Have you ever had this happen? You’re singing in church...a praise song to God...and you kind of lose your way because when you close your eyes, you’re not sure what or who you are singing to? Or you say to yourself...not out loud of course...” wait a minute, if God is a great big giant ‘father’ up in the sky then why do I have to sing to him? Doesn’t ‘he’ know that already?”
Well, that has changed for me! I’ve gotten some clarity as to who and what I’m praising when I sing to God. When I sing to God I’m not singing to a great big genie in the sky, I am praising the power of Love, because I believe with all my heart that Love is the one force in this world that can truly break through any obstacle, that can truly transform our world, that can truly transform my life. The object of my faith is not in “a person” but in Love, as portrayed in our scriptures as “sacrificial love”! And so, every Sunday I come to worship to proclaim that. I come to worship because I need to shout that out loud with all of my heart. Sometimes I come to worship and shout and sing about this amazing love because I’ve witnessed this love in my life this past week, breaking down walls and setting the captives free. And sometimes I come to worship to shout and sing about this amazing love because I need to protest this world’s understanding of reality. I need to shout in protest...saying to the world...this is not the way we need to live...that there is as Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 12, “a more excellent way” to live!
This week, Cyndy took me to a couple of Mariner’s baseball games. Cyndy and I are big baseball fans, and we love the Mariners. One of our favorite players this year is Luke Raley. We like to call him “the jolly green giant” in reference to mascot for “Jolly Green Giant” vegetables grown in Minnesota. We love Luke Raley because he does everything with every fiber of his being. When he strikes out...he extends every muscle in his being...and whiffs like he really means it! When he steals a base, he doesn’t tiptoe around, you can hear him coming from miles around! And when he smiles...he lights up the entire stadium! Everything he does is done 110%. Even when he’s playing poorly you can’t help but root for him because he tries so hard!
Here's what Scott Servais, the Mariners manager, says about him, “He’s a throwback and he’s quickly becoming a favorite of many on the coaching staff, just because he’s not afraid (and) he plays the game extremely hard,” Servais said. “One of my favorite things is – when he hits a base hit – is how hard he runs to first base and how he rounds first base, kind of like when you were taught in high school.”
Who doesn’t like Luke Raley? He plays the game of baseball like he loves every stitch of every baseball! And, indeed, that is exactly how we are called to live this “more excellent way” Christ is calling us to live. With every ounce of our being!
One of my favorite authors is John Caputo. His book “On Religion” is a yearly read for me. And one of my favorite quotes from that book is this:
Let us speak then of love. What does it mean to “love” something? If a man asks a woman (I am happy to embrace other permutations of this formula) “do you love me?” and if, after a long and awkward pause and considerable deliberation, she replies with wrinkled brow, “well, up to a certain point, under certain conditions, to a certain extent,” then we can be sure that whatever it is she feels for this poor fellow it is not love and this relationship is not going to work out. For if love is the measure, the only measure of love is love without measure (Augustine again). One of the ideas behind “love” is that it represents a giving without holding back, an “unconditional” commitment, which marks love with a certain excess...If a woman divorces a man because he turned out to be a failure in his profession and just did not measure up to the salary expectations she had for him when they married, if she complains that he did not live up to his end of the “bargain,” well, that is not the sort of till-death-us-do-part, unconditional commitment that is built into marital love and the marital vow. Love is not a bargain, but unconditional giving; it is not an investment, but a commitment come what may. Lovers are people who exceed their duty, who look around for ways to do more than is required of them...If a wife asks a husband to do her a favor, and he declines on the grounds that he is really not duty bound by the strict terms of the marriage contract to do it, that marriage is all over except for the paper work. Rather than rigorously defending their rights, lovers readily put themselves in the wrong and take the blame for the sake of preserving their love. Love, St. Paul said in his stunning hymn to love, is patient, kind, not puffed up or boastful; it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (1 Cor. 13). A world without love is a world governed by rigid contracts and inexorable duties, a world in which—God forbid!—the lawyers run everything. The mark of really loving someone or something is unconditionality and excess, engagement and commitment, fire, and passion. That excess also explains why the worst things can be done in the name of love and why religion, as we will see below, is never far from violence. Its opposite is a mediocre fellow, neither hot nor cold, moderate to the point of mediocrity. Not worth saving. No salt. (Caputo, John. On Religion. Taylor & Francis. Kindle Edition.)
So, what would happen to all of us if our worship service was a time where we practiced this kind of love? Where we sing a song, not with our hands in our pockets and with a mumble, but, instead, as John Wesley, the founder of the UM church instructed: “Sing lustily, and with good courage. Beware of singing as if you were half dead, or half asleep; but lift up your voice with strength.” Maybe if we come to worship ready to pray, sing, and listen the way Luke Raley runs the bases, we might just learn how to carry that spirit over into our everyday lives as we learn to “live a love without limits” and prevent ourselves from become that “mediocre fellow (or gal), neither hot nor cold, moderate to the point of mediocrity. Not worth saving. No Salt.”
Your friend and pastor, ready to sing with "some salt", Brook
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