Sunday, September 10 - Everything is the Worst, But God is Love

I don't know about you, but I'm pretty depressed. Bad news keeps piling onto bad news. Devastating hurricanes on one side of the country while the other side burns up in a raging wild fire, and let's not even get into what is going on in politics.

Sometimes I feel like my heart can't take any more bad news. I want to just shut out the world because caring is exhausting. But that's because I'm only human. Thankfully, God never stops caring for the world. God never stops loving the world.

Our opening hymn on Sunday is one of my favorites; I never heard it before I came to the Episcopal church. The first verse establishes God's power over creation, but it's the second verse where the love really shines through. "When human hearts are breaking... we find the same aching... in the heart of God." What a beautiful thought! God's heart breaks when our hearts break. Then the last verse ties it all together and declares that "God is love, so love forever o'er the universe must reign." To succinctly sum up this hymn: God created the universe in love, God loves everything in it, and God rules over that creation with absolute love.

Opening hymn: God Is Love, Let Heaven Adore Him #379

God is love, let heaven adore him

God is love, let earth rejoice

Let creation sing before him

And exalt him with one voice.

God who laid the earth's foundation

God who spread the heavens above

God who breathes through all creation

God is love, eternal love

God is love, and love enfolds us,

All the world in one embrace

With unfailing grasp God holds us

Every child of every race

And when human hearts are breaking

Under sorrow's iron rod

Then we find the selfsame aching

Deep within the heart of God

God is love, and though with blindness

Sin afflicts all human life,

God's eternal loving kindness

Guides us through our earthly strife

Sin and death and hell shall never

O'er us final triumph gain

God is love, so love forever

O'er the universe must reign.

This makes me think of my favorite opera, a lesser-known Mozart work called "La Clemenza di Tito" ("The Mercy of Tito"). The emperor (Tito) is betrayed by one of his closest friends (Sesto), who tries to kill him. Sesto is condemned and Tito must sign the death sentence. But he struggles to condemn his friend and sings my favorite aria, "Se all'impero."

"If a hard heart is necessary for ruling, O benevolent gods,
either take the empire from me or give me another heart.
If I cannot assure the loyalty of my realms by love,
I care not for a loyalty that is born of fear."

(You can hear it here - Michael Schade's interpretation of the character is my favorite. He really shows the internal struggle.)

I think that many people try to make God a God who rules by fear. Oftentimes, natural disasters bring out the people who claim that a hurricane or a flood is somehow God's punishment. But I believe in a God who rules with love. A God whose heart breaks when ours break. I think God weeps over the loss and destruction as much as we do. God is love, and love - not fear - will reign.