ἀγάπη experiment
sermon: ἀγάπη experiment
[excusing myself, who knows better, for changing Luke's verb form ἀγαπάω to the noun form ἀγάπη for reasons of clarity in English], the Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke (6:27-38)
Jesus said, 27 “But I say to you that listen, ἀγάπη your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29 If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. 30 Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.
32 “If you ἀγάπη those who ἀγάπη you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners ἀγάπη those who ἀγάπη them. 33 If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. 35 But ἀγάπη your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
37 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; 38 give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”
+++++++++++++
Our collect for the day again, as we pray:
O Lord, you have taught us that without ἀγάπη whatever we do is worth nothing: Send your Holy Spirit, and pour into our hearts your greatest gift, which is ἀγάπη,
the true bond of peace and of all virtue;
for without ἀγάπη, whoever lives is accounted dead before you. Amen.
+++++++++
If you were here Wednesday evening, or watched online and caught Fr Steve’s homily, you got all the sermon you need from this Gospel.
If you were at Diocesan Convention, or watched the closing Eucharist on Youtube yesterday, you know that your rector has set me up to follow into the pulpit, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, the most exciting, dynamic and vibrant preacher in the Episcopal Church, preaching on the same text, Luke 6, Jesus on LOVE ! ! And so I shall take an entirely different approach to it. I shall tell you about MY PERSONAL EXPERIMENT with ἀγάπη:
All the years I was chaplain and religion teacher at Holy Nativity Episcopal School, our entire chapel and classroom focus was ἀγάπη, the NT Greek word for love that is not a feeling, but how you treat people:
> total immersion in ἀγάπη,
> hoping to make ἀγάπη an indelible part of every student’s conscious and unconscious and subconscious for a lifetime.
Of course, I’ve no way to check and verify, but I’ve always hoped the Time and Love invested those years ~ caused every student to absorb a bit of Jesus into his and her Being.
ἀγάπη - - love is not a feeling, love is how you treat people. ἀγάπη is not a word we use in English, and there are at least Three Completely Other Greek words for different kinds of love. So to help every student “get it” about ἀγάπη and God and Jesus, we rehearsed the word ἀγάπη by calling out synonym words when starting class and chapel: lovingkindness, compassion, goodwill, benevolence, generosity, helpfulness, decency, courtesy, thoughtfulness, kindness, consideration. Time after Time, in every chapel service, and every religion class, every day, for years.
In class, we dealt in modern fantasy fiction where ἀγάπη could be hunted down:
> Narnia, the books and movies of C S Lewis,
> Tolkien: the world of The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, books and films,
> Harry Potter, the books and movies of J K Rowling’s world of magic:
captivating stories of love and fear and friendship and loyalty and power and meanness and kindness and self-sacrifice, and death and resurrection, where ἀγάπη jumps out at you if you learn to watch for it. Because if you can see ἀγάπη in make-believe, you can learn to see ἀγάπη in real life.
We read the books, and I had DVDs to show and discuss the movies in class. And when the Hollywood films came to town on the big screen we went as an entire middle school to a local movie theater. One year the final exam was Holy Nativity Middle School going to the movie theater as a class to see The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, that wonderful and scary pre-evangelical Easter story that introduces The Chronicles of Narnia.
Students were told to watch for instances of ἀγάπη, and I’d stop a film in progress, or if we were reading a book, stop in the middle of a sentence or paragraph, so they could call out what they had just seen that was the human kindness that ἀγάπη is.
A standing assignment was to bring in from life outside of school, instances they’d noticed at home, or playing sports or with friends, where someone had committed ἀγάπη.
As well as helping them grasp what it means to be the loving person that ἀγάπη signifies, I made a point of committing ἀγάπη, of treating them that way myself. Those years ago, just before I began work as their chaplain and teacher, as I wondered how to get their attention, Time magazine had a cover article about how to reach 13-year-olds (8th graders), how to help them want to be there; and to experience what it is to be cared about, to be loved, to be “ἀγάπη’d” - - and believe it or not, the Time magazine article started out recommending having orange juice for them in class, and other treats, that the way to their enthusiasm was through their taste buds. So those years, I always had snacks for them in class. Every week for years, I brought fruit and juice, and chips and dips, and dipping vegetables like celery and carrots and apple slices; and sweets like candy and ice cream and cookies. Those years, I bought more goodies than any other customer at local grocery stores!
Every Wednesday morning we had chapel, and on the way to school I’d stop at Krispy Kreme on 23rd Street or Dan’s Donuts across from Bay High on Harrison Avenue, and come into chapel carrying a stack of eight or ten boxes, eight or ten dozen warm, fragrant donuts, the aroma filling the auditorium, for them to sense and anticipate, and enjoy. Because I wanted them to experience that ἀγάπη is not something you read about, and hear and talk about. That ἀγάπη is what someone does for you, and that ἀγάπη is how you should treat others, whether they are parents and siblings and friends, - - or people you dislike, even hate - - and especially people you don’t know, people you never heard of - - somewhere else in America, and on the other side of the world.
My EXPERIMENT those years was for them to learn about ἀγάπη by everything around them, and experience ἀγάπη as something so real you can taste it, and find that ἀγάπη is not an idea or a Bible verse, or a “lesson” - - ἀγάπη is how God expects you to treat other people.
In student chapel those years, I had Holy Communion every Wednesday, and every person was invited and welcome to the sacred feast. Every Wednesday we served Holy Communion to Baptists, Catholics, Lutherans, Hindus, Methodists, Jews, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Pentecostals, Eastern Orthodox. Every student came, teachers and staff who wanted to, any parents who were at chapel. The theology was not forgiveness of sins or salvation into heaven, but ἀγάπη -> God’s lovingkindness toward every human being, no one left out.
The years I worked with those children, middle school students, pre-teens and adolescents who are now moving into their thirties, was the most worthwhile Time of my life - -
- - if somewhere in the mind and Being of one or more of those young adults is a sense of who and what Jesus is, even a compulsion to live as Jesus lived. Because
> Nothing counts with God but ἀγάπη.
> Nothing matters to God, but ἀγάπη.
MY EXPERIMENT.
SO OUR COLLECT AGAIN, AS WE PRAY:
O Lord, you have taught us that without ἀγάπη whatever we do is worth nothing: Send your Holy Spirit, and pour into our hearts your greatest gift,
which is ἀγάπη - -
the true bond of peace and of all virtue;
for without ἀγάπη, whoever lives is accounted dead before you.
+++++++++++++++++
Homiletic endeavor by the Rev Tom Weller in Holy Nativity Episcopal Church on 20 February 2022, the Seventh Sunday of Epiphany. Text as above, Luke 6:27-38.
Pics lifted online, from the film The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. [The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a 2005 fantasy film co-written and directed by Andrew Adamson, based on C S Lewis' 1950 novel The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,]