Lent Midweek Series, Week Two

So, here's the second from this year's Lenten midweek series where I sing a song that belongs more on the radio than in church, and publish the lyrics to the song and a reflection for people to read. If you want more background, see this post.

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Week Two (February 28) the song I sang was What It's Like by Everlast
     * Fair Warning ... there's some potentially offensive language in this song

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Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” Then the Pharisees said to him, “You are testifying on your own behalf; your testimony is not valid.” Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid because I know where I have come from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. You judge by human standards; I judge no one. Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is valid; for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. In your law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is valid. I testify on my own behalf, and the Father who sent me testifies on my behalf.” Then they said to him, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” He spoke these words while he was teaching in the treasury of the temple, but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.

     - John 8:12-20

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Someone told me a long time ago that a person never knows what happens behind the door to someone else’s house. They can invite me over, I can spend time there, I can get to know one of more of the people pretty well - but, since I don’t live there, I can never actually know what goes on when only the people who live in that household are home. We don’t really ever know the full truth about someone else.

Here’s the thing. Consider your life. Consider all the parts of your life that are complicated, or complex. Consider how your family of origin influences the way you currently move through the world, how you currently exist within your own household. Consider that there’s a lot more going on in your own heart and head than what you share with most people. If there are other people in your household, consider that even though you might know them better than anyone else in the world does, you don’t actually know everything that goes on in their heart or their head.

No matter who you meet, who you know, or who you see on the street, the truth is that you don’t know everything about that person. You likely don’t know all of their current story, let alone their back story.

For instance, there are three characters in this song. You have no idea why the first guy is begging outside the liquor store. Maybe he’s mentally ill and isn’t capable of holding down a job or maintaining a home; maybe he had cancer and his insurance wasn’t adequate, so the chemo bankrupted him and he’s living on the street because he lost his apartment; maybe his parents kicked him out of the house after not ever teaching him any life skills, so he’s doing the only thing he knows how to do.

As Jesus reminds us, it’s not our place to judge. All the people around the woman caught in adultery judged her, but Jesus did not. Jesus treats her with love and respect.

What if we, too, treated every person we encounter with love and respect?

Every person we meet is struggling with something. Most people also find ways and things to celebrate. And most people are hopeful about something that they’re working on, or that they’re anticipating.

That’s probably true for you, and is probably true for the people around you, too.

Actually, if you’re in the Holy Love sanctuary during Lent, 2018, take a look at the East wall. Strung across the top of the wall is a green cord. Hanging from the green cord are knotted cords in orange and blue/green and black. The knot represent things which people at Holy Love are praying for or about - orange for celebrations, blue/green for hope, black for sorrow. You don’t know what most of those are about, but you can see that there are a lot of knots.

Those knots not only represent prayers - in many ways they represent people’s lives.

So, perhaps this Lent, we fast from judgement - and take on as a Lenten practice the discipline of loving our neighbor. Because, as we know, we love because God first loves us. To follow Jesus, the light of the world, is to pursue the love that Jesus embodies.

Because the love of God in Christ Jesus does indeed call us beyond ourselves to pay attention to, and to love, our neighbor. Surprisingly, it is in giving ourselves away that we receive fulfilment.