Saying the Word Love

Homily for Sunday, May 12, 2024
The Seventh Sunday of Easter
John 17:6-19

My homiletics professor in seminary once said, “Be careful about using the word ‘love’ when you preach.””   My classmates and I looked at each other:  “Isn’t ‘love’ what it’s all about?” we asked?  “How can we preach without using the word‘love?’”  Dr. Hethcock said, “’Love’ means different things to different people. So if you you’re going to use the word ‘love’ in a homily, be sure to define it first.”  I think I get where Dr. Hethcock is coming from, and I concede that he has a point… and I’m not sure I agree.  And I want to get back to the word “love,” but first, J. S. Bach.

Is there any composer quite like Johann Sebastian Bach?  As James once put it after hearing Joshua play:  “There’s Bach, and then there’s everyone else.” And is there any form of music for which Bach is more famous than the fugue, of which he wrote several hundred? The fugue is that form of music that opens with a single melody called the “subject,” which is then “developed” with “answers” and “counter subjects,”and that alternates between “expositions” of the subject and so-called “developmental episodes,” in which the composer plays with motifs from the subjects, answers and counter subjects.  And is there any part of a fugue more exhilarating than that part of the fugue called the “stretto,” usually toward the end, in which multiple iterations of the subject are played and all at the same time?   As one enthusiastic reviewer writes of “stretto:”  “The general effect is excitement, acceleration, fuller realization, a certain sensation of heightened simultaneity with indescribable ecstasy.”

Today’s Gospel lesson comes from an episode of “stretto,” as it were, toward the end of St. John’s Gospel.  In John chapter 17 (from which today’s lesson comes) Jesus prays his so-called “High-Priestly Prayer,” a prayer in which Jesus “plays” multiple iterations of the “subject” of St. John’s Gospel and all at the same time.  But because Dr. Hethcock urged us to be careful about saying the word “love” in a homily, I won’t say that the “subject” of the “fugue” that is St. John’s Gospel is love without first more clearly defining what “love” means.

To better define “love,” it helps to go back, not to the very beginning, but to even before the very beginning.  Which, in the rabbinic tradition, involved God and God’s desire to create the world not so much because God wanted a heaven and an earth with things and people in it, but involved rather God’s desire to create because God wanted a space for… we won’t call it “love” but rather, covenant.  God created the world because God wanted a space in which people could say “yes” to being in relationship with God.  Consistent with God’s desire for covenant,God called Moses to lead his people out of slavery in Egypt not so much out of (we won’t say the word) “love” but out of a desire to be in covenant with God’s people. God spoke to Moses at the burning bush the holy name, “I am,” not so much because of (we won’t say the word) “love” but because God wanted to dwell in covenant with God’s people.  God gave the people the Ten Commandments not so much out of “love,” but out of a desire for covenant.  God gave the people the priesthood not so much out of “love” but because God wanted an ongoing, living covenant with the people.  And God gave the people the Day of Atonement not so much because of (we won’t say the word) “love” but because God wanted the opportunity to renew and re-open this space for covenant, for people to say“yes” to God’s invitation into deeper relationship.

The bold claim John makes in his Gospel is that these acts of (we won’t yet say the word “love” but) [these acts of] covenant are now gathered into and accessible through the person of Jesus. And in Jesus’ “High-Priestly Prayer” in John 17, John composes a “stretto” of (we won’t yet say the word “love” but) [a stretto of] covenant, of these foundational stories of Israel being played all at once and at the same time.  For example:

John writes, “Jesus prayed for his disciples:”  So on the Day of Atonement did Aaron pray for himself and his priestly clan  (Lev 16).

John writes, “I have made your name known…”  So at the burning bush did God to Moses make God’s name known

“The words that you gave to me, I have given to them,” John writes. So did Moses, standing between the Lord and the people, give the Ten Commandments to the people (Deut 5:5).

“While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me:” So did Aaron and his sons, when they blessed Israel, “put God’s name on the Israelites” (Num 6:27).

“And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth,” John writes.  So did Aaron and his sons for the Day of Atonement sanctify themselves so that they could perform the rites in“truth.”  

The list could go on….  

Jesus’ “High-Priestly Prayer” in John chapter 17 is God’s “stretto” of the “fugue” that is St. John’s Gospel.  A stretto in which God repeats, again and again and in different ways and all at the same time – and I think that I’ve defined the word well enough – [a stretto in which God repeats, again and again and in different ways and all at the same time]:  “I love you. I love you.  I love you.  Will you not love me in return and be my beloved people, whom I might send into the world to help me draw all people to myself?”  

Many speak of next Sunday, Pentecost,as being the “birthday of the Church."  Some point to today’s Gospel and Jesus’ “High-Priestly Prayer” as being the“birthday” of the Church.  For here, in this rich “stretto” of the “subject” of St. John’s Gospel – which is covenant,which is love – Jesus gathers into himself the entirety of the Torah and the Old Testament, indeed, the entirety of God’s self, which is love, and invites us into relationship.  

St. Augustine once wrote that the Eucharist in its symbols of bread and wine gathers up the entirety of the Old Testament.  The Eucharist, too, is a “stretto,” as it were, of God’s covenant made with us at our Baptism.  I pray that as we receive the Eucharist today,we may be reminded of our covenant with God:  that we (along with those first disciples) belong to God, that we are protected in his name, that he wishes for his joy may be made complete in ourselves, that Christ is sanctifying us in truth, and that we are being sent into the world by a God who loves us.  Who loves, loves, LOVES us!  And who hopes that we will love him in return.  

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