In Love, we live and move and have our being

A liturgical church is a Christian community that follows a structured, prescribed order of worship passed down through tradition, focusing on intentional, communal participation rather than spontaneous services. The ELCA is a liturgical church; the Episcopal Church is a liturgical church; Beloved Community is a liturgical church. And part of being liturgical means that we have pieces and parts of our liturgy, the texts we use in a worship gathering, that remain the same. Either every week or every season or every year. There is very little in our gathering that is “spontaneous.” It is scripted; it comes from sources — many of which have existed for centuries. The same words prayed by the faithful, generation after generation.

My whole life I have grown up knowing the phrase: in God we live and move and have our being. But for most of my life I didn’t know it came from the 17th chapter of the book of Acts. Because it is part of a prayer that is in the Morning Prayer service of the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. And because I have used that prayer service so many times throughout my life, this phrase, in God we live and move and have our being, is part of my DNA. It lives within me. That’s one of the beautiful things about being a liturgical church: pieces and parts of our liturgies get imprinted onto our hearts and minds. 

In God we live and move and have our being. Take a moment and let that sink in. The meaning of it, the reality of it. We live in God; God lives in us. This is a symbiotic relationship. Symbiotic means to have  close, long-term interaction between two different organisms that live together, often providing necessary survival benefits to each other.

This is a relationship of indwelling—an activating or guiding force, spirit or principle that resides within. Both Paul and Jesus are trying to help folx understand these concepts that define God and God’s nature in today’s readings. In God we live and move and have our being.

We live in God’s nature. God’s nature is what moves us, what causes our being. And God’s nature, first and foremost, is Love. This is not Hallmark-card love or bumper sticker love; this is Love at its essence, as Love is meant to be: 

• Inclusive of all, absolutely all

• Not based on quid pro quo–if you do this, then I will do that–because this love is unconditional. 

• This love does not require to be recognized or loved back in order to love

• This love is never ending

• It is committed to wholeness and wellness of Creation—every speck of it

• And, of course, this love is relational, communal, symbiotic and indwelling

Today we hear this Love, this God, proclaim: I will never leave you orphaned. In the ancient world to be orphaned didn’t simply mean to lose both of your parents; it had a wider meaning. It also meant to be left vulnerable, disconnected, without protection or belonging.

Imagine what this meant to these disciples in today’s Gospel reading. Jesus is telling these friends, these disciples that he is about to leave, he is about to die. And yet, Jesus also says: I will never leave you orphaned.  I will never leave you vulnerable, disconnected, without protection or belonging. Because I am sending an Advocate—a helper to come alongside you, to accompany you. Not to remove the troubled waters of your life, but to help you cross those waters. 

To be a follower of Christ means we always have this bridge available to us. And, Beloved, to be a follower of Christ also means that we are to be this bridge for others, all others. This is why we have ministries like the As One Youth Group, Pathfinders, One Big Tent, Laundry Love, Campus Ministry, The Other Side. It’s why we offer our building to groups like the Chronic Illness Support Group, AA, Mobile Pantry.

And it’s why our baptismal promises call us to keep fellowship with one another, building relationships that can model the symbiotic indwelling love of God. It is why we promise to continue in the teaching of the apostles, so we can learn how to come alongside one another and help each other cross the troubled waters. And so we can learn to trust, to have faith,  that Love is with us when we have to cross those waters as well — this love that shows up in human form and the indwelling of the Spirit. 

Truth is: we do not  have to go looking for God. God is always present. But, we do have to wake up to the reality of God, and wake up to the truth of the nature of God (which isn’t always the same thing we were taught or caught when we were younger). Waking up to the truth of God is an ongoing evolution, an internal revolution of a lifetime.  We are always becoming. Always becoming who Love has made us to be.  In love, we discover that God is always present. When love dwells in your heart, the image of God becomes visible in you. (www.d365.org) Beloved, We are the fish. And God, Love, is the ocean — all around us, what we swim in, what we breathe in, what provides everything we need. In Love, in God, we live and move and have our being. Never orphaned, always held. Always. 

Julian of Norwich has a prayer that has also been imprinted on my heart; it goes like this:

"God, of your goodness, give me yourself, for you are enough for me. I can ask for nothing less that is completely to your honor, and if I do ask anything less, I shall always be in want. For Only in you I have all.”