Guest Commentary: All for Love

By Guest

Editor’s note: Below is the text of a sermon delivered by Dr. John Tamilio III, pastor of the Congregational Church of Canton, on Sunday, January 10. The sermon is inspired in part by longtime parishioner and Cantonite Harold Drake.

Well today is a special day — and I want to thank Harold Drake not only for his donation to this service, but for his assistance in crafting it. As you know, our anthem is a bit more contemporary and outside the realm of typical church music. Many, many people are a fan of that beautiful song by the late ex-Beatle John Lennon. Although “Imagine” contains certain phrases that some people of faith disagree with — imagine there’s no heaven and no religion, too — Lennon was really speaking of the bad that many of the world’s religions have perpetrated throughout history: Crusades, Jihad, and the like. He sought the unity of all people: “a brotherhood of man.” The key lines in this song, however, form the chorus:

You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope one day you’ll join us, and the world will live as one.

The song is really a prayer for peace — international peace. It is often heard on the radio in the wake of terrorist attacks and other disasters: 9/11, the Boston Marathon bombing, and the recent attack by ISIS on Paris, to name a few. Being a fellow lover of the Fab Four, Harold requested this song be included in today’s service.

Harold is also a lover of poetry. He’s probably sick and tired of hearing me cite T.S. Eliot, so he requested a different bit of verse today: “For Whom the Bell Tolls” by the great metaphysical poet John Donne. When people think of this poem, they often think of death. In fact, based on the title, many think it was penned by Edgar Allen Poe (or they think of the novel by Ernest Hemingway). Poe did write a poem called “The Bells,” and the title of Donne’s piece seems to suggest a sort of death knell. But that is a misreading. The poem is really about solidarity and our need for one another. We are joined together on this journey.

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul uses the human body as a metaphor for the Church. Every member, every part of the church is necessary for the church to function in a healthy, holistic way. No member is more important than another — and certainly no member can be the church on his or her own. “Where two or more are gathered together in my name,” Jesus said.

New Testament scholar Russell Pregeant writes, “[Paul] argues that all gifts of the one Spirit are necessary to the body’s functioning” (1995: 362-363). He is criticizing those among the community “who claim superiority on the basis of their spirit gifts.” Paul knew that “no one in the community has the right to lord it over others on such a basis.” He also knew that all the members of the body were necessary for the body to be whole. The members of the Church need one another to survive. If you break Christianity down to its smallest unit, you do not get the individual believer. You get the Church. You cannot reduce the faith smaller than that. At the core of Christianity is the gathered body of Christ that is united as one. Does not the John Donne poem say the same thing?

Some of us saw that dramatized last night.

Last night we hosted the program And Still We Rise with our friends across the street at the Unitarian Church. This is a minimalist play in which six actors who have either been in prison or have family members who were (or are) tell their stories. It was powerful. I did not realize until the performance was well underway that the stories were true — that they were the performers’ stories.

The climactic scene featured a mother whose son had been killed. She approached the mother of the alleged killer twice: first in court and then some time later. Throughout her entire monologue, the mother carried a big, heavy chain — a symbol of the weight she was carrying in her heart. You could hear the tinkling of the chain as she turned the links slowly in her cupped hands.

In the final scene she sits with the mother of the alleged killer and repeatedly asks, “Can we repair this village” (the village being their community which has been ravaged by drugs and violence). Slowly, the mother of the killer reaches over and helps the mother hold the chain. At the end, the six cast members stand and hold the chain together across the stage and shout, “Still, we rise.”

The name of the play comes from the poem “Still I Rise” by the late Maya Angelou. The poem is the voice of an African American woman who overcomes the difficulties of history (of slavery, segregation, and oppression) to rise, like the mythic phoenix, to claim her place in society. The cast enacted this in the powerful close of the play.

For me, the most powerful image was the entire troupe holding the chain together. This represented two things: one, they would carry one another’s burdens together, and two, they were bound together in their common humanity. Even though their social reality held them in bondage, they rose together in solidarity.

That’s it! That’s what it’s all about — not just the play, but who we are to be as the Church. We are bound together in love. We are to hold one another in our deepest, darkest moments.

This is what baptism is about. Through the cleansing waters of grace, we become members of one family. No matter what separates us from one another on earth (race, class, gender), we become united when we enter the water.

Today we are commemorating Jesus’ baptism. When he approached his cousin John, the Baptist refused him at first, saying, “I ought to be baptized by you.” What was Jesus’ response? Let it be so for now, for in this way we shall do all that God requires. That is a curious response. What did Jesus mean when he said this? There are many possible interpretations. Biblical commentaries are filled with them.

Maybe Jesus was saying what John Donne would say centuries later.

No man is an island,

Entire of itself,

Every man is a piece of the continent

A part of the main.

We may feel as if we are self-sufficient, as if we can go it alone, but we need one another. And we will only make it through this life if we become the peace we want to see in the world, as Gandhi said. We will only make it if we, together, hold the chain that weighs heavy upon us. All of this, this divine drama, it is all for love: the love that God has for us, the love that we are to have for one another. Keep holding the chain. Amen.

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