Michael Curry, the most reverend
of the American Episcopal Church, successfully led a historic sermon at the
royal wedding between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the duke and duchess of
Sussex.
Curry, who became the first black
presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in America, an equivalent of the
Church of England, and a part of the Anglican communion, also became the first
black Bishop to address a British royal wedding.
The bishop, who spoke on the
power of love, successfully captured the hearts of millions of people following
the royal wedding from across the world.
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Set me as a seal upon your heart,
as a seal upon your arm;
for love is strong as death,
passion fierce as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
a raging flame.
Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can floods drown it.
SONG OF SONGS 8:6-7
I.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once
said: “We must discover the power of love, the redemptive power of love. And
when we discover that, we will be able to make of this old world a new world.
Love is the only way.”
There’s power in love. Do not
underestimate it. Anyone who has ever fallen in love, knows what I mean.
But think about love in any form
or experience of it. It actually feels good to be loved, and to express love.
There is something right about it. And there’s a reason.
An old medieval poem says it:
“Where true love is found, God himself is there.”
The Bible, 1 John 4 says it this
way:
“Beloved, let us love one another
because love is from God;
Everyone who loves is born of God.
Whoever does not love does not
know God
For God is love.” (1John 4:4-8)
There’s power in love. Love can
help and heal when nothing else can. Love can lift up and liberate for living
when nothing else will.
And the love that brings two
people together is the same love that can bind them together, Whether on
mountaintops of happiness and through valleys of hardship.
Love is strong as death
It’s flashes are flashes of fire.
Many waters cannot quench love
Love can see you through! There’s
power in love.
II
But the love of which we speak is
not only for couples getting married or just for interpersonal relationships.
Jesus of Nazareth taught us that
the way of love is the way to a real relationship with the God who created all
of us, and the way to true relationship with each other as children of that one
God, as brothers and sisters in God’s human family.
One scholar said it this way:
“Jesus had founded the most revolutionary movement in human history: a movement
built on the unconditional love of God for the world and the mandate to live
that love.” (Charles Marsh’s The Beloved Community)
And in so doing, to change lives
and the world itself! That’s power, real power, to change the world.
An old spiritual may suggest why:
“If you cannot preach like Peter,
And you cannot pray like Paul,
You can tell the love of Jesus,
How he died to save us all
There is a balm in Gilead.
This way of love is the way of
life.
He died to save us all, he didn’t
die for anything he can get out of it
Jesus did not get an honourary
doctorate for dying
He wasn’t getting anything out of
it. He gave up his life
He sacrificed His life for the
good of others
For the wellbeing of the world,
for us. That is what love is.
To make the wounded whole
There is a balm in Gilead
To heal the sin-sick soul”
Love is not jealous, rude, or
boastful. Love does not insist on its own way. Love is unselfish, sacrificial,
kind and just. Love seeks the good and the well-being of the other. Love makes
room and space for the other to be. (See 1 Corinthians 13:4-7)
This love, this is the way of
Jesus. And it’s game changer.
Imagine our homes and families
when this way of love is the way.
Imagine our neighborhoods and
communities when love is the way.
Imagine our governments and
countries when love is the way.
Imagine business and commerce
when this love is the way.
Imagine our world when love is
the way.
No child would go to bed hungry
in such a world as that
Poverty would become history in
such a world as that.
The earth would be as a sanctuary
in such a world as that.
We would treat one another as
children of God, regardless of differences.
We would learn how to lay our
swords and shields down by the riverside to study war no more.
There would be a new heaven, a
new earth, a new world. A new and beautiful human family.
The very dream of God
Love is strong as death
It’s flashes are flashes of fire.
Many waters cannot quench love
III
The late French Jesuit, Pierre
Teilhard de Chardin, was at once a scientist, a Roman Catholic priest, a
theologian, a true mystic. His was one of the great minds and spirits of the
20th century.
He suggested that the discovery
and harnessing of fire was one of the great technological discoveries of human
history.
Fire made it possible to cook
food, thereby reducing the spread of disease.
Fire made it possible to stay
warm in cold climates, thereby marking human migration possible.
Fire made the Bronze Age, the
Iron Age, the Industrial Revolution possible.
If you drove here this morning,
you did so in part because of harnessed fire. I flew here from the U.S. due to
controlled burn of fire.
Fire is involved in broadcasting
this wedding around the world.
And we can text, tweet, email,
and otherwise socially engage one another due to fire.
Fire was one of the great
technological discoveries of humanity.
In light of this, de Chardin said
that if human beings ever harness the energies of love, then for the second
time in the history of the world, we will have discovered fire. Love is the
very fire and energy of real life!
Dr. King was right: “We must
discover the power of love,
he redemptive power of love.
And when we discover that,
we will be able to make of this
old world
a new world.
Love is the only way.”
My brother, my sister,
God love you, God bless you.
My brothers, my sisters,
God love you, God bless you.
And may God hold us all In those
almighty hands of love.
Amen
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