the time.  I wonder if Jesus didn’t even like all of his own disciples.

No, love and like are not just different levels of the same thing.  They are fundamentally different things.

We like things because they please us.  We like people because the please us.

But love is different.  Love is selfless.  When you love somebody, you love them in spite of any conditions, or how they make you feel.  Love is not about us; it is about our beloved.

Like is a feeling.

Love is a way of being.

***

The bond of love is what makes Christian community Christian.

We come together not because we like everything about each other, nor because we all agree with one another.  Rather, we are the body of Christ because we love each other.  We respect each other.  We recognize the precious value that each other has in his or her self.  We do this, even when our brothers and sisters are driving us a little crazy, or when we feel that they are dead wrong about something.  We love each other still, even at times when we may not like each other very much.

True love comes without conditions.  As we grow more and more to be people capable of selfless love, we grow as Christians.  To live this way is the commandment that Jesus gave to us, and it applies to us here today.  Imagine the light that would be shed on our dark world if all people on earth took up this way of life.

***

Have any of you been a parent to a teenager?

Have you ever known someone as they were parenting a teenager?

I recently read an essay by a priest who was pretty wild as a teenager.  He drove his father crazy.  He and his dad used to really get into it.

Often, his dad would say to him, “You know, I really don’t understand you, and I wonder if I ever will.”

But his father did not leave it at that.  He would always say one more thing, which was that no matter what, he would always love his son.

In that way, his father was being a lot like God.

I am sure that God shakes his head in the very same way when we let him down.  But the message of Jesus is that no matter what, God will always love us.

I believe it was William Sloane Coffin who said, God is not too hard to believe.  God is too good to believe.

***

If you pick up the newspaper, you will know that, these days we seem to be living in a world that reflects Good Friday a lot more than Easter.  The darkness is widespread, and it is almost overwhelming.  It can be scary.

But once we dare to abide in love, we see the world revealed in a different light.  When we see not with our eyes but with our hearts, we see the light of God, and we know that there is nothing at all to fear.

—Amen.