First Love Church
These podcasts are messages that were preached at First Love Church in Ocala, Florida. We hope that you are encouraged and inspired by what you hear. We are a non denominational, egalitarian church that practices a generous orthodoxy. Find out more about our local congregation online at firstlovechurch.org.
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First Love Church
Beyond Division: Jesus' Radical Call to Mature Love
The most radical teaching of Jesus might be the simplest: "Love your enemies." But what does this look like in practice, especially in our divided world?
Through the metaphor of "God's museum," we're invited to reimagine who belongs in the divine family. Picture walking through galleries displaying Earth's wonders—stones, rain, seas—but mostly photographs of people, including those we struggle to love. This perspective shift challenges us to recognize sacred value in everyone, even those who oppose us.
Jesus didn't just talk about loving enemies—he modeled it by bringing together disciples who would naturally be enemies, like a zealot and a tax collector. When he commands us to "let them bring out the best in you, not the worst," he's offering a revolutionary way to handle opposition. Instead of responding with hatred or indifference, we're called to "respond with the energies of prayer," connecting to love as our power source.
This sermon explores how everyday frustrations (like repeatedly dropping a tape measure) become opportunities to practice this love-centered approach. We can choose between anger at inconveniences or gratitude for the bigger picture. Similarly, we can focus on differences that divide us or the underlying unity that transcends them.
The teaching delves into how tenderness marks spiritual maturity, challenging cultural definitions of strength. Through the practice of communion—patiently waiting as others receive—we physically embody what it means to rejoice in others' blessings. This sacred meal reminds us we belong to God's family where there's enough love for everyone.
Ready to transform how you respond to opposition? Listen now and discover how loving your enemies might be the most powerful spiritual practice available to us today.
This podcast is made possible, thanks to the generosity of our donors. If you would like to support the ongoing work of First Love Church you can donate at https://www.firstlovechurch.org/giving
In the service of LOVE,
Pastors Dennis and Heather Drake
Welcome to the First Love Church podcast. This is a collection of Sunday teachings inspired by the Revised Common Lectionary and recorded weekly in Ocala Florida.
Speaker 2:I invite every person here to take a moment and recognize that we are in the season of Pentecost. Still the 13th Sunday, is that correct? 15th Sunday, okay, I'm not keeping track. So we're in the 15th Sunday of Pentecost, like I've just been corrected, and this is important. It's the third week of creation. Okay, and here's the imagery. Right, I have been.
Speaker 2:I feel like there's some things that I can imagine very clearly and then some instructions that I hear from my dad and my boss and that just doesn't work. But then sometimes the Holy Spirit gives my imagination something very beautiful. Okay, imagine with me. We're in God's museum. Okay, we're getting a chance to, as you go throughout a museum, you get a chance to see the wondrous beauties, the wondrous works that are present. We get a chance to see all the things that he's created, all the things that he values. Some of it has the earth, some of it has the stones, some of it has the rain, the skies, the seas, the creatures in it, but a lot of it is just photos of us. Now I'd like you to imagine you walk through God's beautiful museum and you also see the people that you hate and you might say to yourself they don't belong here, but just take your holy imagination for just a moment and say there is value here for every person. And then you go past that hall and you see a gallery that's just fit for you, all of the beautiful moments that God has captured for you. Amen, so allow your heart.
Speaker 2:The Holy Spirit is described as a fire and a river, and I think those elements are important because they're usually used for purification or they're usually used for smoothening out, because we have some rough edges. I do, and there are still some things that I have to be smoothed over and allow God's softness and caring to be a part of my life and there are some jagged edges. Often we experience jagged edges from being broken. That's often where jagged edges start to take place. Agreed, but what if we allowed ourselves to enter the river of God and that smoothening happens? I don't know if you guys have ever seen photos of the glass beach in California. That's so cool to me that we took something that was just meant to be garbage and now people sought after that area to take pictures, to go see the beauty of God's ocean, washing it over and over and smoothing things over and over. And now we want to see it. We want to see God's redemption in real time. Does that make sense? That's good. That's good. Keep sense. No, I'm out. That was it. This is where God's part gets to come on up.
Speaker 2:So this is a reading, and I'd allow this reading for you today to be like the oceans right To be like the waves of the Holy Spirit getting a chance to soften us up. Amen, watch out.
Speaker 2:Don't do your good deeds publicly to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven. When you give someone in need, don't do it as hypocrites do, blowing trumpets into the synagogues and the streets to call attention to their acts of charity. I tell you the truth they have received all the reward they will ever get. But when you give to someone in need, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. When you pray, don't be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues, where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth that is all the reward they will ever get. But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you Amen.
