Aspects Of Love

August 30, 2009, Proper 27
The Rev. Dorian McGlannan

I need not tell all of you Michiganders, all you who come from multigenerational families, about the beauty of the lakes in this state. From the Great Lakes to the small inland lakes, the healing power of water surrounds us. During my days of vacation, some of which were spent at home, I found a perfect swimming lake about 45 minutes from our house, a lake where there is no development, no cottages and best of all no power boats, just the occasional kayak and people who appreciate the cool clean water of a protected lake. As I floated and swam, looking at the sky and the graceful trees that surround this lake, I felt at one with God and with the world. As I swam far into the lake, I experienced the kind of quiet that I long for, a quiet that is kissed simply by the sound of the breeze in the trees or the calls of the water birds that bless this lake. Deep memories of Ross Lake in WA State surfaced, a lake on which my husband and I used to go kayak camping, a place that is sacred to us, a place where our love deepened.

And so when I read today’s reading from the Song of Solomon, my heart returned to these lakes because this reading in set in God’s creation. It is a reading can be understood on so many levels. At first blush it is a reading about lovers, a woman calling her lover who bounds over the hills to take her away now that winter has past. It is a passage that talks of flowers, fig trees and fragrant vines. This beautiful passage, as well as others from the Song of Solomon, is often read at marriage services. The entire book of the Song of Solomon is woven with sensuality and human and divine love. It is an epic poem of how God wants humans who love and honor each other to celebrate their love. God calls us to bond through emotional and physical love.

Sexuality is incredibly mysterious. When I talk with the couples I am preparing for marriage, I am very frank with them about ensuring that the sexual aspect of their marriage stay alive. “Don’t let this slide or become unimportant,” I say to them. Couples need the powerful connecting moments that come through making love. Yes, love becomes different when you marry, but physical love is a beautiful aspect of married love that needs to be celebrated and nurtured. In fact, the Talmud, the Jewish book of law, mandates, yes, mandates the frequency and quality of love-making. It states that married couples need to set aside at least one time a week for sexual intimacy.

The Song of Solomon, one of the most unique books of the Bible, celebrates feelings of passionate desiring and knowing oneself to be passionately desired. This part of scripture lets us know that sexual love between married couples can be a transformative experience that leads us to praise the creator who made such joy possible. One of my favorite stories is that of a couple who had been married for many years. They shared with me that whenever they made love they would end their time together by singing the doxology. It s a great story that has made me smile over the years.

The Song of Solomon, believed by many to be an exchange between King Solomon and his peasant bride, has had many other interpretations over the years. Some have seen it as an extended poetic metaphor of messianic expectations. The long winter has past and the messiah is now upon us. Others have seen this poem as an allegory of the love between Christ and his church. But I prefer the simple sensuality that is at the heart of this poem.

Our culture is obsessed with unhealthy expressions of sexual love and suffers from a lack of understanding of the kind of Christian love that keeps couples together for years and that is found practiced in many aspects of Christian life. All we ever hear about or see in the media are distortions of romance or disturbing images of uncommitted sex. Nobody ever talks about the simple love shared by couples all over the world. In fact, I can’t think of a movie I have ever seen that had a good sex scene between people who have been married for any length of time! We have almost no models in the larger world but we who have ventured into this church this morning have had the experience of this reading from the Song of Solomon.

Love, of course, is much more than sexual love. There are many, many different ways of loving. Our English language is lacking because we only have one word for the word love while Greek has several. In the Greek eros is passionate love. While it includes sexual and romantic love, it encompasses much more than that because it is not limited to love between people. Plato said that eros helps the soul recall beauty and contributes to the knowledge of spiritual truth. Most of the famous spiritual writers and saints from the Middle Ages, such as Julian of Norwich, John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila and St. Francis had profound experiences of God preserved in writings that would best be described as writings about eros, a deeply passionate love of Jesus.

