Abide. It is something of an archaic word.

Jesus uses it often toward the end of John's Gospel.
John is making a strong theological statement
about God's response to our deepest human needs.

As I thought about these needs
and John's use of the word, abide,
I thought of a story
which I usually wouldn't tell,
but, to me, is illustrative
of these deepest human needs.

In the summer of 1967
I was in a helicopter over the eastern highlands
on some mission that didn't matter very much,
when we had to land to pick up wounded.

I stayed behind on the ground to make room,
and listened to the rotors disappear
with the knowledge
that I was in a jungle clearing,
and nobody knew where I was.
I didn't know where I was.

It was one of those times
in which I was able to identify
deep human needs.

I felt alone, deserted, disconnected.
and, as I scanned the jungle around me,
vulnerable and fearful
of what might be out there.

This story seems to me
to be a parable of life.

The feelings of lost-ness and loneliness,
and fear of our own vulnerability
are part of the human condition,
any time and any where;
and God knows.

A man more retentitive of Greek
than am I
reminded me that the word "abide"
has connotations of intimacy and family.

In order to be open, intimate, connected,
we must have trust, let down our defenses.
It is the only way not to be lonely.
To be part of family
is to have a level of intimacy,
but it is also to have a servant relationship
with the members thereof.

The Greek word, "familus"
originally meant "servant".
Close relatives are those who serve one another
and who trust one another
enough to be soul mates.

Families are those groups
who abide in love.

This is Memorial Day Weekend.
Those who have served in combat
wistfully recall a certain mystical connectedness
to others who have so served.

The black and white nature of combat,
the fear of aloneness,
and the specter of immediate death
drive soldiers to abide in a kind of love.

We honor this day
those who died in the uniform of our country
in wars in diverse places.
For, a nation, they are heroes.

For a survivor, they are the proof
of the need to abide in that kind of love
for the soldier knows
the fear of loneliness and the fragility of life.

The world is a scary, diverse,
lonely, threatening place,
in or out of uniform.

God knows that,
and did something about it.

In Jesus, he gathers us in the intimacy
and servanthood of family.

Jesus connects us to God and to one another:
"As the father has loved me,
so have I loved you.
Abide in my love."

"Perfect love casts out fear," writes John
in his 1st letter.
He also says, "Love has been perfected among us in this."

We are called, you and I,
by God,
into perfect love.

We are invited into fuller humanity
than the world will ever know.

That is why true Christianity
always has a counter cultural
or trans cultural element.
We are not to be so limited.

This call to perfect humanity
is accompanied by the powerful,
enabling, love of God.

The purpose of this congregation, then
is to talk about it,
identify it, be open and vulnerable to it,
live in it,
and serve one another and the world
as beloved of God.

The purpose of this faith community of Saint James
is to abide in God's love;
and we do certain things together
which help us accept this gift.

Our observance of Rogation Day
is a case in point.

Rogation Day comes from the literal belief
that by inviting God into our fields,
his presence will bless the harvest
and all God's children will have enough to eat.

The Rogation Day observance is also a metaphor.
We, as a band of people
gathered from diverse places and experiences
are blessed by the discovery
of God's presence among us.

Sacred fellowship,
trust, and intimacy follow;

and then, as servants of wider family,
we carry that blessing out to the places
where we live and work
and interact with the world.

The darkness fades.
Fear recedes.

A new awareness
of the true potential of humanity dawns.

Our diverse places of life and work
become for us like the plains of Bethlehem
when the Angels were "abiding" in the fields;
basking in the presence
and the promise of the Savior.

"I have said these things to you", said Jesus,
"so that my joy may be in you,
and that your joy may be complete."

"Abide in my love," he said. "Abide in my love."