Speaker 1:We pay attention to these things because it reminds us to ground ourselves. Not just cats or dogs or whatever animals speak to you. I remind you that there are prophets among us in many different ways, some of them animals, some of them birds and trees, but we are together, resounding. Somebody was upset the other day and they were throwing a little tantrum, and it wasn't my tantrum and it wasn't somebody that I was. I was just observing the tantrum and somebody next to them said I would like you to take a drink of water and go outside and stand in the grass. And I thought that is a really good idea for all of us. Sometimes we need a drink of water and to go outside and stand in the grass.
Speaker 1:Over and over again we see God telling people this when they are sure they are the only one. I love Elijah's tantrum where he says I am the only one who is following you, I'm the only one who's doing right and you know I've done all these things for you. And now, look, I'm the only one. And God says how about you go take a nap? I'll send a snack and I want you to know there's over 700 prophets that are also teaching my word. So sometimes we get really short-sighted and God's like, have a snack, go touch some grass, ground yourself, it's all going to be okay.
Speaker 3:And did I mention they were litter box trained? Oh wait, we're on a different subject.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, an animal can speak to you in all kinds of ways, and this is a beautiful, beautiful rescue. Dennis found them in the street at midnight, the middle of a street, and so it is an incredible rescue. Sometimes love looks like that. What do you? What are these two little tiny things doing outside in the middle of the street? I don't know, we could all come up with our own story, you know, but it's tragic. However, it happened there in the street and we cannot just drive by and say I hope it works out for them. We know it's not going to work out for them unless we do something about it.
Speaker 1:And so, beloved, go adopt a cat. That's not what I'm saying. Or adopt a dog, whatever it is. That's not the truth. Whatever, you see a need, what is in my hands to be able to do to be able to relieve this need? Now, you weren't actually asking for cats all the time.
Speaker 1:We have a beautiful dog, luna, who is. She has some prejudice against other animals and we have been working with her for a very long time on this, but we just keep loving her. But she has prejudice against the cats. She does not believe that they belong in the house and they are, in her world, inferior to her, and so, again, we look at this, and one of the reasons we come to church is to learn how to love, and how to love exclusively, and how to love in ways that expand us, and I'm so grateful to be able to be in this moment with you and be able to hear the words of Jesus that remind us. This is why we come so that we can learn how to love, and we can learn how to love well and let's be honest, you're in the presence of of of amazement.
Speaker 3:Did you see how she can turn anything and make it spiritual? Isn't that good? Go ahead and throw out a topic, watch her. Let's not do that.
Speaker 1:Let's not do that although I bet you I could but let's not.
Speaker 2:We're not going to bet and do those kind of things.
Speaker 1:But here's why because everything is sacred, beloved. There is nothing that is not sacred. What is happening is, anytime you give attention to something and recognize the holy, that's how it becomes the sacred we ourselves holy because we are made in the image of God, you are loved and you are made in God's own image. And so the invitation is come back to yourself, your true self, that self that bears the image of Christ. You are loved, beloved just as you are is come back to yourself, your true self, that self that bears the image of Christ. You are loved, beloved just as you are, and you are welcomed in the house of the Lord. I read to you this morning from John's Gospel, and this is a commandment for those of us that have gathered today that say that we're interested in being people who follow the way of Jesus. We believe that Jesus is love, that Jesus is God, and, from the very beginning, god is love. But Jesus says this to us in John, chapter 13,. Now I'm giving you a new commandment love each other, which is fine, good, good, we've all done that, okay, great. Love each other. And then he says this just as I have loved you, well, now that's another story. That's a whole other story. This is this cruciform shape. Love each other the way that Jesus loved us.
Speaker 1:Jesus, who is God with God, leaves heaven, comes to earth. And I remind you, the earth that Jesus was born into was not a great place. The empire was so brutal that, within months of him being born, the empire said all of the babies under the age of two must be slaughtered, because the emperor was so conceited and so full of fear. So he comes into this place where great slaughter I mean crucifixion. Jesus was not the first person to be crucified. Rome crucified people all the time.
Speaker 1:This is the kind of torture and kind of place, and Jesus shows us what it's like to live fully, human and thrive. Jesus said I have come that you would have life and have it to the fullest, and so the way of Jesus is the way of love, beloved. And if you are coming to follow Jesus or if you don't know of him, let us tell you about him. He's beautiful, and to hear the words of love that will inspire us to become the people that we were always meant to be, that we are people who bear the image of our Father. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.
