Love All: A Reflection for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

Tomorrow morning, I will be preaching at Denise’s home church, Central Presbyterian Church in Mobile, Alabama. Central has a storied history that includes a pastor marching for Civil Rights and having half the congregation (500 members) leave overnight. Central has continued to be a witness in Midtown Mobile to the love, justice, and mercy of God that the Prophet Micah calls us to be in Chapter six, verse eight:

He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
   and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
   and to walk humbly with your God?

When Denise and I first met, Central’s vision was Love God, Love Neighbor, Live Like Jesus. Over time the vision has transformed into a very simple, yet profound statement—Love All.

How does Central do this? In part, they have an artist’s consortium renting otherwise empty space for their studios. They also house the administrative offices and Day Center of a program called Family Promise of Coastal Alabama which helps families facing housing insecurity. 

Central (known in the community as the church with the turquois doors on the corner of Dauphin and Ann) also runs the largest food pantry in Mobile County that serves hundreds of families who experience food insecurity each week. 

All of this outreach activity is supported by a congregation of 53 members (as of 12/31/2022) along with a significant number of folks who aren’t “members” of the church in the denomination’s definition of membership, but are friends, supporters, and thus, family of the church on the corner of Dauphin and Ann streets in Mobile.

Tomorrow’s Gospel reading from Mark 1:21-28 tells the story of Jesus teaching in the synagogue and casting an unclean spirit out of a man who was in the synagogue. One of the things that is notable is the response of the worshippers. They were astounded and said that he taught as one having authority, not as the scribes. (Mark 1:22) Immediately following that, Jesus cast out an unclean (read demonic) spirit from a man in the synagogue. The unclean spirit recognized and named Jesus as the “Holy One of God.” 

I find it intriguing that it was the unclean spirit who named Jesus as more than simply a teacher or even a prophet. The crowd at the synagogue was curious, intrigued, and impressed. As a result of that, Jesus’ fame spread throughout the region of Galilee. Was he famous because he cast out the unclean spirit? Was he famous because of the authority with which he taught?

I firmly believe that it was the way in which he not only taught about the Law and following God, but how he lived what he taught and believed in. This makes me think of the song we sang at church camp and vacation Bible school when I was young. “They will know we are Christians by our Love!”

When Jesus was asked what the most important commandment in the law was by the Pharisees, this was his answer: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.’ (Matthew 22:37-40) Love was Jesus’ command and, I believe, his mission here on earth. He was called to teach love, to share love, and even to show that love in the face of the horrific treatment he would face at the hands of the religious authorities and the Empire. 

Love was the final answer. Yes, that even means loving your enemies. This is a lesson that I have to learn over and over and over again. In this day and age, hatred, fear, and division seem to grab the most headlines. Any acts of love seem to be relegated to the back pages or buried in other sections of the newspaper or online. My mentor and friend, Thomas Merton wrote about such a love in the preface to the Vietnamese edition of his book, No Man Is an Island.

We must believe in the power of love. We must recognize that our being itself is grounded in love; that is to say, that we come into being because we are loved and because we are meant to love others. The failure to do believe this and to live accordingly creates instead a deep mistrust, a suspicion of others, a hatred of others, a failure to love. When a man attempts to live by and for himself alone, he becomes a little “island” of hate, greed, suspicion, fear, desire. Then his whole outlook is falsified. All his judgements are affected by that untruth. In order to recover the true perspective, which is that of love and compassion, he must once again learn, in simplicity, truth, and peace, that “No man is an island.”(Thomas Merton: Essential Writings, p. 116)

I believe that the church on the corner of Dauphin and Ann is doing its best to live out that love which they have experienced throughout the years and which they still experience today. We are not individual islands; we are connected to each other by our Creator who loves us and wants nothing more than for us to love one another and care for each other and for the creation which has been given to us. It has been given to us with a sacred charge… to love, care for, nurture, and share with each other. Then we just might be teaching, living, and leading with the authority based on the love our Creator has given us in order to do as the Prophet Micah said: Do Justice, Love Kindness, and walk Humbly with our God.