Generating a love that’s more fierce than the harms that confront us

LOUISVILLE — The Rev. Paul Roberts, who leads the Justice Center for Sacred Theological Studies — formerly known as Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary — delivered the opening plenary Wednesday as part of the Annual Event of the Association of Partners in Christian Education.

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Roberts laid out a few “things I presume, and I invite you to presume them with me.”

• As people of faith, we commit to continue searching for truth — “not narrative, but truth — even cold, hard, unbearable truth,” Roberts said, reminding those in attendance online and at the Wyndham Grand Hotel in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that Jesus once called himself the way and the truth and the life.
• Love is active, not static. “When we choose to love, we are committing ourselves to action,” Roberts said. “We are examining our motives, our belief systems, our practices an our behaviors. Awareness born of self-examination deepens our awareness of the divine presence.”
• We honor, respect and protect God’s Creation, including bees, caterpillars, butterflies, wasps, snakes, hedgehogs, lizards, icecaps, soil, coral reefs, national parks and the Amazon River and rain forest.
• “I hope I am not pushing the envelope too much,” he said, “but the presumption is we live in a world that has always been conflicted” and has always been impacted by violence, strife, hurt and harm. “We talk about oppression, manipulation and materialism. None of this is new. It’s our current reality, but it’s not new,” he said. “The charge for us as people of faith is to generate a love that’s more fierce than the harms that confront us.”
• God is loveable. While Roberts said he thinks folks at APCE would also presume that, “it’s worth asking, is he or she?” Is God “accessible enough that we are actually able to love God?” Peruse the biblical text, query it, and reflect on it, Roberts suggested: “In our human frailty and our understanding of what’s in the text, is God loveable? I don’t know. I choose to believe so, but I don’t know.”
• Roberts’ final presumption is based on 1 John 4:19: “We love because he first loved us.” Those attending an APCE conference “understand, at least to a degree, the intangible personal experience that God is a loving God,” he said. We endeavor to love God “not because we read it in a theological treatise or recite it from the Book of Confessions, not because the preacher said so, not because it’s the party line, but because you and I have a tangible, personal experience with God.”

About 35 years ago, Roberts chose to become a Presbyterian. “I like order and I like to know what’s coming next. I like committees,” he said. “But this is serious, friends. We can only love God because God loved us first.”

He asked: How do we know what it’s like to be in the presence of the Divine?

“Please don’t presume that 11 o’clock Sunday morning is automatically that place,” he said. “That’s important, but it it’s also a day and an hour that’s rife with conflict. It is often governed by our social needs and societal constructs and cultural preferences.”

Then Roberts offered some of his own insights “as a sojourner. I want you to know how I experience God in hopes that you too will be very intentional about identifying those places where you encounter the divine love and are therefore equipped to share the love of God with others.”

One example is the connection “between the food we eat and our spirituality,” he said. “Eating slowly, without waste, can reflect our awareness. … Could it be that by eating food in its most holistic, natural form — raw or lightly cooked — enhances our experience of God’s love?”

Illustrating with photos of his own garden, Roberts called the compost pile his favorite garden spot. “The food that quickens us to the presence of the Divine comes from that compost,” he said. “God formed the human from that, and then blew in the breath of life.”

“It’s then that I begin to understand the personal experience of God’s unconditional and miraculous love,” he said. “All Creation is bound up in the compost pile.”

That’s the way it is with soil, Roberts said: “We are born from it, and we will return to it. During our earthly sojourn, our engagement with it is deep into the very essence of patience, hope, kindness, productivity and love.”

Roberts also had photos depicting his practice of Bikram Yoga. “I post these because yoga changed my life,” he said, increasing his flexibility and removing pain that had nagged him for years.

“I think there is a form of yoga for everybody, but this is not about yoga. This is about breath. God breathed into us,” he said. “The way to increase capacity is to take deep breaths to the point where it’s uncomfortable.”

He also told the story about the sudden death of his dog. “It was five years ago, and it’s still very painful,” he said. “She loved unconditionally. I don’t think in my humanity I’m capable of that. I’m trying, but I’m human. I have biases. I’m judgmental. I have baggage. When I don’t feel well, I’m mean.” His dog “saw it all and it didn’t matter. She loved unconditionally.”

Roberts ended his talk with encouragement for those in attendance. “Find a way to be fierce in your pursuit of the divine presence,” he suggested. “All the rest of the conference is moot if we can’t pinpoint the experience of God’s incredible and unconditional love.”

“Let’s be fierce about exercising a love so strong it overcomes hate, violence and all the harms we’re bemoaning,” he said. “Let’s stop bemoaning and let’s start loving, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost,” Roberts said, exiting the stage to cheers and applause.