Speaker 3:You know it's really the getting off the couch when someone's in the other room saying I need some help. You know what is it. Can you get somebody else? You sure you need me. You know there's those moments where we just have a choice to be and now giving your life for somebody. That's amazing, but that's a one time deal that you maybe could muster up the strength to do. But I would say that really this is an example of how you're to live love daily.
Speaker 3:You know, not just a one-time thing, that every time you know I have this thing where I think you should wash the tray in the air fryer every time you use it. I don't know if anyone else has an air fryer. I don't want to go, start to cook and pull the drawer out of the air fryer and it be filled with somebody else's sticky stuff. That's my life and I have complained and complained and it does no good. I'm angry, upset. People don't want to hear my yakking Now. I don't think there's little evil people in my house who go. I think I'm going to take that off. I think there's people that are busy and they got stuff to do, so the last thing they think of is the train and the air fire. I'm fixated on the thing. So I decided, instead of yelling and complaining and making myself and others unhappy, I would gladly wash that. So I'm making an announcement now Leave it.
Speaker 3:I notice I point to this area for no specific reason. I'm just going to do it Until I can do it joyfully, until it can really be an act of love for the people that I say that I love. You know, because it's the justification, and there's people that back me. Yeah, you're right, but there's so many, and you're probably one of those angry, clean freaks like me. How about letting that go and letting love rise up in place of that? Now, I know I just crossed the line right there. I took some people off, but this is good stuff, you guys. It's those moments when someone needs your help. I didn't hear you yelling for help from the other room. I didn't want to get up, or I don't want to do these little things, or I've told you once. I've told you this is where you should park, this is where you should. You know all these things. They're opportunities for us to love or they're opportunities for us to choose ourself. That preach right there.
Speaker 1:We talk a lot about things, things of God, things of people and things of love, because beloved love is eternal. It's the only thing that matters. Love matters. But we prayed a prayer this morning. We've been praying a prayer together as the Church of Jesus Christ for over 2,000 years.
Speaker 1:Disciples went to Jesus and said teach us to pray. And he said our father stopped there because he just made us all family. We are family because Jesus makes us family. And then we say this your kingdom come. And I don't know if you know this, but if God's kingdom is coming, that means our kingdom must go. And I know that you want to say I don't have a kingdom Beloved anywhere that you have influence is your kingdom. When you get up in the morning and you plan your day and you feel like this is the way that it should go and no one should interfere with it, that is your kingdom. And when we say I want God's kingdom to come, that means I want love to be in charge of this day. I want love to be in charge of how I respond. I want love to be in charge of how I think and what presence I'm in. And so we go to Matthew's gospel this morning for the text.
Speaker 3:I'd just like to add that you know, because we are in this world and you know, on most situations I'm grateful about gravity. You know I'm sticking to the plan and I'm able to walk around. It's very cool. But yesterday I was working and it was hot outside and I was cutting a bunch of stuff and I can't tell you how many times the tape measure would vicariously get set on my table and it would fall off and it was almost like a comical amount of times that the tape measure fell on the ground Like that, should you know, and part of, and I used to just get so mad I can't believe this freaking tape measure keeps falling. Then I thought well, you know, in most situations I'm grateful for gravity. This is one of those things where I'm not. You know, it's just trying to find its lowest spot to stick to the earth and I'm the one that set it on edge and the universe wasn't out to get me. It didn't create gravity so that I could be mad about tape measures falling.
Speaker 3:It's part of what happens when you work you set things in places and other things knock it over, and if you begin to expect things like aren't always going to go your way. You can relieve a lot of pain in your life Because, you know, for some reason, for years and years, I went to a job expecting everything to go perfect. Now, has that ever happened in the history of me going to work? Zero times Ever. So what if you and I shifted our expectation to? The world isn't out to get me. The devil isn't in every tape measure that I have in my shop.
Speaker 3:Sometimes, if you set something on the edge of a wobbly table out in the grass, it's going to fall down, and I got to tell you that, at 57 years old, the hardest thing I do in a day's time is bend over. That hurts the worst. And so you know what. I probably need to bend over a few more times and bend down and grab that stuff and touch my toes. What Touch my toes? I can't even conceptualize that.
Speaker 3:But what if those become the things that we can accept as just it's okay and not allow myself to give in to anger, curse the inanimate object or yell at? You know, and I'm sure I'm the only one that does this gets disproportionately angry and surrenders over to that side and it feels good for a second. But I realized that that's the example that I set for the people around me, that that's how you should behave. And do you know what happens when I see them act like that behave? And do you know what happens when I see them act like that? I cringe. I don't want that for them, but I sure have presented that as the top choice. When tape measures fall, they get awful quiet in here. I guess I'm just preaching to myself.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about how, if a tape measure falls, what in your life needs to come down as far as the rule of measurement? When can you be grateful for how the day went? When you've measured that its success is exactly as you imagined in the morning, or when you recognize I've been in the presence of love all day? Everywhere I go, I'm in the presence of God Because God is with me. God is in the people that I meet. Matthew, chapter five.
