Be a Love-Verb | Leonard Sweet, LenTalk #112, PreachtheStory, Lectionary Semiotics, 15May2022

About this sermon

This week Dr. Sweet explains the meaning of Agape love and the importance of particularity. Who does God choose first--the last, the least, the lost, the outlier. Why do the poor have the best seats at the table? Why does God lavish love on the hardest to love? The answer is agapao, and find out what that love-verb means here. Will you be a love-verb this week? You love-verb, you! Our Lectionary passages for this week: Acts 11:1-18 Revelation 21:1-6 John 13:31-35 Psalm 148 One of the most fractious issues in theology and philosophy is the relationship between the particular and universal. Or to bring it home in more pastoral terms, “This may not be something a preacher ought to say, but I have always found it easier to love humanity as a whole than to love any particular human being for more than an hour or two at a time,” to quote Barbara Brown Taylor in "Always a Guest: Speaking of Faith Far From Home" (2020). In #LenTalk 112, I briefly show how that one Greek word "Agape" brings the particular and the universal together in a mysterious, almost mystical way. Modernity loves abstractions and universals, but the “sensory particular” is what gets us to the universal, or the abstract in the concrete. Metaphors reveal the abstractions hidden in the particulars. . . So the love that is most particular and personal is the love that is most universal. God saves the world not as global but as local, not in the universal but in the particular. God saves the world in me and in you. There is no true salvation that is not of cosmic consequence: “All creation rejoices.” (Psalm 96:13). We would love for you to hit the "subscribe" button for these vlogs. Don't forget to hit the Notification Bell so that you never miss our most recent video. Support Len’s Ministry through his 510-c-3 “SpiritVenture Ministries” (SVM) https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=WLM4V9GAJDRVL Become a SpiritVenture Ministries (SVM) Supporter at $9/month or a Tribe of Issachar Member at $49/month http://preachthestory.com/donate/ Follow Leonard Sweet on Social Media: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leonard.sweet​ Twitter: https://twitter.com/lensweet​ (Sweet’s daily micro-blogs) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lensweet​ (Sweet’s daily blogs) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/preachthestory​ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/preachthestorycommunity (Specifically for preachers and others who love those who preach) Access sermons, conferences, and more Leonard Sweet activities: https://preachthestory.com/​ (hundreds of written sermons) https://www.facebook.com/thesalishseapress (Sweet’s newest publications) https://salishsea.press/​ https://the-salish.com​ (Orcas Island getaway cottages for board, staff and church advances (aka “retreats”) #particularity #loveverb #Agape #LeonardSweet

Topics

• Love & Compassion