If Ever I Cease to Love

04Jan
Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; everyone who confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he has promised us, eternal life.

-1 John 2:22-25


From the British Comedy review of the 1960’s, two figures sit in the darkness on a black-box ledge rocking back and forth in unison. With their oversized black Cardigans pulled over their heads, the figures are severely lighted in the black void; we see their content visages rocking silently. They are coal miners in intimate conversation. After a prolonged silence.


Miner 1: “Ehhh, oy wanted to be a Judge…”

Miner 2: “…a Judge, mate…?”

Miner 1: “Yea-oy wanted to be a Judge……………………………….but I didn’t have the Latin.”

Miner 2: …”Waaugh; No Latin?”

Miner 1: “Yup, I wanted to be a Judge bu-oy didn’ have a nit of Latin, so I becomed a miner….!”


Their conversation continues; exploring the choices a miner has extracting coal from the mine face: “There’s the hackiin’; there’s the hewin’: and then there’s running at the mine face with your head.”


As I write on matters of my faith, I feel I cast a shadow of my own inadequacy across the empty page; I don’t have any Latin. I used to say I wanted to study the Bible so I could adequately explain the tenants of my faith to others (and not sound dumb). Vanity. I now know it is not that, “I don’t have the Latin.” The inadequacy lies in the limitations of words we use to communicate the transcendent, infinite, God-sized forces that created us, that sustain us, and that promise us a room in His House. What we can all do as we speak on matters of our faith is to witness with humility and authenticity. We are asked only to witness the best we can, with what we have, when we have it. It’s all we can do. 


Some of the best words of our vocabulary of witness have been co-opted and sullied by pop culture: Awesome, Wonder, Infinite, Love… 


Fortunately, a word that has not been slobbered-up by Tic-Tok is, Abide. It has been left alone, likely because it requires, vigilance, honesty, perseverance, faith, patience, self-control and timeless Love. Abide. 


In this moment, New Orleans is being challenged to abide in the Son and in the Father with all of the human qualities abiding in the Lord demands. All of them! As the anti-Christ took a lick at our people and our guests with characteristic putrid cowardice and cheap violence, there was the expectation that the flood waters of hate and fear would rise around us. Wrong City; wrong people. 


Around these parts we lean on the opening words our Epiphany season anthem, If Ever I Cease to Love – We abide in Love perpetual ‘round these parts… abiding Love helps us gather-up the pain, heal the sorrow, banish the Hate, and be Christ amid the carnage.


Musical Reflection - If Ever I Cease to Love: Little Queenie



Lord of the Dance, even when we have a dark tune thrust upon us, help our feet and our hearts to find the syncopated, joyful meter we have heard from the beginning in You. It is the dance-step of the Truth, The Light, and the Way. With You as our dance-master, “We gonna put on our shoes and walk all over God’s Heaven!” Amen

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