Sermon Proper 12a: The door to perfect Love

Do you believe in love at first sight?  Well, it happens in today’s lesson from Genesis, a book not known for many expressions of Romantic love. Jacob comes upon a well and a flock, and a maiden.  He lifts the heavy stone from the mouth of the well, draws water for the maiden’s flock and then with great audacity and hope, he embraces the strange and enchanting woman Rachel and that old magic happens.  We can almost hear the love theme from Tristan and Isled as Jacob and Rachel are caught in each others arms, Jacob’s head tilts slightly to one side, their lips meet and linger.  This is not even their first date, yet, Jacob kisses Rachel. His fate is sealed.  Where there’s lightning there will be thunder.  Jacob has found his little bit of semi heaven. Nothing else on earth will ever satisfy.  So in Rachel, Jacob not only discovers his truest companion, but he also discovers a part of himself that had been lost:  A priceless part of himself that he must find, no matter what.   Jacob is so smitten by Rachel, he signs up for 14 years hard labor, no pay, to have her.

 

Romantic love in the Bible makes our hearts race, and quite frankly, it scares the Be-Jesus out of us.  When we hear the words of the Song of Song:

 “Oh, give me the kisses of your mouth, for your love is more delightful than wine, your ointments sweeter than finest oils.”

 

We are touched and uncomfortably moved.  This sensuous love is in the Bible!? Yes, the Bible itself extols romantic love, but as a door to spiritual love.  The prophets urge us to discover in romantic love a vehicle for divine encounter.  Ezekiel hears the promise of God to Israel, “I shall remember my covenant to you when you were a young woman.”  And Isaiah is not embarrassed to say, “As a bridegroom rejoices over his Bride, so shall God rejoice over you.” 

 

The mystics of the church also know a thing or two about love.  St John of the Cross wrote passionately about love and his love affair with God: “…each one lives in the other and is the other and both are one in the transformation of love.”  This is an idea that we cannot understand unless we have felt love for another, unless we have known a love that fuses us with our beloved, a love that transforms us.  This reminds me of a tender love poem by John Donne called “The Flea.” In his day, folks were not so squeamish about nature, and Donne remarks on the perfectly ordinary phenomenon that a flea has just partaken of both his blood and his sweetheart’s blood so that the two are comingled as one. He begs his dear one to spare that creature:

 

O stay, three lives in one flea spare,
Where we almost, yea, more than married are.
This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is.

 

Two may truly become one flesh as the American Walt Whitman tells us:

 

I ate with you and slept with you, your body has become not yours only nor left my body mine only,

 

I confess that I am glad that I fell in love and married late in life.  You know why?  Because in the years I wanted most, and desired most, I actually knew the least about what I wanted and about what I desired. I had feelings, but I guess I did not have knowing feelings.  I didn’t know the possibilities of love and I certainly didn’t understand that each one lives in the other and is the other and both are one in the transformation of love. I didn’t understand that love could become a sacrament.

 

  Jesus message, his only message, is about this unity, this oneness in the transformation of love.  Sometimes he expresses that with the image of the tender parent, the Abba, and sometimes he expresses it in the imagery of Kingdom.  In today’s Gospel Jesus tells us about the baker who hides her precious yeast in 50 lbs of flour, transforming the flour into enough bread for a good size village.  Jesus talks about the man who finds a pearl and is transformed to sell all that he has and buy that pearl.  Always Jesus beckons us to give with our whole hearts to the God who loves us beyond measure. Jesus calls us to the oneness that springs from transformation in love.

 

Jacob came upon a well and a maiden.  Finding his lost part, he was transformed and ready to sell all that he had for his Rachel.  Are we like Jacob?  Let us think of those we love and those we have wanted like a missing part of ourselves.  Let us not fear love or fear the demands that it makes that we change and let go of everything for some piece of our selves.   This love we remember and this love we have is our greatest treasure especially when every part of our relationship is aflame with this love. The one we love becomes our most priceless pearl in this life.  We go; we leave our old selves behind. We go and sell all that we have to possess that pearl.  When we have the pearl of great price, when we discover the miracle of love, we will also discover another miracle, that earthly love is a sacrament.  Earthly love is a key that opens a door to perfect love.  Earthly love is the priceless pearl that is like the kingdom of heaven.

Amen