Esse non videri borde vara mottot så här dagen efter. Men
eftersom man utfört hjältedåd och det riskerar att allt för snabbt försvinna in
i dimman vill jag härmed tala om detta. Väl medveten om att jag var en av 60.000
föranmälda. Okänt hur många som faktiskt tog sig i mål.
Det var långt tyngre än vad jag kunde ana och jag sticker
inte under stol med denna insikt. Med en medelpuls på 183 uppför Avenyn och med
en våg som visar minus fyra komma fem kilo efter avslutat lopp var kroppen
under press.
Samtidigt kände jag igen mig. Spår av Gud i den allmänna
uppenbarelsen fick denna runda att upplevas som Pilgrimage de trabajo om kombinationen
tillåts.
Det är en utmaning att ta sig genom denna tillvaro och det
är en allmänsklig erfarenhet. Den som utlovar ständig lycka och ett
bekymmersfritt liv är bara fånig. Eftersom Gud inte utlovar något sådant
framstår en människa som knäpp om något sådant skulle erbjudas.
I med och under (evangelisk-luthersk) i ett stilla försök att sätta ord på mässans
mysterium reflekteras det synnerligen konkret i ett Göteborgsvarv. Som i livet
övrigt.
Det var en ganska så brant stigning efter bara någon
kilometer. Lite längre än vad man kunde ana. Men på väg upp blev man
uppmuntrad. Heja, kom igen hördes och man tog det till sig. Lite som att fira
gudstjänst.
Misstaget var att tro att bron över älven var backen upp.
Den började långt innan. Väl uppe på bron svepte dock vinden in från
västerhavet och hjälpen var ett faktum. Pling Pingstafton, dan före hjälparen
kommer som är som vinden. Ingen vet varifrån den kommer och vart den är på väg,
men hjälper det gör den.
På andra sidan älven stod folk och räckte ut handen som en
uppmuntrande klapp. Vem får inte en fridshälsning under en gudstjänst? Med
jämna mellanrum kunde man springa igenom en liten avkylande vattenfontän som en
påminnelse att dag för dag leva i sitt dop. Glasklart för vem som helst. Lite
längre ner stod det olika band och spelade. Varför envisas vi med att sjunga
och spela i kyrkan? Det gör skillnad. Tro mig. Tydligt när man är på marginalen
att braka ihop.
Uppför avenyn kom medics upp vid sidan och undrade om man
klarade det. Frågan, vatten, Dextrosol och en dunk i ryggen fick mig att
uppleva en pastoral/diakonal samhörighet kombinerat med känslan av att be dem
dra åt pepparn eftersom de kom i vägen. Notering: Insikt.
Den stora överraskningen, väldigt otippat, utöver att komma
i mål. Man fick en medalj och helt plötsligt fick man en klump i bröstet. Hur oväntat var det?
“Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do
it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will
last forever.
Therefore I do not run like someone
running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body
and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not
be disqualified for the prize” sa Paulus fast på grekiska, hebreiska eller
latin.
Kan det vara så att när man går over till
andra sidan att det blir med en klump i magen? Vem vet?
Anyway. Hemma på soffan upplevdes det
engelska prinsbrölloppet.
Michael Curry (CNN)
“And now in the name of our loving, liberating and life-giving God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen. From the Song of Solomon in the Bible,
“Set me as a seal upon your heart, a seal upon your arm. For love is as
strong as death. Passion fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire.
A raging flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it
out.”
The late Dr. Martin Luther
King once said and I quote: “We must discover the power of love, the
power, the redemptive power of love. And when we do that, we will make of this
whole world a new world. But love, love is the only way.” There is power
in love. Don’t underestimate it. Don’t even oversentimentalize it. There is
power, power in love.
If you don’t believe me, think
of a tie when you first fell in love. The whole world seemed to center around
you and your beloved. Oh, there’s power, power in love. Not just in its
romantic forms, but any form, any shape of love. There’s a certain sense in
which when you are loved, and you know it, when someone cares for you and you
know it. When you love and you show it. It actually feels right. There’s
something right about it. And there’s a reason for it. The reason has to do
with the source. We were made by a power of love. And our lives are meant to be
lived in that love — that’s why we are here. Ultimately, the source of love is
God himself. The source of all our lives.
There’s an old medieval poem
that says where true love is found, God himself is there. The New Testament
says it this way. Beloved, let us love one another. Because love is of God and
those who love are born of God and know God. Those who do not love do not know
God. Why? Because God is love. There is power in love.
There’s power in love to help
and heal when nothing else can. There’s power in love to lift up and liberate
when nothing else will. There’s power in love to show us the way to live. Set
me as a seal on your heart, a seal on your arm. For love, it is strong
as death.