Agape, a term that is familiar to many Christians, is the unconditional love we direct toward others regardless of our feelings about that person. Agape is what makes us give of ourselves. It is what C.S. Lewis, in his book The Four Loves, describes as charitable love. It is a love that serves, something which we experience in this congregation on a daily basis through people serving meals at Crossroads and St. Leo’s soup kitchens, preparing food packages for the poor at Gleaners, teaching VBS in the Dominican Republic, tending the grounds at St. John’s or any other vast number of ways in which the people of St. John’s love Christ through service. Agape is clearly the most discussed kind of love talked about in Christian circles. This agape or unconditional love is the love parents have for their children and the love that keeps couples together during times of challenge. Agape is what keeps us together when our spouse becomes ill or loses a job. There are, without a doubt, times when the discipline of agape is the foundation that keeps the house from falling down. But when those times of crisis pass, the playfulness of eros returns. It is the ebb and flow of life; agape and eros interplay with God always as the guardian and gardener who keeps love alive. Greek also has the word philia, a word that means friendship. But philia is a deep friendship; it is not just someone with whom we have surface conversations. In philia we bear our souls and share our heart’s desire. On one sunny Sunday afternoon this past month when I took the girls to the lake I sat in my chair and talked for over three hours with one of my former senior wardens in WA State. We share a deep philia, a level of profound friendship. Our families are close. I love his wife and he and my husband are close. It is a tight circle of friends; on that blessed day we talked until our phones died. Philia is what I share with many of you; knowing that the more time I spend with you, the stronger that philia becomes. When you come up for communion, I feel a bond with those of you whom I have come to know through life’s experiences.

In our life as a community, we experience all of these aspects of love. Readings such as we heard today remind us of the multi-faceted aspects of love, a rich love that binds us together in faith and hope.

Day Seven

Its hard to believe that we have now been here seven days.

Today we continued to follow our usual schedule, painting in the morning and VBS in the afternoon. The highlights today are that we have been doing way more scraping than we expected. On some sides of the church chunks of paint at least 5-feet-long are peeling off the church. It´s clear that the church is in serious need of scraping and repainting (not to mention concrete work). San Esteban church is nearly 100 years old, so the need for work isn´t all that shocking but it´s hard to deal with when we still have so much to do and so little time left.

Today David, Matt, and Justin did a walking tour with Anita Dohn. they were lucky enough to spend time with a woman named Marta and her children who demonstrate incredible hospitality. In addition to visiting and seeing their barrio the three guys also got a chance to play some baseball on a very homemade baseball field. All three of them said the tour was a wonderful experience. They commented not only on the poverty, but also on the joy and friendliness that is so pervasive here in the Dominican Republic. Despite smells, dirt, lack of water, lack of electricity, and all kinds of health issues, Dominicans are an incredibly joyful and friendly people and that quality shown through the visit that the three guys had.

VBS had 108 kids at it today. Things went very smoothly and we were able to meet with the teachers after classes and talk about a party we will have tomorrow here at the Kellogg Center (they plan on teaching us to dance). After planning, a number of us went with them to the HoJo pool to swim and play games. It was a wonderful way to keep developing our relationship with them while cooling off after a very hot day.

This evening we continued our daily pattern of saying Compline and sharing about our day. It´s time consuming but also an important way to end the day and stay connected with each other.

One great comment that came out this evening was when someone offered one of our team members something to drink and they responded, "I don't want any, I'm too full of goat.¨Life in the DR is pretty different than in life in Plymouth after all.

-- Peace in Christ,
The Very Rev. Peter Swarr
Associate Rector, St. John's, Plymouth
www.stjohnsplymouth.org
Dean, Trinity Deanery

Day Six

Today was a wonderfully full day. We started the day with a great deal of painting and scraping at the clinic and at the Church. Anita and Micahel Dohn reminded us that our painting is in fact medical mission work. He told us that the clinic has a VERY tight budget this year. As a result no money has been set aside for painting or maintenance. So, by providing our labor and the cost of the paint we are letting the clinic provide needed medical help to the poor and disenfranchised. On a hot and sunny day, those words were very helpful as we kept painting.

Two groups went out to visit the local barrios. Shirley, Lauren and myself went on a driving and walking tour meeting with a local family, seeing a local well which provides water for a half mile radius (when water is available, many weeks water arrives at the well no more than once a week). We also saw an open cesspit which an entire neighborhood is built around. It was eye-opening and shocking. Gary and Joan went to visit a gentleman who is about one or two days away from death. This was one of the poorest areas that any of us have ever seen here. Another eye-opening thing was meeting and holding a five-month-old HIV-positive baby who is coming to the clinic on a very frequent basis to receive medicine and care. The work which the Dohns do, and which we have the privilege of sharing in through our time here and our financial support from St. John´s, is truly incredible.

VBS was a reminder that things never go according to schedule here and that God is none-the-less watching over us. Three out of four of our Dominican Teachers had not arrived at VBS 30 minutes after it was scheduled to start. That said, a number of other Dominican volunteers had arrived (including Natalia Dohn and two other bilingual teachers) and they offered to help translate and teach. Each and every time it looked like we would not have the supplies we needed or the right number of teachers, God kept sending us just what we needed in time. VBS was a blessing, even if it was very hot and chaotic.

Tonight we had the pleasure of heading down to the waterfront to grab a cool beverage as a group, sit near the waterfront, talk with four other short-term missionaries from Virginia and spend time with Juan Pablo a recently graduated seminarian from El Salvador who has been helping us a huge amount while we paint and at VBS.

