Meditating on Proper 9: United with Pure Affection

 

Proper 9    

The Sunday closest to July 6

O God, you have taught us to keep all your commandments by loving you and our neighbor: Grant us the grace of your Holy Spirit, that we may be devoted to you with our whole heart, and united to one another with pure affection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the
Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Preface of the Lord's Day

Back in the 1920s (long before even I was born), it wasn’t unusual to be watching a movie and noting that whenever someone bumped into someone else or did something untoward, the protagonist (or some movie extra in the film) would shout, “Hey, what’s the big idea?” They usually said it loudly and obnoxiously, partly to signal irritation, and partially to be picked up by microphones that weren’t all that good when the “talkies” were first being produced. 

That phrase (What’s the big idea?) morphed over time and became less a battle cry and more of an advertiser’s maxim: What’s the Big Idea? In other words, what’s the focus? What’s it all about? How do we summarize what all of these little parts add up to? 

What’s the Big Idea for the church? What’s the Big Idea for you? What’s the Big Idea for creation?

“(Y)ou have taught us to (1) keep all your commandments by (2) loving you and our neighbor.” We might be tempted to stop here and declare: The Big Idea is to love God and our neighbor. That’s not wrong, but neither is it correct, for it is incomplete. Remember how in school it wasn’t enough to have the right answer in a test or homework assignment; we also had to “show our work.” The teacher wants to know, How did you get to that answer? How do I know you didn’t simply copy it off someone else’s test?

So if we are to love God and neighbor – the “apparent” Big Idea – we have to take the next step and show our work. We ask God to fill us with the Holy Spirit SO THAT we can (actually) be devoted to God with our whole heart, AND united to one another with “pure” affection. Ugh! 

I don’t mind letting God have one of my ventricles, but my WHOLE heart? I don’t mind Jesus living in my heart, but he wants the body and brain, too? I don’t mind Jesus forgiving MY sins, but the sins of the WHOLE world, too? Jumpin’ Jehoshaphat! 

So the Big Idea is to do more than speak platitudes with the mouth. It’s to do more than spend an hour each week with like-minded souls getting fired up for the week ahead, or healed up from the week past. The Big Idea is to take God seriously, engaging God totally, and being more than “nice” with people we meet; we’re called to approach them with pure affection.

That may well require more of me than what I’ve got to give, but that’s OK, because the Big Idea assures us that while we may not be able to live this out in our lives under our own steam (of which a lukewarm faith really doesn’t produce much), but under the power and grace of One who can.

It’s not enough that we will “try” to keep God’s commands, and “try” to love God, and “try” to love our neighbor, but we ask God to give us the power to do so. Why?

Because God is devoted thoroughly to us. 

I will note something else, too. I like how the prayer refers to “affection” rather than love. The two are similar, but not identical. Affection affirms an appreciation for another that love may not actually convey. I looked out my window when I heard a strange noise. It was a neighbor lad who rides his powered scooter up and down our street all the time. I do not know him except just to see him scoot by periodically, but my affection towards him is real. He reminds me of when I was his age, riding my bicycle throughout the neighborhoods. So when this young man crashed headlong onto the roadway, several neighbors and I rushed out to see what we could do. 

Not once did anyone think to scold him for riding without a helmet, kneepads, or bubble wrap. One neighbor held him gently, comforting him in his pain. Another got some cool, wet paper towels to stop the bleeding. Another retrieved his scooter from the roadway so it wouldn’t get run over by cars that too often race around the corner. Others loaned him their cellphone so he could call home. Neighbors walked him home when he was ready, and loaded his scooter into his mother’s car when she returned with him to collect it.

Pure affection. Nothing splashy. Just people being kind, gentle, helpful and, when push comes to shove, divine in their response, just as we would expect as God answers these prayers of ours with the grace of God’s holy Spirit. That is the sort of affection that unites us to God and one another. 

 

The PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

A Meditation on a Deviation

"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation (under God), indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." 

I like the Pledge of Allegiance the way it is (preferring it without the “under God” because that wasn’t there in its original form). It’s short, simple, direct, and outlines the most basic fundamentals of what this country is about. I do have some qualms (as a Christian) of pledging my allegiance to either a country or flag because my religion warns me to guard against idolatry, but as long as the nation seeks unity and works for “liberty and justice for all,” I can live with that little bit of heresy.

There is another pledge at work, though, that is at cross purposes with our Pledge of Allegiance. It is antithetical to principles of liberty and justice, and promotes division in place of unity. It goes something like this:

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America (actually, let’s add a blue stripe so white folks who kneel on the necks of brown folks, and who gun down the innocent will know we have their backs),

and to the Republic for which it stands (but really, we mean Republicans and MAGAniacs whereby the only people and states who count have bent the knee to the only person of color they obey (Orange),

one Nation (Oh hell no .. only states – specifically red states, especially gerrymandered red states and the esteemed leader so that “one Nation” really refers to and is embodied by the divinely inspired unitary Executive),

under God (let’s be clear, we mean the right wing God who inspires us to kill all the women, children, and men we count as foreigners or who refuse to bend the knee to the divine esteemed leader),

indivisible (once we get rid of all the riff-raff),

with liberty (to say and do what we (the "right") permit)

and justice (laws enforced on a sliding scale from most justice (by which we mean punishment and death) of the poorest, weakest,  and most colored, to symbolic enforcement toward the measly rich, to complete exoneration of the obscenely rich (by which we mean: what crimes? I don’t see no stinking crimes!)

for all (See, we (the right) DO have a sense of humor).

I guess when it comes to the pledge, I'm going to be an originalist. I have no respect for the orange person's creed. Indeed!

Happy Fourth of July, folks.