Sermon Delivered at Church of the Good Shepherd
Fort Lee, New Jersey,
Thursday, April 4, 2021, at 10:00 p.m.
By the Rev. Stephen C. Galleher
Love Makes Us Permanent
Allelulia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed!
“But here on this mountain, the Lord of Hosts
will throw a feast for all the people of the world,
A feast of the finest foods, a feast with vintage wines,
a feast of seven courses, a feast lavish with gourmet desserts.
And here on this mountain, God will banish…
The shadow of doom darkening all nations.
Yes, he’ll banish death forever.
And God will wipe the tears from every face.
He’ll remove every sign of disgrace
From his people, wherever they are.
Yes! God says so!” (Isaiah 25:6-8)
Yes, this Resurrection event, which we live again this morning, is another kind of feast, a continuation of sorts from Thursday, Jesus’s last meal with his disciples. It was a return to communion, “communion” meaning participation in something together. Communion is a love-in, a reunion of men and women in fellowship, of handshakes replacing fists, of hugs replacing blows, of warmth replacing a cold heart.
There is an expression that I was taught as a child after finishing the main course, after the entre. My mother would say, “Keep your fork.” This meant to take my fork off the plate, set it aside and wait for the next course, the dessert. This is what we have done from Maundy Thursday until this morning! This is where we get to taste the divine end of the passion event, the sweet ending to a harrowing tale.
Let us look at two examples of just what has gone on between Thursday evening and today, the day of Resurrection.
It was January 6 of this year, when a gang of angry rioters stormed the nation’s Capitol, and pushed through the doors and broke windows and violently overcame the Capitol police who were protecting the entrances.
[Project photos of Hodges] Daniel Hodges was crushed and pinned with a policeman’s shield inside a doorway. Simply performing his duty to protect the chambers, he was pinned in that door jamb. Such is a picture of pain and suffering on behalf of others. A microcosm of all the pain and suffering all around us every day. Both from circumstances that the world dishes out and from what we dish out to one another in our fear and ignorance, our hatred and violence.
[Project photos of Eugene Goodman] And then, again, from January 6, as the mob drew closer to the legislators, Capitol policeman Eugene Goodman called to the mobsters and drew them up the stairs, away from the Senators who were hiding in a safe room in the basement of the Capitol. He was given the Congressional Medal, our country’s highest civilian honor. I think of Jesus Christ as our scapegoat, taking on our dishonor, willing to die for the likes of us as we continue to dish out enmity and hatred towards our neighbors. This policeman was a man of love, doing his duty, yes, but risking his life in the process.
This Jesus is not just the historical figure, but the eternal Christ, pointing the way into the suffering of the world and showing us a love that permeates yet transcends the surface of our lives. The love that was demonstrated by those assaulted policemen is the love of Christ, the same love.
Similarly, the love that broke through all that suffering and death on Easter morning is the same love we see all around us when we open our hearts and eyes to that love here and now.
So, what does it mean, what is it saying? What does the Resurrection mean to you? Is there any other question really worth asking, for if the Resurrection of Christ has no impact, no relevance to your life, then are we not wasting our time celebrating it?
In my own experience, I find its impact in two ways, just from being still before this event. It is more than an historical occurrence. I see and feel it bursting forth in all of life’s circumstances. I see it played out by Officer Goodman leading the Capitol rioters up those stairs and away from the senators. This is what love looks like. And, yes, I see it and hear it in the agony of Officer Hodges as he screams in pain trapped in the Capitol door. This is what love looks like and what love sounds like. Love bursting out of every situation, however dire, even however deadly.
Yes, you may think it odd, but I interpret resurrection from events such as those I have illustrated. But I also sense resurrection in my own life, not just in the awesome, sometimes ordinary things that result from my life as lived, but particularly in retrospect. When I reflect on the course of my life, there is only one thing that limns it, and that is love. Love.
I ask that each of you reflect even casually on your life. There have been happy, joyous times, triumphant times; and there have been disappointing, sad, yes, even tragic times. But can you say that any of those times have been times devoid of love? Please be honest. It is perfectly fine if you do not see all the events of your life the way that I am suggesting.
But what triggered my interpretation of my life by saying it has been all about love was a statement that a retired friend of mine said to me the other day. It was only a four-word sentence, but its power entered me deeply. He said: “Love…makes…us…permanent.”
Love makes us permanent. Love does not come from nowhere and it does not leave once it is here. Don’t you feel this with all those family and friends who have passed, who loved you and whom you loved? They haven’t gone anywhere. This is resurrection.
Love makes us permanent.
William Penn, a famous Quaker and the founder of the colony of Pennsylvania, was also a religious thinker and writer. He wrote: “And this is the comfort of the resurrection, that the grave cannot hold us, and we live as soon as we die. For death is no more than a turning of us from time to eternity.”
I love this sentiment. But eternity is not something after death. Aren’t we in eternity now? Isn’t our Baptism telling us that we have been buried and risen with Christ? We are already Christ’s own forever. So, speaking metaphorically, there is nowhere to go! There is no where to go to!
I hope that we all on this Easter morn receive a renewed sense of the glory and power of our own resurrection with Christ. It’s as simple as a loving kiss for our partner, a gesture of reconciliation toward someone who has been off our radar, a beautiful thought wafted outward for a blessing from the warm air that greets it.
Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete….
When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.
We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! …
But for right now…we have three things to do to lead us [home]: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love. (Corinthians 13:8-1300
Amen
Amen.