"Love Wins"- A Communion Meditation

Once again we find ourselves invited to the Lord’s Table.

This happens each month in most of our United Methodist churches, regardless of where we have been, what we have done, what we have left undone, whether we have won great battles or suffered a great defeat. 

There is an invitation to the Table.

Some Communion Sunday’s we can reflect back on a great month. A month of blessings and goodness. A month of joy. Promotions, financial success, food to eat and clothes to wear, peaceful relationships, well behaved children, a well behaved spouse, no arguments, just bliss.

 And we are invited to the Table.

Some Communion Sunday’s we can reflect back on a month we would rather forget. A month that has been plagued with death, loss of loved ones, financial struggles, holes in shoes and no money to buy new ones, fights and dissention among family members and friends, relationships perhaps broken beyond repair, sleepness nights and restless days. A month of more questions than answers, a month of change when we need stability. 

And we are invited to the Table.

Some today have felt the painful sting of death in their family through loss and separation this week. Some today have lost loved ones months, or year ago, and that lonliness is still as sharp today as it was on that first day.

Over the last two weeks we have seen a young man walk into a SC church and open fire taking the lives of 9 of our brothers and sisters. Churches have been burned, both here in the US and abroad. People have fought over flags and if the roof of the General Lee is a sign of bigotry and hate. Same sex marriages have been legalized in every state in the country. Some people are scared, some people are celebrating, some people are mad, and some people are indifferent.

And the courts “definition” of marriage seems to have stirred more people  than anything I have seen in my lifetime. People are fired up on both sides, the lines have been drawn by some, some say there is no middle ground. This one focus is the primary agenda. 

And this is a big deal, and a big concern for people of faith.

21,000 children die each day around the world, many from preventable diseases and unnecessary wars. That’s about 1 child every 4 seconds. 

This is a big deal for people of faith.

1.2 million abortions per year, about 120 per hour. 

This is a big deal for people of faith.

700,000 people from the United States will be taken and sold in the sex trafficking industry this year. 50% of them will be children, with the average age 11-14 years old. Internationally the total of victims will be somewhere about 3 million people. 

This is a big deal for people of faith.

Last year 41,000 took their own lives in suicide. That’s about 112 people per day. 

This is a big deal for people of faith.

45 million people in the United States live below the poverty line, with TN having the 4^th highest poverty rate in the nation. 

This is a big deal for people of faith.

And, yet, we are still invited to the Table.

An invitation that provides unity, if we will allow it. An invitation that provides peace, if we will allow it. An invitation that offers grace and forgiveness, if we will accept it.

This month we celebrated the freedom of our nation. And many people celebrated this freedom with fireworks, funnel cake, BBQ, and beer. It has been a national holiday to remember our freedom. In this country, it seems, we can do what we want to do, and be who we want to be. 

One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 

But we don’t really feel like one nation. We don’t really feel like we can’t be divided. In truth, we are a divided people. Divided by opinions, divided by beliefs, divided by status and economics, divided by right and wrong, divided by holy and sin.

Every single one of us is a mix of sinner and saint, of struggle and victory, of lost and found, of broken and redeemed.  

And so there is an invitation to the Table.

Micah 6:8 says "He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

God has shown us what is good. 

In the grandor of a sunrise, and the artistic paintbrush effect of a sunset. In the touch of a loved one, in the tranquility of a sleeping child. In food on the table and clothes in the closet. When we have much, and we have little, God has shown us what is good. In his perfect goodness he walked this earth, taught us how to live and love, healed diseases, mended relationships, offered freedom, and gave us life. God showed us goodness through Jesus.

And so there is an invitation to the Table. 

An invitation to seek justice.

An invitation to love mercy. 

An invitation to walk humbly with our God.

I didn’t tell you global and national statistics to bring more fear into our lives. I didn’t tell you those statistics so that we are filled with doom and gloom. I didn’t tell you those statistics so that we have a Chicken Little attitude that the Sky is falling and the end is near. 

I told you those so that we have in perspective there is much work to do. I told you those statistics so that we understand the workers are few. I told you those statistics so that we can begin moving from hearing these statistics as just numbers and begin seeing these statistics as people, as people that Jesus came for, as people that Jesus died for, and as people that Jesus is calling. Just like he called me, and just like he called you.

I have seen some people proudly display “Love Wins” logos, and I have seen some people disgusted by the implication they think that portrays. But let me tell you something. Regardless of the sentiment behind the statement, there is no statement more true. 

Yes, love wins. 

Yes, love has won.

Love won when Jesus hung on the cross and said “Father forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing.”

Love won when we Jesus looked at a man on another cross, receiving the judgement and penalty for his actions that he deserved and Jesus said “today, you will be with me in paradise”.

Love won when, on the 3^rd day, Jesus rose from the dead as he had promised so that we would never experience death as separation, but so that we as his disciples, as his children, will experience everlasting life.

Love won when the gift of the Holy Spirit descended upon early believers on the Day of Pentecost, and that same Spirit is given to dwell in each of us.

Love won when we were baptized and the seal of God was placed on our lives.

And love had already won when Jesus spoke about bread as his body, and spoke about wine as his blood, that would be offered in the greatest single act of love in all history. 

So yes, love has won.

And so there is an invitation to the Table.

An invitation to each us to live a life worthy of the calling we have received, to be completely humble and gentle, to be patient, bearing with one another in love, to make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace, because there is 1 body and 1 Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called, 1 Lord, 1 faith, 1 baptism, 1 God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

And through this invitation we can receive the faith, hope, and love that is offered, and the greatest of these is Love. 

So, yes, Love has won. 

But not human love. Rather, the lavish and fierce and unrelenting pursuing holy and perfect love of God for each and every one of us, here and everywhere, now and forever. And that's possible because Love Won.