I don’t know about you, but for me,
this is a dark time of year. Literally: I didn’t see the sun at all yesterday.
But more than that, it’s a dark time in my soul. I don’t want to get too
melodramatic on you, but the end of fall semester is always the worst time of
the year for me. It’s cold and dark and all I want is tea and blankets and
pajamas and I have all this stuff to do that requires not-pajamas.
Actually, that's a lie:
I do know about you: I talk to you, and I’m friends with a lot of you on Facebook
and I know what kind of mood this group is in:
ALI HENDERSON: December 3, 10:26
am:
“Let's take bets on how long it will take to
write this 10 page paper, because I have 23 hours left to get it done.”
SARAH DAVIS: December 6, 11:00 pm:
“Current
Mood: Face plant Cat.”
ANDREW HARRISON COX: December 6, 4:00 pm
“Study Tip:
Stand Up. Stretch. Take a Walk. Go to the Airport. Get on a Plane. Never Return.”
ELIZABETH REID: December 2, 12:16 pm:
“On the
second week of Christmas, my teachers gave to me: 5 all nighters, 4 hours of
crying, 3 mental breakdowns, 2
thoughts of dropout, and a month of anxiety.”
Are you feeling overwhelmed? I am. And so are you. You are
feeling stressed, out of control, you are juggling work and school and extracurriculars
and choir concerts and job interviews and interviews for grad school programs.
You are freaking out about your future and your finals and maybe even about
going home for break (don’t think we don’t know that home is not always a warm
and relaxing place for you). You’re worried about decisions to be made and
presents to buy for roommates and passing your final exams and where you’re
going to live next semester and who you’re going to live with.
Even more, you have friends who are feeling stressed and
overwhelmed, maybe with all of these things, but maybe with bigger things, too,
things so big that you don’t understand them and you can’t talk about them and
all you can do is sit in silence with them in their pain and cry.
The world we live in is overwhelmed, too. People are mourning
the deaths of their children—of our children—of Tamir Rice and Michael Brown
and Eric Garner. Of Peter Kassig, who was 26 years old when ISIS beheaded him.
We are rebuilding in Gaza, after weeks of bombing left families without homes.
We are fighting in west Africa, trying to get on top of this massively
contagious disease that is killing entire villages of people.
We are overwhelmed. Our friends are overwhelmed and the world
we live in is overwhelmed.
And despite that, despite all these things….you have come
here. You could be anywhere else, doing any number of urgent things that must
be done and you decided to come to church this morning.
That says something about you.
Maybe it means that you, like me, were raised in a family
that only skipped church if you were bleeding or throwing up and neither of those things were true about you this morning so here you are.
Maybe it means that your roommate was too loud this morning
and once you were awake, you decided to make the best of a bad situation.
Or maybe. Maybe it means that you came to church not despite
the fact that you were feeling overwhelmed and out of control, but because you
were feeling overwhelmed and out of control. Maybe you came here because this is the place you go
when you need… something. Help? Companionship? Love?
As we’ve gone through 1 John, we’ve had this idea of love
kind of bashed into our heads and you’re going to get it one more time:
“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God;
everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not
know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed to us in this way: God sent
his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love
not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning
sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to
love one another....God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God and God
abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have
boldness on the day of judgment because as he is so are we in this world. There
is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with
punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love
because he first loved us. Those who say, “I love God” and hate their brothers
or sisters are liars for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they
have seen cannot love God, whom they have not seen. The commandment we have
from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters
also" (1 Jn 4.7-21).
The author goes on to say a little later: “Anyone who hates
her brother or sister cannot love God; how can you love the parent without
loving the child?”
We have been adopted into the family of God through Jesus’
death. God is our father; you are my sisters and brothers.
Love one another.
Love is not a feeling, but a response: God sent his son to
die. Love one another like that.
Invest in one another.
Take care of each other.
Help each other.
Ask how you can help, don’t wait to be asked.
Pray for each other.
Ask about that, too.
Feed each other.
Hug each other.
Support each other.
Love one another.
If you don’t, who will?
When I look at the world, I am overwhelmed by their
overwhelmedness. Forget the world. When
I look at this group, I see a group of people who are struggling. I know your
struggles, I know your insecurities, I know your concerns. I feel them too! and
I am here to tell you that the love you show each other will drive out that
darkness.
