It's In the Book!

When I was a little kid my oldest brother brought home a 78-rpm record of Johnny Standley and the Horace Heidt band doing a spoof of an "evangelist." Johnny "preaches a sermon" the "text" of which is the nursery rhyme, "Little Bo Peep," then the "congregation" sings the "closing hymn," which is "Grandma's Lye Soap." I can still see tears of laughter running down the cheeks of Mother and Sadie. (I would add that those were also tears of relief, but I won't go into that right now.) I downloaded it from iTunes a while ago and found it to be more hilarious than ever. (Those were innocent times, when that record was cut, and there is nothing whatever scatological about the humor, and if there is an allusion to irreverence towards certain forms of worship it was miles from "blasphemy." But I don't want to go into that right now either.)

In Johnny's "sermon" he punctuates his commentary on the rhyme with "It's in the book!" Which I merely wanted to use to segue into a little "sermon" of my own. To myself. Consider it a Hamlet-like soliloquy. The book in question is the First Letter of John in the New Testament, specifically these words in Chapter Four:

"God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. Those who say, "I love God," but hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also."

I feel sickly, tired and sad – that old triad of depression that I sooner or later slide into. I am sick and tired of the campaign and will be glad when it’s over – i.e. I will be glad when it’s over ONLY IF OBAMA WINS. It seems to be going his way but I’m afraid. I’m afraid that the hate-mongers and fear-mongers will win. Whereas those who have had fear and hatred struck in their hearts by the whispering campaigns and mob rallies and emails and robocalls and who think Barack is secretly a Muslim (i.e. terrorist) are afraid he will win. We two groups live in parallel universes and only the love of God could transcend the vast spaces between us. Voting is occurring now, in Florida, for one place. I’m afraid that the Republicans will steal the election by suppressing the votes for Obama. So, in addition to depression, I’m locked in anxiety until this election is over. And, I fear, win or lose, I’m going to be stuck with just depression when the election is over. (I'll cross that bridge...)

"There is no fear in love, because perfect love casts out fear." The God of Jesus -- the one Jesus called "Daddy" ("Abba") -- only that One is capable of the perfect love we so desperately need. I have too much fear and I sadly confess not little enough hatred and I desperately need the perfect love of that God to see me through this. So do we all.

It's in the book.

Amen.