Monday, May 4, 2020
The Rev. Nathaniel Bourne
Where do you see God’s love at work in the world around you?
Jesus said “Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” – John 13:33-35
These words from Jesus are some of the last that he spoke to the disciples. He knows he will not be with them much longer and that they will need to carry on his work in the world. He reminds them of what the heart of that work is – love. It is their job to love one another, to be filled with the love of God, and share it with the world. It is that same love at work in the community of the disciples that we heard about in our reading yesterday: “Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people” (Acts 2:44-46). To be a follower of Jesus is to live out God’s love in community, and to acknowledge the ways we are connected to one another.
Over the last few weeks I have seen the love of God embodied in many different ways. I’ve seen it in the beauty of spring sunrises and the stirrings of life in the natural world. I’ve seen it in the emails, notes, calls, and messages between members of the St. John’s community. I’ve felt in the words of encouragement you all have given the clergy and staff as we have shifted how we do church. God’s love is in this place.
I’ve seen God’s love working in the world in the ways people are seeking to meet the needs of our community and the world. Each week, a small crew of volunteers stand outside Thaxter Hall on Thursday afternoons (almost always in the rain) to give out lunches. Last week Linda McVay told me about how she’s been spending her days making cloth masks to send to the Hopi and Navajo nations, whose communities are some of the hardest hit by the coronavirus. I’ve heard stories of others who’ve been making masks and other PPE to share with their friends, neighbors, healthcare workers, and anyone else who may need them. These acts of love are at the heart of what it means to follow Christ.
God’s love takes so many forms. It’s there in those masks, it’s there in a passing hello and a genuine “how are you?” from someone I pass on the street. It’s in the ways that we, like those first disciples, seek to be a community bound together by our love of God and love of one another. I pray that we will continue to encounter God’s love in the world, that we will be filled by it, and that it will flow through us and out into a world that needs it.
Linda McVay has been making masks for the Navajo and Hopi people of the Chinle community. You can find more information about donating masks here.
Auralie Baird has been making personal protective equipment to share with coworkers, friends, family, and to do her part to address nation-wide shortages.
Olivia Anunziata shares one of her creations.