2049AFC120420 – 2020 Advent Series #2
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Isaiah 40:11 – 11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.
2 Peter 3:9 – 9 The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.
Mark 1:8 – 8 I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. (Use the link to see this in context)
May Peace always be with you and may God bless you, Belovéd!
Back in October, I created a post called 2040AFC100220 – Think about these things and in that post was this statement: We discern what is good, and follow everything that points to the Love of God in Christ Jesus. We never, never, never, never give up Hope! We place Faith as our mast, and Love as our sail, and with Wisdom as our rudder we follow the course laid out in Scripture.
My dear friend and mentor, John Kretser, commented on that. He liked the image and contributed the thought that the Boat that holds that mast, sail, rudder, and course is our Hope in Christ Jesus. KA-CHING! There it was laid out for me just as I had hoped. Today we will continue with the Sail – Love. As I worked on deciding how to build this series, a second set of instructions came in: BUILD IT FROM PREVIOUSLY-USED MATERIALS AND INSERT NEW MATERIAL FROM EACH SUNDAY’S READINGS. This is the second in the Series. I’ll give you links where you can go look at the origin of what you’ll see in these posts. Last week we talked about the mast – our Faith. Our Faith is anchored in the hull of our boat, and the rigging of the mast. Faith is anchored in our foundation, our hull, our soul. It’s held up with the rigging – support cables – of our knowledge of God and his Word. Faith is what supports our love of God and neighbor. To this mast and rigging we attach the Sail – Love. We should know how a sail works, so here – in a very limited way – is a little insight into that.
A sail “pushes backward” against the wind – it catches it across its surface and the force of the wind is transferred to the boat through the mast. When the wind is coming from directly behind the boat – coming from astern – the boat moves forward. This is “navigating downwind.” The sail is positioned perpendicular to the wind to capture the most energy. This means you move in the direction the wind is blowing. Moving in a direction other than the direction the wind is blowing requires a good deal of experience and a deep understanding of the interactions between the wind, the sail, the boat’s keel, and the water. Sailing across or against the wind is called tacking. In these procedures, it is the lift of the wind (← Check it out!) blowing over the curved surface of the sail that “pulls” the boat forward much in the same way as an airplane’s wing causes lift to get the airplane off the ground by applying the Bernoulli principle. That’s greatly oversimplified, but hopefully enough to get us started, so here we go.
Let’s start with something that is “perfectly obvious:” For the sail to work, it must be attached to the mast and rigging, it has to be open, unfurled, and the wind needs to be blowing. Maybe it’s a bit of a stretch, but Love works a bit like that as well. Take our first Key Verse for example. What tenderness there is in the shepherd who carries the lamb in his arms and leads the ewes with care! Little lambs have a lot of energy, but they also tire easily. When they are moving with the flock as they graze, the little guys sometimes get tuckered out and just can’t go any farther, so they can’t keep up with their mama. The good shepherd will pick up that little one and carry it for a while so it can rest without being left behind. As for the ewes, especially those still carrying their progeny, they must be led with care – slowly, with an eye toward safe paths, gentle slopes, adequate water, and gradually move the flock so as not to endanger their lives. When Love is spread like a sail, it gathers the wind “in its arms” and moves the boat along. A good sailor, like a good shepherd, will watch the surroundings and the weather to guide the boat with care. There is more about shepherds at 1718AFC050517 – Seeds and Sheep.
Another perfectly obvious fact is that sails are designed to work with wind. It is a renewable resource and – although it is hard to see where it is – we can see what it does. The wind moves past or over things that do not catch it. We cannot catch the wind in our hands and perhaps not even in our heart – we recall the song (↔ Music Link) by Donovan Leitch and Bob Dylan. When we catch the wind in a sail, it moves us because it moves the boat. In our spiritual boat described here, the destination we choose is toward God. I think sometimes we forget that maybe just a little. We keep asking God to come be with us, to rescue us, to change us, but isn’t it true that we need to move forward toward God? That’s difficult to do when we are anchored to sin. We need to release that anchor so we can move again. Please read that second Key Verse again. God is always, always patiently waiting for us to haul anchor and move toward him – to repent so that we do not perish. When we do that, the Wind can fill our sail. Ah-ha, I see you have confirmed you knew all along what the Wind in your sail will be: The Holy Spirit. Remember now from previous lessons that in verses like Genesis 1:2, the wind that swept over the void was the Spirit of God. In John 1:32 it is the Holy Spirit in the appearance of a dove. These are, respectively Ruach and Pneuma. We open our sail of Love and the Spirit fills it with his Power and Grace. That’s what connects us to our last Key Verse, Mark 1:8 – it is the Holy Spirit that fills our love and moves us toward God. The Spirit will always move us in the direction of God, but sometimes we either forget that or decide not “to keep the wind astern.” When we do that, we need to know some of the finer points of sailing on that Crystal Sea, and the best way to learn is to go to someone who can teach us. Our Catechisms, our Pastors, and our fellow Pilgrims help us learn how to navigate in those situations. Even simple boats require trained sailors.
The kinds of boat you’ve seen in the images in these two posts are single-mast, single-sail boats. They are large enough to carry passengers, conduct trade, withstand the rigors of tumultuous seas, and – if necessary – even go to war on a limited basis. A rudimentary boat without a mast and sail – a rowboat or skiff or a dinghy for example – depends on people-power and oars. “Everyone must row with the oars they’ve got.” (← Check it out at 613AFC033106! ) We know the life of seafarers can be harrowing, and so we also celebrate them – and all of us who navigate the waves and doldrums of the Sea of Life – with the Christian Navy Hymn, ETERNAL FATHER STRONG TO SAVE (↔ Music Link)
Now, please consider these passages regarding love, and think of them as sails that can be filled by the Holy Spirit:
Mark 12:29-31 – 29 Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30 you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
John 13:34 – 34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.
John 15:9-12 – 9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
Romans 5:3-5 – 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
Romans 13:10 – 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
And finally –
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a – 4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends.
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
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Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Biblical languages inserts from Bible Hub (Bible Hub: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages) Visit at http://biblehub.com
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
