Nice, isn't it? Well, nice when you're standing on the other side, safe from or at least somewhat numbed to the pain. But what about in the beginning? What about when you're taking the very first tentative steps into a new love? What about when you're considering the risk of self-disclosure that a new friendship invites you into? What about when you're weighing the investment of time and energy that a new romance desires? What about when you're agonizing over whether to try one more time to explain to your parents or your children or your siblings who you are and whom you love? It's not often easy when we feel those first, tentative tugs or those first lose-our-balance yanks on our heartstrings to choose the dance despite the pain.
This weekend, though, that's exactly what I'm going to ask you to do. I'm going to ask you to live a life "wide open" to love.
I chose the sermon title "Wide Open" many weeks ago, when our Love Letters from God series was in its planning stages. I love to dance with words, and the Greek word agape held out her hand to me and dared me to let her lead, dared me to follow where she wanted to go, and to acknowledge her power as a partner. That wasn't easy for me. You see, like many people, I often think of agape as the pure love, the ideal love, the wing-wearing, haloed love that seems so unattainable.
But in half a beat agape invited me to come out and dance and offered to share with me her untamed side. Agape invited me to forget her italicized foreignness and her strangely placed accent and hear her in my native tongue: not /ah gah' pay/ but /uh gape'/, or, in other words, wide open.
Now I'm beginning to realize that "agape," the Americanized twin sister, has a lot to teach us about love if we will just let her.
Please come and worship with us this weekend, and oh, be sure to wear comfortable shoes.... We're going to turn up the music and dance!