Speaker 1:Jesus said this you're familiar with the written law love your friend and its unwritten companion hate your enemy. And one of the reasons that we come together and we remind ourselves of the words of Jesus is because you already know what the culture is teaching you. The culture is teaching you that you need to find out who agrees with you and who to make an enemy and who to divide yourself from. And Jesus is saying you you need to find out who agrees with you and who to make an enemy and who to divide yourself from. And Jesus is saying you all need to come together. Everybody gets to come together. No one is left out. I remind you of things that we sometimes forget in the way that we tell the story. But Jesus had 12 people that he said I'm going to start with this particular group, and he had among them a zealot and a tax collector. These people were absolutely opposite. They believed absolutely opposite of each other. I'm not sure that Jesus didn't physically have to keep them apart, I don't know that. But I'm just telling you he said I want that kind, I desire that that you would see that there's a different way to live and that in being family, in being the family of the world, that there's another way. You're familiar with the written law love your friend and its unwritten companion, hate your enemy. But I am challenging that and, beloved, I wonder how many things you will allow Jesus to challenge in the way that you live in the world. Will you allow Jesus to challenge in the way that you live in the world? Will you allow Jesus to challenge the way that you think about something? Will you allow Jesus to change that?
Speaker 1:I am telling you love your enemies. I'm so glad that you came to church this morning. I'm glad to be able to share this with you, because shared pain is easier to deal with. Shared pain is easier for us to understand. I've been looking at this verse more than a week now and paying attention to what it's telling us. Jesus said I am telling you love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you. Do people who disagree with you bring out the best in you? I hope so, like that's the hope for all of us. And here's what is the best in us, christ, what?
Speaker 1:is the best in us Love. Love is so beautiful, beloved, and love is the best. Jesus said. Let them bring the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time I love the word when there too, not if it's going to happen beloved. Jesus was also a realist. He understood what it was like to be here. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, Not the energy that is fueled by hatred or indifference. Respond with the energies of prayer, Not the energy that is fueled by hatred or indifference. Respond with the energies of prayer.
Speaker 3:You know, this message right here perhaps is the most important thing that we could possibly preach to you in the climate that we're in right now. And it's so interesting that this message was prepared a couple thousand years ago, because God has known the nature of mankind and it is to divide and it is to pit one another against each other and to foster hatred. And we're in a pivotal time now because it seems, you know, in my lifetime I've only seen a couple of times when things have just risen to such a degree, such an uncomfortable temperature, you know, and there are people that families that are splitting apart over politics and over things that are happening in church. For you and I, for us to know the way to navigate this is through that inner witness of love and peace. You may disagree with everything that comes out of the mouth of someone that you're talking to, but it does not mean that they're your enemy. They are still your brother or your sister and they still deserve respect and love, you know, and the best way for us to avoid the rhetoric is to just change the channel. We don't have to silence the voice, we don't have to wish someone else to never be able to have their opinion because we disagree with it. We can just use that as an opportunity.
Speaker 3:I've always used that as an opportunity to talk to my children. This is why your mother and I don't believe that and we talk about these things openly and they're actually wonderful opportunities. You know, we don't have to be afraid that our families are going to be abducted, that, you know, by this false teaching or whatever we disagree with. But we can still find a place. And I'm telling you, it is so hard for us to call certain people brothers and certain people sisters, but the fact is we all have one Father and that unity. It will defeat hatred. It will defeat that separation. It will bring us together. It will transform this world. So we're on the precipice of that change. It will transform this world. So we're on the precipice of that change. But will the church rise up or will we act just like?
Speaker 1:the world, beloved brothers and sisters. Family is all that God has always been about. God created families and one of the things that I love about what Jesus shows us is, even as Jesus is suffering and dying on the cross, in his moment of pain and in his moment of being, the system empire egos of men took someone completely innocent and nailed him to a cross. We took love and we nailed it to the cross. And Jesus said to John, one of his disciples, beloved, here's your mother. Even at the very end of his life, he's making people family. He cares about us coming, and that's why the communion table is so incredible when we come to eat, where we come to be nourished, where we come to be nourished, where we come to be ourselves, where we take off our masks and we allow our hunger to drive us to the table. What do you have need of this morning? It is at the table of the Lord. Do you need belonging? You're here. There's a chair for you. Do you need peace? It's here. Eat the body of Christ for you. This understanding, everything that we need, this incredible mystery, is here at the communion table. But this is the hope for the world, beloved, that we would recognize that we are not separate, but that we are one because of Christ. Jesus said I'm challenging that. I'm telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, beloved.
