With Love

But then with advancing years, sometimes there come changes in chemistry, or blood flow, or whatever, and once more something unwittingly true may be said.

And so it was with Bea, when I or nursing staff or others would come to visit her and pay attention to her, she would say “Oh, I love you.”

And it was never spoken in an off-hand way, but with intensity and feeling.

We know too well how the ailments of declining years can bring out words of meanness and nastiness, so to hear “I love you” in place of that is a gift to everyone in range of Bea's voice.

And it is the true basis of the community in which we live.

It is not just about money, or technology, it is about love.

The story and photo that always sticks in my mind is about a pair of premature twins, just born, who were placed in separate incubators.

The smaller was not doing well and was not expected to survive.

The attending nurse assessed the situation, broke the rules, and placed the twins together in the same incubator.

The stronger twin immediately threw his arm over his twin, whose heart rate began to stabilize, and they both survived.

It was the power of loving, familiar touch.

And so Bea was speaking the true word, sometimes a little more loudly than was really necessary,

but it was what was necessary for her to say.

But now the next question is a little deeper: how is it possible for us to say this, and indeed to live in loving relationships?

Is life anything more than grabbing as fast and as much as you can, as long as you can?

All of the Bible lessons we read this afternoon were pointing a different direction, weren't they?

Isaiah reminds us that we didn't get here by ourselves, that God is the creator:

I have called you by name; you are mine says the Lord.

You are precious in my sight, and I love you.

God could have done something else, but he created and chose us to be his people, to do his will, and to glorify him.

It is a tremendous responsibility, but he has already done the hardest part, and we have the privilege of following through with the plan.

Remember before the Ten Commandments there is first of all God's declaration “I am the Lord your God”.

God has already gone around and staked out the boundaries around us, saying, “I love you so much that I want to protect everything about your life in these ten ways.”

This steadfast love endures forever, we repeated.

And to make sure that we knew this, he sends Jesus, born in the flesh, to live fully the life of the loving servant to us ...who mistrust God's “I love you” and instead want to kill him.

But God is persistent, through all of our misdeeds, frailties, and failings.

The Lord God loves us, and gives us that model of loving to use on each other.

And so Bea's blurting out “I love you” is a wonderful truth which we need to hear more, not less, often!

Whether spoken aloud or not, it needs to be our operating principle.

We can all run down a very long list of things that are wrong in and around us.

There are painful family memories

There are strained current relationships.

There are deadly illnesses afoot.

And then there are all of the national and international messes that have an impact on us as well.

But bigger than all of that is the promise of the Lord Jesus when he said to Bea at Holy Baptism “You are mine, forever; I love you.”

With those words, with that promise, we too can live. Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.