What Are You Loving Right Now?

Jonnie Guernsey, Worship Committee Member

David Brooks, an opinion writer for the New York Times, recently wrote a fascinating article entitled, “We’re living through the great detachment.” He suggests that we should be asking of each other, “What is it that you are loving right now?” He goes on to say “We all need energy sources to power us through life, and love is the most powerful energy source known to humans.”

The great detachment. We’re all aware of the epidemic of loneliness happening in our culture now. We also know that so many people are seeking their connections to others through social media. But is anyone on social media asking each other, “What is it that you are loving right now?”

Without love, we become disengaged and lonely. Love is motivational. Love fuels engagement.

In that same article, David Brooks says that this systemic weakening of the loving bonds that hold society together is causing a loss of faith—faith in God, faith in each other, and faith in our nation.

You don’t have to look too far to see this loss of faith. It’s permeating every aspect of American life. People are losing faith in our government, our police, our schools, our medical system, our justice system—the list goes on. But to me the most worrisome loss of faith is faith in each other. I can respect those who don’t have faith in God, but we all need to have faith in something.

Here at Calvary, we have a strong community. We do have faith in God, and we do have faith in each other. Because of this, we can count our blessings. We can ask each other, “What is it that you’re loving right now?” We also have a safe place to ask much harder questions.

It’s a harsh reality that a huge portion of Americans don’t have what we have at Calvary. There’s a shrinking number of people joining any kind of social group—church, baseball leagues, bowling leagues, photography clubs, birdwatchers. People are volunteering less. We just don’t do those things together anymore.

What communities do you have in your personal life? Who welcomes you in? When I look around at all of you, I know that everyone here is engaged in one way or another in our community at large.

People who aren’t engaged become disengaged. That sounds simplistic, but it’s a fact. A hard truth. For me, disengagement with my community would definitely be isolating, unwelcoming, and depressing. Imagine all the people around us who are disengaged, who don’t have a fulfilling life.

The Psalm we read from Isaiah this morning assures us that God has faith in us, just as we have faith in God. The psalm tells us God has put the spirit in us to be the light of all nations. We were given a covenant to bring out those who sit in prisons of darkness.

Loneliness is a prison of darkness. Disengagement is a prison of darkness.

The question is, how can we here at Calvary bring people who suffer from this darkness back into the community? How do we help people to have faith in each other? For people who have lost faith in God, how do we show respect and kindness to them while we try our best to share how special our church is?

Maybe we can start asking people outside our Calvary community, “What is it that you love?” It doesn’t have to be in those words exactly. The trick is to find some commonality, like a love of the Milwaukee Bucks, say, or drawing, or jogging, or writing, or singing, or volunteering. We have people right here in this congregation who love to do these things.

You know how people light up and start talking excitedly about their passions when they discover that you have a passion for the same thing? That’s how we make connections, and hopefully to bring some kind of engagement for—and this is audacious—fostering faith. Maybe some people will respond to something in that engagement will help them open up the to the idea that this church could be a great place to find a community.

We on the worship team plan lots of social events—at least one each month. And at these events, we don’t even really talk about God. We’re out to have fun together. It’s pretty simple. These social events are open to anyone, so we welcome guests. When guests join us, they have a good time. That’s when I offhandedly mention that our church is a welcoming place that maybe they’d like to visit sometime. I’m sneaky that way…and it’s not exactly technically proselytizing, which I know Presbyterians don’t do, but hey—I love this church! I can’t help talking about it.

We can also tell visitors about our online newsletter so they can see what we’re doing out in the community. That newsletter is found on our website, so everyone here can see what’s coming up, and join us and even invite a friend.

It’s no secret that we need to grow this congregation. We here know we’re not judgmental. We’re welcoming, and we have fun. We’re serious about our faith, and our faith—our God—tells us we are to love others. The most powerful attachment is love. Our faith tells us to love and support each other both in joyous times, and in dark times.

Isaiah describes God as saying, “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my heart delights; I have put my spirit upon him…I have given to you a covenant to the people, a light to all nations.”

God delights in us! How can we spread that delight?  How can we be a light to our nation?

I’m paraphrasing here, but in John 1 an interesting way of considering this connection simply put goes like this: God loves us just as we love God. Nobody has ever seen God, and yet we love God. Since God loves us so much, we ought to be loving each other. In that way, the people around us can see God through us.

How great is that?

We’ve just begun a new year, and already we could give in and go plunging into a prison of darkness. We have no control as leaders all over all the world make decisions of darkness, but there is one thing we can do: bring a light.

 Bring a light. It may seem like a small thing, but a light shining in the darkness will be seen, maybe not by everyone, but at least by some. By bringing a light, perhaps we can find a way through the age of detachment toward faith and connection.

David Brooks writes, and I agree wholeheartedly, if you want to live a fulfilling life, fill it with loving attachments.