Speaker 1:Prayer is incredibly powerful. Prayer is not something that we just say and that's a last resort. Prayer is actually this incredible thing that connects us to the source of all power, and that is love. God is love and prayer connects us to that vibration, to that frequency, to that understanding, to that incredible light. God is love and God is with us. For then you are working out of your true selves.
Speaker 1:This is what Jesus said Loving your enemy and responding in this place of response only through the energy of prayer is your true self. This means that ego and the false self and all the things that we create in order to put them in front of someone, to make them think that we're better than we are or that we have more to offer than we do. And this is what the scripture says. Your God-created selves. Just be aware of that this morning. You are beloved. You have a God-created self that is holy, that is perfect and that is wanted. And this is what God does. He gives his best, the sun to warm and the rain to nourish to everyone, regardless the good and the bad, the nice and the nasty. When we respond in love Now, does responding in love mean that you allow people to harm you or to harm your neighbors Beloved?
Speaker 1:No, Love responds in ways that are gentle, but in ways that are firm, in ways that say you cannot harm, you cannot do these things. But there is this energy of prayer that comes with a connection to God at all times. We pause here for a moment to thank you for joining us today. If you're finding this episode meaningful, would you take a moment to share it with a friend? This podcast is made possible thanks to the generosity of people just like you. If you would like to support the ongoing work of First Love Church and the continued work of our podcast, visit us online at firstlovechurchorg, reminding you to like, follow and subscribe.
Speaker 3:Prayer for us many times is like the mantras, the thing that you have to say but where's the spot in your day and in your life for just being quiet and listening, you know, and just hearing, because that's that's prayer. Uh, we, we sometimes have just made it like our request list, but you know, there's valuable things that we need to know. I'll tell you a real painful situation in my life. Years ago I was fired, uh, for at a church and uh, I, I, um. Later, the very pastor that fired me came to me and he literally apologized. He said I don't know why I did that. That was, that was wrong. But what happened was, uh, I got a call to come to a mandatory meeting on thursday morning and it was wednesday, and so heather was like I wonder what the meeting's about? And, uh and I, I really didn't even go into any deep prayer or whatever. But the Lord said they're going to fire you tomorrow. And I said, heather, I feel like they're going to fire me tomorrow. She said why would you say that? I said I don't know. I just feel like the Lord put that in my heart that I'll be fired. She goes there's no way, there's been no warning, there's no, nothing. And the meeting they invited me and I said, well, you better come along. And I said, because you're going to ask me what happened in the meeting and I'm a man, so I'm going to go, I don't know. They fired me and she's going to go. Well, what did they say? So I said you better be there because you're going to ask a lot of questions and so, sure enough, I get there.
Speaker 3:But then later on in the evening, the Lord, he said to me. He said he said you know, people accuse us all of things, but you know, when you defend yourself, you make the accuser your judge. I didn't realize that until that moment, because people accuse you of stuff and then you go no, no, it's not true. And then they stand in charge and then they rule. And the Lord said you know, if you're accused of anything, I don't want you to respond back because you, you know, as far as I'm concerned, you're innocent. And so I went into that meeting and they said, well, we're going to let you go. And I said, okay, as far as I'm concerned, you're innocent. And so I went into that meeting and they said, well, we're going to have to let you go. I said, okay, I knew that. That's why I brought Heather.
Speaker 3:And they began to say some things and bring up some accusations. But I wanted to because some facts that I could have tweaked. But I was still, maybe for the first time in my life, right and it was because in that quiet place the Lord had spoke to me. And for something so major in my life, I don't know how I would have responded. You know, but when prayer gives you that insight and God wants to give us all, that's not something reserved just for me, that's for each one of us. If we'll be still, god will show you how to handle work the next day, the troubles that you're struggling with. Just be still and wait for that answer.
Speaker 3:And it was so amazing to me that I could have said but no, that's true, but I was still, and it was maybe a year or two later. The pastor asked me for a meeting and he wanted to apologize and I was able to lovingly forgive and authentically forgive. And now I look back on the most painful part of my life is the best thing that ever happened to me, because heather and I might still be in that place that we didn't really fit, trying to serve god in a way that just wasn't quite, or we could be here with our family doing what it is that god gave us to do. You know this prayer. It's not complicated, it's not learning how to speak eloquently and knowing all the right scriptures to back up your claims, but it's authentically going to God as His child and asking, and then being still long enough to hear Amen.
