by Audrey Novak Riley
I got up really early one Saturday not long ago for a wedding. I didn’t know the bride or groom, although I’ve heard about the groom’s family for years. Yes, I got up early to watch the royal wedding on TV just like millions (billions?) of other people all around the world.
We all expected to see a beautiful ceremony in a beautiful place (after all, that’s how that family does things), but we got something extra along with all the pretty flowers and hats. We got to hear a sermon that’s still echoing around the world, thanks to the Rev. Michael Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church.
Bishop Curry told us all that there’s power in love – power to change the world. He said, “Love is not selfish and self-centered. Love can be sacrificial, and in so doing, becomes redemptive. And that way of unselfish, sacrificial, redemptive love changes lives, and it can change this world. . . . When love is the way, we know that God is the source of us all, and we are brothers and sisters, children of God. My brothers and sisters, that’s a new heaven, a new earth, a new world, a new human family.”
Listening to the bishop from my front-row seat on the sofa, I was riveted. He’s right! When love is the way, we are set free from fear, from greed, from envy, from hatred of every kind. When love is the way, we are all set free. May that day come soon!
What can we do to help bring that day about? Well, first, let’s not wait for someone else to go first. Let’s make a point of acting and speaking in love and generosity and fearlessness ourselves, no matter where we are, no matter who’s around us. Let’s give it a try – and change the world.
Audrey Novak Riley is director for stewardship and development for Women of the ELCA.
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Thanks for the smiles, Audrey! We were just talking at Bible Study tonight about gun violence. We acknowledged that there are many aspects to this problem, but we also agreed that simple but powerful kindness (love as Bishop Curry said) would go a long way toward making all people feel cared for and respected and thus less likely to act out in violence.