At 6:30 p.m. we had dinner with the Dohns and then enjoyed a fantastic presentation by them about the work we have been doing here and about the work they do here.

Today has been incredibly full and incredibly wonderful. Thank you for all of your prayers, for the emails that you have been sending, and for the way you too are part of this mission.

-- Peace in Christ,

The Very Rev. Peter Swarr
Associate Rector, St. John's, Plymouth
www.stjohnsplymouth.org
Dean, Trinity Deanery

Day Five

Today was HOT! But it was also sunny which meant we were able to paint about half the clinic and scrape a large portion of the Church building. Painting involved using two 15-foot extension handles which we had to buy at the local hardware store. It also involved learning from the master painter who was not particularly impressed by our American painting skills.

Work went very well from 8:30 a.m. until 10:30 a.m. when a number of us seemed to simply loose all our energy (maybe that was because the sun was higher and the temp had passed 90). One fun part of painting (besides finding shade to rest in) was working with two other Dominicans and two Salvadorans who decided to help us as part of their vacation in the Dominican Republic.

Four members of our team went out to tour the country and see some local barrios. Matt and Lauren visited a sugar mill town and three HIV-positive patients with medical workers from the clinic while Jack and Nathan went on an hour-long walking tour in some local poor neighborhoods with Anita Dohn. It was eye opening and interested for both groups.

After cleaning up from painting we got ready for VBS. Today we had 87 kids, compared to 43 yesterday. All of our team members started connecting more and more with the Dominican teachers. It was a joy to see team members doing all they could to communicate and laugh and play despite the cultural divide.

This evening, a number of us went to the water front to work with a Dominican named Francisco who has an interview in English tomorrow for a new job. He wanted to practice interviewing in English and he wanted to be sure that his resume made sense.

Tomorrow we plan on taking more breaks as we paint so we don't overheat and we plan on having closer to 110 kids at VBS (news of free snacks travels fast!).

Blessings,
Peter+

-- Peace in Christ,
The Very Rev. Peter Swarr
Associate Rector, St. John's, Plymouth
www.stjohnsplymouth.org
Dean, Trinity Deanery

Day Four

We woke up this morning to heavy rain and rolling thunder. During breakfast Fr. Sandino called to let us know that we could not paint the clinic or church due to the rain. That said, our team, which was more than ready to start working, headed over to the clinic to set up supplies and see if there were any dry patches we could work on. We ended up scraping paint all over the building for well over 3 hours -- in some places as much as three layers of paint peeled off. Many workers and clinic visitors commented on the amount of scraping and prep work we were doing. Thankfully, we were directed in our work by Juan Pablo, a retired banker from El Salvador who is visiting his son who just graduated from the Episcopal Seminary in Santo Domingo. Even though Juan Pablo is on vacation he insisted on joining us in painting and preparing for the VBS!

In addition to scraping we also had four members of our team Becky Nickels, David Mertz, Justin Cospito and Jack Hibbard head out into the surrounding poor neighborhoods to see how the majority of Dominicans live and learn from locals and missionaries about culture and life here.

Starting at 1:00 p.m. we began taking all of our supplies for VBS over to San Esteban school to prepare for VBS which was supposed to begin at 2:00 p.m. By 2:00 p.m. only three Dominican teachers had arrived and NO children had arrived. By 2:30 p.m. all the teachers had arrived, by 2:45 p.m. we had our full complement of 50 students (low because of the rain). Things went incredibly smoothly for VBS. We did learn that "Duck Duck Goose" doesn´t translate all that well from our culture into Dominican culture.

After VBS some of us went swimming at the Howard Johnson pool with Elizabeth Dohn (daughter of the missionary doctors here) and Ruth Sanchez (daughter of Fr. Sandino and his wife Ysabel who visited St. John´s). We had a great time and returned to the Kellogg Center refreshed for dinner.

Tonight and for the next four days we will be sharing the Kellogg Center with four missionaries from McLean, Virginia who are working in a sugar mill town about 30 minutes North of San Pedro. It was fun to talk with them about our work and their work.

This evening we talked about logistics at VBS, learned crafts, and are planning on sharing our emotions and feelings about the day, followed by Compline. Needless to say, things have gotten busy here.

Thank you for your continued prayers.

May Christ bless you richly as he is blessing us,

Peter+

-- Peace in Christ,
The Very Rev. Peter Swarr
Associate Rector, St. John's, Plymouth
www.stjohnsplymouth.org
Dean, Trinity Deanery

Day Three

Today was marked by two major things, worship, and a trip to the cuevas de las marvillas.

