The Ties That Bind Us
- Abby Peel
- Sep 25, 2024
- 4 min read
John 14
May 5, 2002
As we come to the Lord’s Table today, we certainly are diverse aren’t we?
We’re diverse racially, culturally, educationally and socially. We are male and female. We are straight and we are gay.
We are diverse politically…of course, my party is the right party. My party really wants what’s best for the country…not that other party.
So we’re diverse, we’re different as we come to the Lord’s Table today, but we are so alike. We have so many ties that bind us together.
As I was preparing this meditation for today, I was thinking about how we are so much alike in our Joys and Sorrows.
Two weeks ago we had a child dedication service here on Sunday morning. Little Nick Grande was dedicated. He wore the same little white dress that his father Joe wore when he was baptized as an infant.
Of course Nick’s dad Joe was here, and his mother Chris, and the grandparents were a part of the service including Chris’s dad George Williamson who offered a prayer of dedication for his little grandson. It was a beautiful dynamic prayer, and the thing I sensed the most in George was this huge sense of joy he was feeling.
And we could sense it in the other grandparents, and of course in Joe and Chris…and didn’t most of us feel that joy as we witnessed again the miracle of new life and the beauty of human love.
As we come to the table today our Joys bind us together.
And as we come to the table our Sorrows connect us don’ t they?
We are no strangers to sadness.
Virtually each one of us here knows what it means to be bitterly disappointed.
Virtually each on us here knows what loss is…the loss of a dream…the loss of a relationship…the death of someone we loved deeply.
I was raised in Texas by a mom and dad who didn’t show much emotion on the outside. Don’t get me wrong…they were very loving people.
They are gone now and I still give thanks for them and their love almost everyday of my life.
But they were sort of reserved.
And in my home, I guess I was taught that big boys don’ t cry. To this day, it’s very difficult for me to cry on the outside.
But I know what it means to cry down deep.
Most of us do…and if we didn’t know before September 11, we know now don’t we?
We know what sadness and sorrow are.
It’s one of the bonds that unite us as we come to the table today.
And of course there are other ties that bind us.
We are bound by the belief that the Arizona Diamondbacks are the best team in baseball aren’t we?
We’re not?
And we’re all bound by the belief that our country needs a good talk show host aren’t we?
And who would be better than….Bill Clinton?
We’re not?
This is called comic relief in the midst of a serious meditation.
Back to my meditation.
In closing, the thing I want to mention comes to us in our scripture lesson today in the gospel of John. Please look at the scripture with me now…(insert in your bulletin)
Notice the verse which says…You know him because he abides with you and he will be in you.
(John 14:17b)
In other words God’s spirit is within us.
I don’t know about you but I don’t know anything much more mind boggling than this…that the spirit of living God who moved on the face of the waters in creation….the spirit of God who moved in the tomb of Jesus…the spirit of God who empowered the early church to do the impossible…lives within our human, limited bodies and souls.
And let’s remember something else about God’s spirit.
One of the essential parts of the spirit is pure love.
So what I’m saying is that if the Spirit is within us, then Pure Love is within us too.
As we come to the table today, we are bound together by this pure love.
I can just imagine what some of you might be thinking right now.
That’s great…the Reverend is up there doing what reverends do…he’s talking about some kind of pure, unsullied and untarnished love which is supposed to be within us and which we are supposed to be passing on to each other.
But Reverend, by the time the love within us gets to those around us, it sure isn’t very pure. In fact sometimes it doesn’t look like love at all.
If any of you are thinking this way, I guess to a certain extint, I would have to agree with you.
The spirit’s love which is within us, gets so cloudy.
We are very different from each other so the love gets clouded by our fear of each other.
Inevitably we hurt each other, so the love gets clouded with hurt and anger and resentment.
Our values are so similar, but some are definitely different, so the love gets clouded with judgementalism.
But God’s pure love is still there friends…and we know it…and it connects us…it binds us together….and we know that we are inextricably joined.
(My library…I horde it)
Blessed be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love. The fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above.
And the people said….AMEN
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