May 10, 2009:  INFORMATION IS POWER
Acts 8:26-40, 1 John 4:7-21, Psalm 22:25-31
Eileen Parfrey -- Springwater Presbyter

              There is an African proverb that goes, “Not to know is bad; not to wish to know is worse.”  That’s along the lines of “God has no grandchildren, only children,” and is by way of saying, there’s no such thing as generic holiness.  [If she’s going to spend the whole morning giving us pithy phrases, I may as well think about my to-do list!]  But all that philosophy of love stuff in1 John today, all those one-liners, we need something practical if we’re going to understand it.  I’m pretty sure that the God-who-is-love, the source of Love, the one from whom and toward whom all love flows—that God didn’t mean for us to be confused or overwhelmed.  In fact, to make “love” perfectly clear, in the ultimately practical gesture, this God became human so there would be no doubt.  Which means, this God meets us where we’re at, in the specificity and particularity of our here-and-now.  “God does not and cannot meet us where we think we ought to be.”  Very good news, indeed, from a God who has no grandchildren. 
              This is not to say there are no parent types in the life of faith—mentors and guides who help us discern the meaning of our life’s text, just as Philip did for the eunuch in today’s story.  But the irony is, we have access to scripture in more formats (book, Blackberry, Kindle, audio), more translations and paraphrases, more amplified, annotated, illustrated versions than ever in the history of the world, yet doesn’t mean it’s any easier for us today to establish its significance to our lives than it was 2,000 years ago in a chariot on the road to Gaza.
              A guide is a good thing.  The eunuch specifically asks for a guide, not a teacher, and this shows great wisdom.  “Teachers point and say, ‘Go there, do that.’  Guides reach out and say, ‘This is the road I traveled.  You might want to try it, but whatever road you choose, I’d like to walk it with you.’ . . . Teachers say, ‘I told you so.’ Guides come after you if you lose your way.”  Which would you rather have in the spiritual realm?  I know I prefer a guide, preferably one who isn’t perfect.  Someone like me, someone who can appreciate some of the lumps in my life, help me see my way clear of them.
            One of the books I’m reading explains why that is.  The book is called, Riding the Dragon, and the title is what drew me.  The author, Bob Wicks, tells of a rough time in his life when, despite having all the respect and success a person could want, he felt like a failure.  Amazingly, it was this sense of failure that turned him around.  It softened his soul.  He had always been a people pleaser, measuring himself in terms of success, with more than a touch of self-importance to round out a general self-centered orientation, he experienced depression and anger and stress in those hard times.  It was the soul-softening through personal failure that helped him see where he had losses to grieve and changes to make in his life. He earns his living as a clinical psychologist, and people come to him for help straightening out their lives.  Paradoxically, this time of failure not only made him a more effective counselor, even his old people-pleasing morphed into kindness and compassion toward others, taking the edge off his fear of letting them down.  He developed a certain freedom that allowed him to be both kind and clear with people.  Rather than being confrontational, since he knew what it felt like to fail, he was gentler when things needed addressing in others, inviting them to see where they could do something to put things back on track.
            What kind of guide would you be?  God is love’s source, so don’t you think that is God’s plan for you?  That you not only receive guidance and mentorship from others, but that you also give it?  It’s the logical consequence of love since love is personified in God, is a thing, and God does things.  In particular, what God did was send his Son to the world.  God became human.  The way God keeps on being human in the world is you.  The writer of the John gospel and these John letters has this notion about “abide” and love.  For John, to love God is to “know” God, to “abide” in God, and the way we express that “abide” is in our love of one another.
            You may have heard of the L’Arche communities, an international movement that provides home and place for people with disabilities.  Founded by Jean Vanier in 1964, most famous proponent of L’Arche was Henri Nouwen.  A world-renowned theologian, academician, and retreat leader, Nouwen writes movingly and beautifully of his life in L’Arche, caring for a profoundly disabled man named Adam.  I myself heard Nouwen speak of the power of their relationship, the simple and deep grace Adam taught him, despite being unable to speak or sit on his own, despite his being unable to do for himself even the simplest daily activities of toileting or eating or washing.  In L’Arche communities, the core members are those with disabilities.  They are the guides, the heart of the community.  It is they who mentor the more normally-abled assistants in learning to love.  As the assistants live with the daily-ness and realities of core members’ dilemmas-for-living that result from their limited abilities, the assistants see how their own abilities are limited.  As they understand the reality of love, as they do the reality of love, care-giving is not burdensome.  They are guided into love by the core members’ vulnerabilities and particularities.  Wendy Wright, in her book, The Rising, says, “To love in deed, not just in word, is to love in particulars. . . . To love in the particular is to love the whole of a person, to confront what needs changing, to bear patiently what cannot change, to cherish the gifts that only one person brings into the world.  It is to love the way we have been loved.”  May you go from here today, friends, loving in particular.  May you be that love to one another.  Amen.

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