Speaker 1:This season of creation is getting easier, to allow us to be still outside In the summertime, it feels a little like the earth has something against us.
Speaker 2:At least in Florida. It's just an opinion.
Speaker 1:It's just an opinion. I know that that is not true, but these cooler mornings are mornings for gratitude. And if you I just want to remind you, beloved go outside in the morning, like when the dark is just leaving and the sun is just oh, and the birds will testify to you and the grass will again ground you in the fact that you belong. The science behind how incredible it is that each one of us are here. I mean, beloved, you belong. You are here for a purpose. You are here intentionally. You are the light of the world. Jesus said this if all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anyone can do that. How fantastic that you love everyone that is lovable.
Speaker 3:Oh, if we can get that in our hearts. Followers of Christ.
Speaker 1:And if you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? And I love this, because sometimes we do, sometimes we want our bonuses and our medals and Jesus is like no, no, my love, no, any run-of-the-mill sinner does that. If you greet people who greet you, if you acknowledge what is a greeting, a greeting is an acknowledgement that you see God in something, and that's why, beloved, greeting the sun in the morning is a good idea. The rooster that wakes you up, that's a greeting too. Sometimes it's an unwanted greeting, but sometimes maybe, your alarm clock get a different, like not alarm clock, but a different tone. If it irritates you in the morning, get up gently, it's good for all of us.
Speaker 1:Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that. In a word, what I am saying grow up, beloved. This is the word of Christ for you this morning. Grow up, it's the word for me. Grow up, you are kingdom subjects. Our allegiance, beloved, is to Christ and to the kingdom of love. We cannot be like children just deciding to look at someone and saying they're different than me, they're not my friend. Come on, beloved, grow up. Let love be in us. It is small, childlike behavior to look for differences and then try to find commonality. This is the body of Christ, this is the whole world, this is creation. Do you know how many variations flowers come in? Thankfully, amy gave us a good description this morning.
Speaker 1:I mean, every time that she brings them, I'm always so enchanted by the fact that, like okay, not just flowers, what about insects? Do you know how many insects there are in the world? Oh my gosh, each one different. I have trouble sometimes with some of the insects Maybe you don't, but that's a whole classification that I have trouble sometimes with some of the insects Maybe you don't, but that's a whole classification that I don't see a lot of God in and I want to, and so I'm trying to greet them lovingly and I really have a lot of.
Speaker 1:I have familial hate, like my parents told me how to hate bugs. Certain bugs were allowed, certain ones were not. Some bugs I thought were beautiful, like let's talk about this for a hot minute. I have these little earrings on. They're beautiful, they're butterflies. I do not own anything that's a moth. A moth is just like a butterfly beloved. But we've just been taught our culture and paintings and art and stuff has decided this is beautiful, moths are also beautiful. And so there's these ideas.
Speaker 1:I was thinking about this the other day. I was removing something and I called it a weed. And I called it a weed because someone told me that was a weed and people in my family remove those. It doesn't mean it's a weed. We decide how we want to arrange things and then we say some things are welcome and some things are not Beloved. Some weeds are not.
Speaker 1:Those ones that leave those stickers in your feet, sand spurs oh, I think they're from the devil, but that's again. I might need my mind expanded, but I just want to tell you I don't want them in my yard. They can be I'm not saying eradicate them, because I'm sure they serve a purpose, but I don't want them under my feet and I don't want them under the feet of my family. But I am reminding you. There are things that we have like little ideas of how the world should be, what belongs, what doesn't. Give those up.
Speaker 1:Beloved, you're kingdom subjects. Now you belong to God's family and in God's family everyone belongs. In God's family there's enough love for everyone. At God's table there's plenty of food. There is no reason to say someone doesn't come, that there's not enough. There's so much love in God's family. There's so much love in God's, and Jesus is saying this live out your God-created identity Beloved. You are made in the image of God, the image of love. That's who you are. Live it out. Let your enemies be again the verses before it said. Let them experience who you really are you are love. Live generously and graciously toward others.
Speaker 3:You know what Heather's talking about here is you allowing your mind to be changed about things that seem to be very fixed? You know, like your opinion about bugs, I find myself more than not now carrying them outside and putting them outside instead of smashing them. You know, and it's like so, my mind has changed about things, you know, and I want to be open to really the important things. You know, to allow my mind to be changed, and so would you consider that? You know that God wants to do that. I think the greatest thing about being a human being is we have the ability to change our minds. You know, like the dog's still going to be the dog. You know them cats, god bless them. They're still going to be little cats, but you can allow yourself to be transformed.
