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Sunday, April 27, 2008

John 14:18
Jesus consoled his disciples, "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you."

1 Peter 3:15
In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.


In his prayer Steve thanked God. "You have not left us as orphans."

He's writing his phD dissertation on the writings and working of Bernard Lonergan, a Canadian Catholic theologian. Friday night he asked us, "How does love transform you?" I didn't really think about it very much Friday ... we were too busy with The Real Dirt on Farmer John, a movie at Roger Ebert's film festival in Urbana about a now-organic farmer in northern Illinois who sometimes wears his Dr. Seuss hat riding his tractor up and down the field.

But he asked the same question Saturday night. He really wants to know. Most theologians know already, or so it seems to me. Lonergan, and Steve, are trying to stay out of the grip of their own ideas, perhaps so they themselves can be transformed.

If I know I am loved, what do I do? Peter answers, "Tell others, but tell them with gentleness and respect. Love them as you tell them."

I can sing, "O Lord, you're beautiful" with joy because God said it first: "O Dave, you're beautiful." I might believe that as a baby, but the idea takes some hits as I get into grade school. A little too much competition for who is beauty-fullest. The sing-song tease rings in my red ears, "I got more than you got..."

God doesn't hurry me while I find beauty in the sunrise and the yellow wheat and the harvest moon. He leaves me to my own devices as I grapple with female beauty, wanting to know love, surrendering to lust, looking myself and the mirror and calling it ugly. Sin.

Beauty fades. I don't even respect myself, let alone others. The gentle touch of love becomes a whip. Like Luther I want to whip my sin into submission, myself into someone else. What was God thinking when he made this mess??

God doesn't hurry me. He gives me all my life, all my life with him, and that goes on forever.

Here is something Jeffrey Overstreet, who reviews movies for Christianity Today, wrote about The New World:

Saint John of the Cross wrote that man is like a window through which God is shining. If the window is clean and undefiled, it allows us to see past it, to the light. We hardly notice it at all. And yet, if a man gives evidence of any kind of arrogance or ego and self-interest, then that window becomes noticeable. It is not fulfilling its purpose. It is not merely a vessel for the light.

Malick (director of The New World) is constantly drawing our attention to windows, shafts of sunshine, and the way the trees catch and throw the light.

But as moviegoers, we have been conditioned to give glory to what reflects and takes credit for the light. We love rogues like Captain Smith, the adventurer, the fearless and independent man.

God's love transforms me when I clear up the panes of my life. I can't love you, with gentleness or respect, till I know God's love is forever and always for us both. Till I look in the mirror and see our beauty the way God sees us, so then there is nothing else to prove.

And maybe what I do when I'm loved isn't easy to apprehend, because I'm already in the next moment. I don't think I take much stock or keep much record. I have no idea what I did yesterday. I know God loved me. Me through you. And you through me. The Beatles sang "Goo-goo-ga-joob":

I am he as you are he as you are me And we are all together

Their song descends into breakfast madness and despair. We don't live in the Garden, and we don't merge with one another like we could. God is in no hurry. He gives us all the time we need. His gentleness and respect are never in doubt.

At our wedding in 1979, our friend Don read from a poem. "I am loved. And now I can love you."

Lord, the poetry of your world given so freely to us rushes through my ears. You have made all things new this morning again! Whoosh. You are so good. Thank you.



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