May 3, 2009
I John 3:11-24

Rev. Dr. David A. Davis

“Beginner's Love”

Cover your mouth. Wash your hands. Cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze. Wash your hands in warm water, long enough to say the alphabet or sing “Happy Birthday” twice. Cover your mouth. Wash your hands. You and I have been hearing that, reading it a lot lately. Public health officials, the President, the school principal might have been the last folks to say it to you, but they certainly weren’t the first to say it, way back when, back in the beginning.
            If you stop by any Little League field some evening this week, you are bound to hear things like “keep your eye on the ball”, “keep you head down”, “keep those gloves on the ground”, “whose ready out there”,  “just throw strikes”, “David, the game’s in here, not up there”. The same things have been said around a baseball field forever…the fundamentals, the basics. The same things…from the beginning.
            If you wandered into an Introduction to Latin class now well into the spring semester, do you think they would still be reading “Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres” (All of Gaul is divided into three parts..). If you stopped by the preschool some morning, especially around the birthday celebration of Dr. Seuss, you would still hear “Mr. Brown can moo, can you” and “One Fish, Two Fish” and “I do not like green eggs and ham.” And over at school, in American history, students will still be studying “We hold these truths to be self evident” and “four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty.” It’s what we have been studying since the beginning. 
            At a memorial service last week, one of the speakers quoted some of the family humor and wisdom and lore that came from their father, their grandfather whose life we were celebrating. A bit of a chuckle went through the congregation because families often have those kind of memories. But from where I sat, here, I could see the knowing glance shared among three generations there in the pew. With laughter and tears, they were sharing the beginning, not chronologically but foundationally; that which rests at the very bedrock of the family.  
When our children were infants my playlist of songs to sing when they were in my arms and trying to fall asleep, or trying to stop crying, it was an odd mix of church hymns and college fight songs. Abide with Me On Wisconsin. The Church’s One Foundation. Reah Bucknell. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Fight on State. Just as I Am. 10,000 Men of Harvard. It was an odd mix of beginning tunes. It worked by the way!
            “Jesus Loves me This I know”. That’s from the beginning. “When He cometh, when He cometh, To make up His jewels, All His jewels, precious jewels, His loved and His own.”  That’s a beginning song in our family. Last year a bride and groom selected Psalm 23 to be read at their wedding. Weddings aren’t the normal setting for the Psalm, so I inquired as to why. It was the first scripture the bride had ever learned. The first she can remember. It was from the beginning. First memories. Where it all started. Basics. Foundational. Beginning.
            Beginning. It’s a favorite word of the writer of  I John. The epistle is full of “beginning”. We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of life…. Beloved, I am writing to you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning…Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you will abide in the Son and in the Father…whoever lives sinfully belongs to the devil, since the devil has been a sinner since the beginning….for this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
            Beginning. First. Basic. Foundational. Primary. Earliest memory and building block. Chronology and essence. Doctrine and practice. Faith and works. What we know and how we know. Who we are and whose we are. Beginning. You have heard it from the beginning, that we should love one another... Do not be astonished that the world hates you (when you love)….We know we have passed from death to life because we love one another…We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for another….How can God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother and sister in need and yet refuse to help?.....Love not in word or speech, but in truth and action…believe in the name of God’s Son Jesus Christ and love one another…. From the beginning. The beginning. Beginner’s love.
            Several years ago I received an email from someone I didn’t know. She was an elder in a Presbyterian church hundreds of miles away from here. She was also a parent of a student on the university campus. She was reaching out because she was worried about her daughter. It wasn’t her grades and it wasn’t a crisis, she didn’t think. But things weren’t going well in her varsity sport and she didn’t seem to have many friends, and the mom sensed she was feeling pretty lonely. “I just want her to know someone up there cares”, she wrote. She wrote to the church, remembering the beginning; hoping she could experience the beginning.
            I remember a conversation with a friend of mine way back when this war in Iraq was just getting started. He and I don’t always agree about issues in the church or in politics, or in sports. He’s one of those friends you have where you just intuitively know when its time to change the subject, that the disagreement is not worth the relationship, that being right is less important that being together. He works for the Navy. I was telling him how as a preacher and a prayer, how folks on either side of the war back then weren’t all that pleased with me. Not saying enough, saying too much, hanging on every word in the pastoral prayer. He said to me, “If the church is ever in favor of war, we’re all in trouble. It’s the church.” He was talking about the beginning, reminding me of the beginning.
            A professional football player was describing the importance of the post game prayer that happens out in the middle of the field. Players from both teams meet and take a knee after the game, often for all to see. I’ve often wondered about the display of piety and found myself a bit uncomfortable with it. I’ve participated in my share of locker room prayers that were more motivation than they were devotion. The player pointed out that football is such a violent, often brutal game that doesn’t really bring out one’s best. That to survive, not to mention excel, you sort of have to go to a darker side. The prayer afterwards, he said, helps him to be a better husband, and father, to remember who he really is: a child of God. It was like he was describing a prayer offered on the train, or in the car, on the way home after a brutal day at work. A prayer that helps you to remember the beginning.
            After a long day at work. When a crisis comes. When the economy falters. When you lose you job. When the flu hits. When war breaks out. When genocide is raging. When torture is not a movie. When your child is dying, or your dad doesn’t know you anymore, or your sister just got horrible news…when? How about now, today...Remember the beginning. First. Basic. Foundation. Primary.
Cover your mouth. Wash your hands. Keep your eye on the ball….Love one another. Believe in the name of God’s Son Jesus Christ and love one another….Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your mind and with all of your strength. And love your neighbor as yourself…..Love one another….Forgive not seven times, but seventy times seven….love your enemies….turn the other cheek…..Love one another….I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and your welcomed me. I was naked and you gave me clothing. I was sick and you took care of me. I was in prison and you visited me…..Love one another…..
Yeah, if it were only so easy. The foundation. The fundamentals. The basics. If it were only that easy, beyond the words, I mean. That’s what we always say, and do. That’s sort of how we live, really. It if were only that easy. That’s what has always been said. That’s how it has always been….when it comes to loving one another and praying for your enemies and turning the other cheek and forgiving. That’s how it has always been with the gospel.
So Jesus, he took bread, and he blessed it, and he broke it, and he gave it to them and said…this is my body broken for you.

 

 

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