Read More
But love is not only about a
young couple. Now, the power of love is demonstrated by the fact that we’re all
here. Two young people fell in love, and we all showed up. But it’s not just
for and about a young couple who we rejoice with — it’s more than that. Jesus
of Nazareth on one occasion was asked by a lawyer to sum up the essence of the
teachings of Moses, and he went back and reached back into the Hebrew
scriptures to Deuteronomy and Leviticus and Jesus said you shall love the Lord
your God, with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your
strength. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it:
love your neighbor as yourself.
And then in Matthew’s version
he added, he said, on these two, love of God and love of neighbor, hang all the
law. All the prophets. Everything that Moses wrote. Everything in the holy
prophets, everything in the scriptures. Everything that God has been trying to
tell the world: Love God. Love your neighbors. And while your at it, love
yourself.
Someone once said that Jesus
began the most revolutionary movement in human history. A movement grounded in
the unconditional love of God for the world. And a movement mandating people to
live and love ad in so doing, to change not only their lives but the very life
of the world itself. I’m talking about some power — real power. Power to
change the world.
If you don’t believe me, well,
there was more slaves in America’s antebellum South who explained the dynamic
power of love and why it has the power to transform. They explained it this
way, they sang a spiritual even in the midst of their captivity. It’s one that
says there is a balm in Gilead, a healing balm. Something that can make things
right, there is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole. There is a balm in
Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul. And one of the stanzas actually explains why.
They said if you cannot preach like Peter and you cannot pray like Paul, you
just tell the love of Jesus how he died to save of all. Oh that’s the balm in
Gilead: his way of love it is the way of life.
They got it. He died to save
us all. He didn’t die for anything he could get out of it. Jesus did not get an
honorary doctorate for dying. He didn’t — He wasn’t getting anything out of
it. He gave up his life, he sacrificed his life for others, for the good of the
other, for the wellbeing of the world. For us. That’s what love is. 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. If you don’t believe me, just stop and think
and imagine. Think and imagine, well? Think and imagine a world where love is
the way. Imagine our homes and families when love is the way. Imagine
neighborhoods and communities where love is the way. Imagine governments and
nations where love is the way. Imagine business and commerce when love is the
way. Imagine this tired old world when love is the way.
When love is the way —
unselfish, sacrificial, redemptive, when love is the way. Then no child would
go to bed hungry in this world ever again. When love is the way. We will let
justice roll down like a mighty stream and righteousness like an ever flowing
brook. Wen love is the way poverty will become history. When love is the way
the earth will become a sanctuary. When love is the way we will lay down our
swords and shields down by the riverside to study war no more. When love is the
way there’s plenty good room, plenty good room for all of God’s children.
Cause when love is the way, we
actually treat each other, well, like we are actually family. When love is the
way we know that God is the source of us all. And we are brother and sisters,
children of God. Brothers and sisters, that’s a new heaven, a new earth, a new
world, a new human family. And let me tell you something, old Solomon was right
in the Old Testament. That’s fire.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin —
and with this I will sit down. We got to get you all married.
French Jesuit Pierre Teilhard
de Chardin was arguably one of the great minds, great spirits of the 20th
century, a Jesuit Roman Catholic priest. A scientist, a scholar, a mystic. In
some of his writings he said from his scientific background as well as his
theological one, in some of his writings he said, as others have, that the
discovery or invention or harnessing of fire was one of the great scientific
and technological discoveries in all of human history. Fire to a great extent
made all of human civilization possible. Fire made it possible to cook food and
to provide sanitary ways of eating, which reduced the spread of disease in its
time. Fire made it possible to heat warm environments and thereby made human
migration around the world a possibility, even into colder climates. Fire made
it possible, there was no Bronze Age without fire, no Iron Age without fire, no
Industrial Revolution without fire. The advance of science and technology are
greatly dependent on the ability to take fire and use it for human good.
Anybody get here in a car today?
An automobile? Nod your head if you did — I know there were some carriages.
But those of us who came in cars, fire, the controlled, harnessed fire made
that possible. I know that the Bible says, and I believe it, that Jesus walked
on water. But I have to tell you that I didn’t walk across the Atlantic Ocean
to get here. Controlled fire in that plane got me here. Fire makes it possible
for us to text and tweet and email and Instagram and Facebook and socially be
dysfunctional with each other. Fire makes all of that possible.
And de Chardin said fire was
one of the greatest discoveries in all of human history. And he then went on to
say that if humanity ever harness the energy of fire again, if humanity ever
captures the energy of love, it will be the second time in history that we have
discovered fire.
Dr. King was right. We must
discover love the redemptive power of love. And when we do that, we will make
of this old world a new world. My brother, my sister, God love you. God bless
you. And may God hold us all in those almighty hands of love.”