Speaker 3:I was thinking about that because I have had a habit. I think it was from my family of origin. I have had a habit I think it was from my family of origin but when people ask me how I do, I would scroll to some negative story to tell. Or even someone would say, hey, nice truck. Yeah, well, I had to put a new engine in it. It's always the negative, and I started hearing myself halfway through a story with somebody and hear myself and I'm almost like an outside observer going. You're doing it again. Why are you a follower of Christ, someone who loves God, and you just tell the bad things?
Speaker 1:Make the beautiful of the story and the bad things Make the beautiful the story and bad things keep happening and I honestly went for this intention.
Speaker 3:I'm just not going to tell those stories, even if I'm aggravated on the way here, and that's usually a thing, yeah, on the way here, I can't believe you. And we escalate one another and we bring one another to this kind of a frequency of just frustration. And you know how you could tell a story, and I was talking about this the other day. I was telling Dave a story about something that happened to me and I was right back angry and it happened 20 something years ago maybe. And then I even apologized to Dave at the end of the story because I hurt myself. I'm doing that thing Instead of telling you a beautiful story that brings life.
Speaker 3:How are you doing? You know, oh, I woke up and heard the birds chirping. You know, I got to swim in the pool today. I got to, you know, be with my children. You know, yesterday I got to be with Nathaniel all day and he's busy. He's got a girlfriend, he's got work. I got to spend the day with him and have dinner Isn't that awesome? Or? Nathaniel and I worked yesterday. It was so freaking hot. Oh my God, it was disgusting. I had a hard time getting this tape to go on this thing, it was so aggravating. Or my son and I spent a day together.
Speaker 1:Beloved. This is good word for us. Make what's beautiful the story. You have the choice. Make what's beautiful the story In your own life. You are a storyteller. In fact, jesus was the best storyteller, and Jesus would, over and over again, say things like consider the lilies of the field, look at the birds, look at everything. If your father knows when one of them falls, how much more does he care for you? You are worth more than birds, more than flowers, and so this understanding, this is a choice to live differently, beloved, to live in the realm of the kingdom, to make what is beautiful the story. This is our choice, and the beautiful story is that we are family, that God is family. In fact, in the scriptures it said God is our father and every family on earth is named family under him. So this beautiful thing, we are all brothers and sisters, and some of us are the misbehaving brothers and sisters, and that's okay. You can do that, I guess, or you know, the parents will take care of you, there'll be some consequences, but the invitation is family.
Speaker 1:The invitation is Jesus saying love your enemies. The spirit. This is for us an intentional time. Although it's the 25th Sunday of ordinary time, it is the 15th Sunday of Pentecost and it is the third Sunday and we kind of drill down into what day this is. But remembering this is the life and the spirit God said he's given us his spirit, that we are full of God's spirit, and you know what love is beloved. That is the spirit of God. Love is patient, love is kind, love is kind.
Speaker 1:I have theologians and mystics and people from ancient books and stuff who have inspired me with the life that they live toward Christ and over and over again, I am responded to this invitation to live differently, to live as one of those who understands and who sees with the eye of my heart. And let me tell you what the eye of your heart tells you that the world is full of good, that there is abundance, that the idea that there is difference between us, the idea that sorrow is going to win, no beloved love is going to win. Love always wins, and our attention to living in love is this attention that we can live completely differently. This one particular mystic that I love reminded me of something that I knew. I knew this when I was a tiny, tiny person Tenderness is the mark of maturity.
Speaker 1:Tenderness, not harshness, not hardness, not a hard line. Tenderness is the mark of love's maturing. Jesus beloved was tender, and tender is not mushy and tender is not without spine. Tender just means when the hurt declares its need, love responds to it. We serve a Jesus who is tender toward us, but tenderness is the mark of this. Can we be tender toward someone? And tenderness causes us to be curious toward something.
Speaker 1:Rabbi Joshua Herschel said something along these lines. It's a poor imitation, but it's two lines. When I was young I used to admire people who were strong and powerful. Now that I'm older, I admire those who are gentle. There is a way to live in the world through gentleness, and gentleness is an evidence of God's own spirit. If you see someone with force and domination, that is not love beloved, that means it cannot be God. Love is gentle, love is kind, love is all-powerful. But love does not coerce us, love does not force us. Love is not angry and God is not cruel. Love is God. God is love. Jesus is tender toward us. So our learning how to be tender means that we're learning how to live who we truly are, even toward people who declare us to be enemies. It's okay if someone declares you to be their enemy, but you declare them, maybe, to be a brother or a sister who is far off.
