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By John T. Crestwell, Jr.
February 15, 2004
Dr. King reading: “As the
chief moral guardian of the community, the church must implore
people to be good and well-intentioned and must extol the virtues of
kindheartedness and conscientiousness. But somewhere along the way
the church must remind people that, devoid of intelligence, goodness
and conscientiousness will become brutal forces leading to shameful
crucifixions. Never must the church tire of reminding people that
they have a moral responsibility to be intelligent.”
Good Morning. Dr. King’s words of truth speak to us with power and
conviction as they did many years ago. He was well aware, as we are,
of the history of persecution within the church as a result of
intolerance. The church is supposed to be the place people go for
support, love and nurturing, yet far too often the doors that should
be open to all people are found theologically and philosophically
closed. Broken-hearts are not mended, love is not given nor
received. And the church becomes a joke in the minds of those that
it has rejected.
The sermon topic this morning is Unconditional Love. Unconditional
love appears to say that we love others without conditions. We find
away to love and respect others even when they don’t think like us;
even when they’re views are outrageously asinine; even when they
appear to be idiots. But what does this unconditional love thing
really mean? Is it possible to love someone without conditions? Is
it possible to give love without expecting love in return?
Like Dawn’s story this morning, I always think about parents,
particularly mothers who love their children with all their heart,
soul, mind and strength. They sacrifice for the betterment of the
children; they go without sleep; and parents sometimes don’t take
care of themselves because they are so focused on their children,
they forget about themselves. And one might say the parent/child
relationship is the essence of unconditional love. But is this
biological? Is this self-preservation? From a very basic
perspective, does not the parent love based on a sort of survival
instinct to protect her young who will take her place/his place in
life one day? Perhaps we parents do what we do because biology and
sociology are directing us to do for our children. So perhaps this
love is conditional.
Then there’s the viewpoint that unconditional love is the love of
God who loves human beings despite their frailties. But you don’t
have to go to far to see that historically this love is Pavlovian
oriented, that is, you get your reward if you do certain things the
proper way. So this too seems to be conditional love.
What about the loving deeds we do for others? I would answer that
with a question: Did you do the good deed just for them or also for
yourself, for your heart? As virtuous as the task may be, this love
too seems conditional…
“Okay, what about Valentine’s Day weekend John? That’s that sweet
unconditional love of husbands, wives and partners… What about
Valentine love?” This one’s easy, if you forgot about your
Valentine, you found out real fast how conditional this kind of love
is! Amen.
So where does that leave us this morning? In a world that does not
fully respect the inherent worth and dignity of every human being;
in a society that continues to be intolerant; in a country that
still wrestles with the issue of creating a world community with
peace, liberty, and justice for all. Where does that leave us this
morning?
First, for me, it’s okay if love is conditional. Let me clean up
what I’m saying… What I mean is that it’s okay if my love on
something or based in something. There is a reason why I love you.
There is a reason you love me. This is not abstract, but real and
tangible love!
Beyond the erotic, beyond the esoteric and abstract love, you find
that love is simply respecting one another. In this regard, Webster
defines love as, “A feeling of brotherhood or sisterhood and
goodwill toward other people.” This is the love that King was
referring to, in the reading, when he said, “The church must implore
people to be good and well-intentioned and must extol the virtues of
kindheartedness and conscientiousness.” We are talking about respect
for the sacredness of all humanity.
This moves me to a thought… I don’t want you to love despite our
differences, but to love because of our differences! This is a
paradigm shifter, asking us to think much more broadly in our
understanding of HOW we love. It is asking us to look at life as a
beautiful picture, adorned with speckled colors. It is asking us to
fall in love with sundry quirks and imperfections that make us
unique and miraculous.
I was looking through a book on the universe with my son and
daughter and it is amazing what the Hubble Telescope is finding.
This instrument, the size of a school bus in space, is revealing
just how diverse and eclectic our universe is. We see now that our
galaxy is one little speck among trillions of specks, each one
different and amazing. Like the lines on the Zebra’s back or the
human fingerprint, no two galaxies appear to be exactly alike, so
far as we know. Then there are the varying solar systems and
planets, the many suns in these galaxies, each with differing
dimensions. And this tells you from a macrocosmic perspective, we
live in an expansive and diverse universe. But you don’t have to go
to space to learn the lesson. When you look within the earth with
the millions of species, seen and unseen, you find a great
multiplicity of things. You see the varying types of animals,
insects, trees, plants, and sea creatures; there’s fresh water and
salt water, blue water, green water; there are tropical and arctic
climates. Then you can look at the people of our planet. There are
all types with varying languages and customs. There is much to
celebrate. Life is a beautiful assortment.
Unfortunately, as humans we don’t tend to love those who are
different. Whether we are referring to another religion, another
race, or sexuality, we don’t tend to do well in dealing with those
who walk and talk differently.
I was watching a Disney movie, Pocahontas, with the kids (been doing
a lot of learning with them). Anyhow, you have the natives singing
“savages, savages” pointing the finger at the colonialists and all
the while the colonialists are singing “savages, savages”, the same
thing, referring to the Native Americans. I thought to myself, “This
is the story of the whole world.”
But I believe that we are called to a higher purpose. If we could
just see life from amongst the stars we could see a panoramic view
of the universe that is essentially pluralistic and eclectic. If
love, conditional or not, is a feeling of brotherhood or sisterhood
and goodwill toward other people, it is imperative that we grasp
what the universe teaches so that we can appreciate and respect even
more, our individuality, which truly makes the world go round.
Then, somehow, we can begin to build a world where peace and justice
are the order of the day. We can build a world where people use
their intelligence, not their tribal instincts to solve problems. We
can build a world where we treat people as we wish to be treated. We
can build a world where people will not live distant and in fear of
the other, rather in community where every human is treated as a
sister or a brother. We can build a world without the “us against
them” mentality but a world that embraces the “we are together”
reality. We can build a world of mutual respect and love when humans
listen more, read more and think more, as Maya Angelou suggests. And
this will be a time when goodness and conscientiousness will not be
brutal forces leading to more and more shameful crucifixions, but a
time of healing and understanding as we celebrate life, that great
web of interdependence of which we are all a part.
We must love one another, not despite our differences but because of
our differences. As David Eaton said, “May we have faith to accept
this mystery and build upon its everlasting truth.”
Thank you for your time this morning.
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