Karen Hollis | August 20, 2023
Radical Love/Pride Sunday
Mark 12:28-34:
One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, ‘Which commandment is the first of all?’ Jesus answered, ‘The first is, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” The second is this, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.’ Then the scribe said to him, ‘You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that “he is one, and besides him there is no other”; and “to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength”, and “to love one’s neighbour as oneself”,—this is much more important than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices.’ When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’ After that no one dared to ask him any question.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be reflections of your word to us today, in Christ’s name we pray. Amen
Today we celebrate the many ways God makes us . . . and the radical love with which God reveals God’s self and leads us, companions us on our journey.
God’s love is made known in the collective that marches for truth, justice, and equity.
God’s love is made known when injustice is called out in public.
God’s love is made known as the powerful voice within or the still small voice that affirms our identity . . . God’s love is the primary source of unconditional love, however we hear it.
And this is something we celebrate today as queer folk, allies, Christians, and humans alike. God loves YOU unconditionally all the time, every moment, no matter who you are or who you love or what you think or do or believe about yourself or other people. God loves YOU all the time. God speaks this message to us in many ways.
Every Monday morning Jonathan Van Ness posts an affirmation on his Instagram feed – Jonathan is one of 5 gay men who host the makeover show called Queer Eye. I can’t quote Jonathan directly because his language isn’t appropriate for church, but the essence of his message is: know you are loved, know your worth, celebrate who you are, and you have the resources within you to navigate the world this week.
The Love of God, regardless of where we find it, invites loving . . . love opens us, softens us, draws us in, such that we can reciprocate love . . . and we can learn how to love ourselves more fully.
The world in which we live doesn’t make loving ourselves easy. Why do you think Jonathan posts affirmations every week? Our families, our culture give us expectations to live up to, roles to embody, social systems to uphold; we are supposed to look a certain way, act a certain way, love a certain way. And we have been conditioned – we have tapes installed in us that tell us we’re not good enough, that we’re lacking something . . . sometimes we doubt if we are even worth loving or worth anything at all. The world is so hard on us . . . and we are so hard on ourselves . . . and if we’re honest, we’re also hard on each other.
Jesus lived in the world . . . he experienced how difficult it can be to navigate life, especially when we don’t fit within the expectations of the world. Knowing this, he invites us to engage with the universal and unconditional love of God . . . actually he commands it. Engaging with love is so important that he places it above everything else.
As you may know, there are several words for love in the Bible. The word Jesus uses in Mark’s gospel this morning is Agape, which is the highest form of love, the most radical form of love. It is expansive, universal, and persists no matter the circumstances.1 This love is for the whole, in relationship with and in service of the collective. Agape aligns with the Zulu concept of Ubuntu, which means, “I am who I am because we are who we are.” Jacqui Lewis puts it this way: “with this in mind, who I will be is deeply related to who you are. In other words, we are each impacted by the circumstances that impact those around us. What hurts you hurts me. What heals you heals me.”2 The world’s religions and the ubuntu philosophy remind me that each of us is who we are because of what the collective is. Thriving is a shared objective, achieved when we love our neighbor – even the stranger – the way we love ourselves.3
So for our individual and collective good, Jesus invites each of us to receive God’s love and allow it to soften you, open you, draw you in.
Allow God’s love to touch the place in you that was made to love, that has been just aching to do the thing it was made to do.
Allow the place in you that was made to love to align you . . . align your heart your mind, your soul, your strength . . . such that you can reciprocate love and emulate God’s love for you.
This is the most important: to love God and love ourselves . . . at stake is the common good, the economy of love between neighbours, justice and dignity for all. At stake is the fullness of God’s kindom.
The reality check is that it’s not a simple process. The place in us that was made to love is sometimes wrapped up in those tapes that tell us who we’re supposed to be or surrounded by a minefield of wounded places or boxes we don’t want to open. Sometimes learning how to love more fully is also an invitation to heal . . . and healing is big work . . . none of this is simple or straightforward or easy . . . however it does affirm our worth. Theologian Jacqui Lewis writes in her book Fierce
Love: “Self-love goes in our tank when we are seen, known, and loved.”4 When I read this sentence in her book I thought, YES and underlined it. I invite us to spend a few minutes with these and reflect on examples of offering and receiving self-love when we are seen, known, and loved.
When we are seen: Transgender day of Visibility is celebrated each year on March 31. It exists because so much of the world remains wilfully blind to Trans people. So much of the world wishes they lived in a world where gender is binary. It’s agonizing to both long to be seen and fear being discovered, as is the reality for too many trans people in the world. We were all created in the image of God and all have a right to exist and to be seen. Activist Miss Major Griffin-Gracy says: “We have to remain visible. They have to see us, they have to know that we’re not going [anywhere], that we’ve been here ever since God made man and woman, and they have to get over it.
I don’t need their permission to exist; I exist in spite of them. I want you to train and teach and love on and create families within my community and gender non-conforming people, so that we can understand that we have a culture, we have a history, we have a reason to be here.
We have a purpose.
We’re entitled to be loved, and seek happiness, and share that with the people that we care about.”
We are called to see the fullness of humanity, because it is an act of love.
When we are known: With the massive transitions in my life over the past couple of years – my mother’s passing, moving to a new ministry and town – I’ve been intentionally practicing radical self-love. I try to notice when my thoughts are critical and I try to slow down. I listen to my feelings and say to myself, yes, of course you are feeling this way, that makes lots of sense. I attended a somatics class a couple of weeks ago, which is a practice of inhabiting our bodies. We were invited to begin slowly with the breath and use it to listen within . . . and then notice how the movement of breath creates movement in the body and what is available within those small movements to know about ourselves. I have never in my life been in my body in a gentler way. It was a fierce practice of listening to my body and honouring what it needs. It was a discipline, as the instructor encouraged, to give priority to what my body needs over her invitations for movement. The practice helped me know my body in a new way and I felt deeply loved.
When we are loved: In one of my sermons on openness I used a book called Borders and Belonging by Padraig O’ Tuama and Glenn Jordan. In the preface of the book Padraig remembers a story of their friendship. “I’d known Glenn since I was 11 and he was a dorm leader on a church camp. When I moved to Belfast 16 years later, I sought him out and we’ve remained friends ever since. I was working in religion and over-full of faith and fear. Faith kept me fearful, sometimes. Especially because I was gay and had told few people. On a drive back from a conference once, I told Glenn. I wasn’t sure what he’d say. We continued in a lot of silence. When we parked, he turned to me and said, ‘What you’ve said changes me.’ I was mostly looking for acceptance and comfort. Glen wasn’t interested in that. He had heard something that had changed him. in the twinkling. He gave comfort, sure. But he acted differently. He manifested change in a way I could never have imagined. He lost friends because of it. H made me realize that I didn’t need to be a pawn begging for the dregs of kindness. He took me seriously enough that I began to take myself seriously. He changed me in the way he changed. Glenn saw change as the demonstration of faithfulness, not the denial of it. I carry him in my heart.”5
Jesus is right - Love matters. Love makes all the difference in the world. Love invites loving . . . it is Ubuntu – I am because we are. Love opens us, softens us, draws us in, such that we can reciprocate love, and offer it to our bruised and broken world, who just like us, are aching to be loved.