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 1:They just haven't. You know they'll remember. Pray for their amnesia, pray for their illusion, but we are one beloved. Grow up your kingdom subjects, live out your God-given identity, live generously and graciously the way that God lives toward you.
Speaker 3:I want to just maybe piggyback on something Heather said and maybe even tweak the definition a tiny bit when she was talking about you know, we're this family and God is our father, god is also our mother, and that makes a lot of people cringe in the fundamental Christians because their male pastors told them so, you know, and so God is. God is this dude, you know? And God is not gendered and God is revealed, is revealed in mankind, in both male and female, and I find that that rigidness often comes from the masculine you know. And then this kindness that you're talking about is foreign to some men and foreign to the way we've been encouraged to behave and what is really under the realm of what it means to be a man. And of course we understand that that obviously you know, as men we should show feelings towards our children and love. But there still seems to be that disconnect where we're like know, because God's like that. Then we got to be you know and and we don't understand, and we we see that that the masculine part is part of God. I'm not taking away from that, but I'm saying that if we only show one side of that, then we really miss the whole testimony of who God is, and so I find myself being able to learn from my daughter and my wife where I couldn't learn from anywhere else, because that is not naturally trained in me, valued in me by many people, expected by our culture, society and even in the church.
Speaker 3:It's a subject that we often avoid because we don't want to offend anybody and run them off, but it's the truth. I mean, these are all very scriptural things that I'm sharing with you right now, and if we're going to understand, it doesn't mean that a man begins to act like a woman, because that's a whole different thing. Act like who you are, but understand that in God, the nature of God is able to freely manifest in all of us. It doesn't have to be this role that the world told me to play and told a woman to play. God says no, I've broken those boundaries and I want you to love, and part of love is breaking those boundaries.
Speaker 3:Part of being tender is breaking those constructs that were put on us, and even the church is responsible for that, and we need to repent for that and and realize what is good and what is God, and I just, oh, I want to help people understand this, because it is becoming so apparent to me, as I'm quiet and listen to God, that God's like this is a piece of the puzzle you're missing and you've made it okay because the leader said it was okay, or you made it okay because that's all the teaching you've exposed yourself to. But I want you to learn tenderness, so I go out and have to hold little cats on my arms. Learn to become more loving, amen.
Speaker 1:Amen. I remind you that in the beginning, the scripture tells us that God was talking to the community, that is, god, father, son, holy Spirit, to the angels, to whatever other beings were there. And God said let us make man in our own image, mankind, not just man, and so, male and female, he created them. This incredible spectrum of who God is, god, who is all love, is a spectrum, like when he says I am creating light and dark. What a spectrum, because light and dark is also twilight and also dusk and also all of these beautiful things. But the invitation is into more, into more. God, who is our eternal parent, is offering us a way to live live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you, beloved. How does God live toward you If God is angry toward you? Come, get a better story. I'll tell you a beautiful one. I've read it in the scripture and I see it in the life of Jesus. Let the testimony of someone who has seen the beautiful story tell you of who Jesus is and what it would be like to live in love at all times. And this is what Jesus is offering to us. There's another way to live, and this is the power of communion. This is the power of what we do together. In just a moment, we're going to go to the communion table and you're going to wait for somebody. Somebody is going to be in front of you and you are going to wait while they receive something from the Lord. And this is the hope for all of us in this practice that when someone else receives, we will just be joyful about it. We will just receive this mystery, this sacred sacrament that we do together, that we remind ourselves, we retell ourselves this story that I am loved, that the world is loved and that God has a plan. This is the word of Christ. Behold, I am making all things new. You who were once separated and didn't know where you belonged, you belong in God's family. And there is such a hope for us this morning in recognizing and in honoring this portion of our service. This is perhaps the most holy thing that we do together, the most sacred thing that we practice.
Speaker 1:When we practice the taking of the Lord's meal of reminding ourselves, and we bring our whole body and we say I present myself to be nourished, to be fed, to be honored at the table of the Lord and the table of the Lord is love. His banner over us is love. We are feasting at love's table this morning and whatever need you have, it is here because we serve a God who is miraculous, and love is miraculous, beloved. It is able to transform the hardest of hearts. It is able to make the blind eyes see. Love is able to make those that are lame walk. Love is able to raise the dead. Love is all-powerful and God is loving. God is inviting us this morning to love's table. We hope you've enjoyed this week's sermon. If you would like more information about us, visit us online at firstlovechurchorg.