We were welcomed very warmly by a mostly full San Esteban church this morning for worship at 9:30 a.m.

Becky Nickels read the second lesson in English and I read the Gospel in English, translated the sermon, and helped with communion. Fr. Sandino used the group from Michigan as an example of following God´s call and being obedient.

The service lasted nearly two hours and had lots of announcements. For many of our team it was a learning experience to see church last so long. It was also good to talk to a lot of the church members who are planning on helping us with the VBS and even with our painting project.

After church we gathered back at the Centro, had hamburgers and fries (not the most Dominican food, but well received by many members of the team) and then worked on our VBS crafts. We only found out yesterday that we needed to have nearly an hour's worth of craft activities each day for VBS (double what we expected). So today involved getting craft supplies ready and brainstorming what supplies we will use for what day.

At 2:00 p.m., seven of us (all of the younger members) went to the Cueva de Las Marvillas which is about 30 minutes away from San Pedro. It is a nearly kilometer long cave with incredible natural formations in it. It also has hundreds of cave paintings from the native Taino Indians who were wiped out during the Spanish invasion.

On our way back from the caves we drove into the countryside and saw a very old sugar mill town which has crumbled into ruins in the past 7 years because the sugar mill has closed. Nearly 60% of the population has left Consuelo (the home of Pedro Martinez and Sammy Sosa). It was an eye-opening and troubling sight.

Tomorrow we will start painting at 8:30 a.m. followed by VBS from 2:00 until 4:30 p.m. Each day two to three members of our team will travel with the Dohns throughout the town to see some of their medical projects and get a better feel for the community.

Que Dios les bendiga,

Peter Swarr+

Peace in Christ,
The Very Rev. Peter Swarr
Associate Rector, St. John's, Plymouth
www.stjohnsplymouth.org
Dean, Trinity Deanery

Day Two

Friends,

Today has been a day of preparation and getting settled in. We started the day with prayer, breakfast, and sending a group out to the city to change money and buy a few necesities (i.e., coffee) at the local supermarket. Then at 10:00 a.m. nine team members headed to the beach at Juan Dolio, about 30 minutes to the west of San Pedro. God has gifted this island with incredible beauty and a wonderful ocean and all the team members who went to the beach had a wonderful time enjoying the sun, playing in the waves, and seeing a little more of the surrounding countryside of the Dominican Republic.

Once we returned to the Centro Obispo Kellogg a number of people worked on getting crafts ready to go for VBS, as well as planning games and other VBS activities. At 4:00 pm we met with Fr. Sandino to see the school where we will be teaching VBS, and to envision how we can divide up the students. We also took a tour of the Clinic and Church which we will be painting. Paint only lasts about two years here due to the heat, humidity, and salt air. We will be painting a massive set of two buildings which easily dwarf the size of St. John´s campus. To beat the heat we will start at 8:30 a.m. and keep working until we can´t bear the heat any more.

At 5:00 p.m. we met with about 15 Dominicans who will be teaching with us. We divided into four different groups, planned our schedule, talked about crafts and games, and got to know each other just a little bit.

Pray for us as VBS starts next Monday at 2:00 p.m. The St. John´s team will be leading crafts, games, and music in rotating groups. Besides meeting our fellow VBS leaders, many of whom we knew from previous trips (who were happy and excited to see us and sad also not to see old team members), we also reunited with Michael and Anita Dohn. Michael and Anita are medical missionaries which St. John´s has had a LONG connection with. It was a joy to reconnect with them and with the Dominican VBS teachers.

Thank you for your continued prayers. Our hope is that we are able to use these days of preparation to be ready for all the work we will be doing int he days to come.

Peace in Christ,

The Very Rev. Peter Swarr
Associate Rector, St. John's, Plymouth
www.stjohnsplymouth.org
Dean, Trinity Deanery

Safely Arrived

Friends,

We have arrived safely in San Pedro. The flights went well and we got into the Kellogg Center at about 6:00 p.m. We have high-speed internet here, so we will do our best to stay in touch. It´s much hotter than usual. When we landed the temp was 94! Since getting here we have had dinner, saw the area, and had ice cream. While getting ice cream the team saw its first real glimpse of the poverty of this area: kids begging for a spoonful of ice cream to be placed in their open hands.

Pray for us as we get settled, plan for our work, and begin the process of seeing what God has in store for all of us.

Que Dios te bendiga,

Peter+

--
Peace in Christ,

The Very Rev. Peter Swarr
Associate Rector, St. John's, Plymouth
www.stjohnsplymouth.org
Dean, Trinity Deanery

The Gift Of Life

From a sermon by The Rev. Peter Swarr, St. John's Episcopal Church in Plymouth, MI. Read it all here.