One of the activities I did to try enjoying the shut down before I was vaccinated against the coronavirus pandemic was to discover books about love to add to my collection. One of the best is Love is The Way by Episcopal Archbishop Michael Curry.
He gave the sermon at the wedding of British Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, but like every author who discusses agapé, after explaining that he meant agapé when he talked about love, the rest of his book replaces ‘agapé’ with ‘love.’ (Because Curry has so much to say, this blog page is longer than most of my pages.)
An example of the difference in the sense of meaning is 2 versions of his quote in which he speaks directly to the reader of his book: “God’s love is everywhere, in all things, and that includes you.” Now when we make the replacement we get: “God’s agapé is everywhere, in all things, and that includes you.” See how that reminds us of Romans 5:5 (when the replacement is made there also): “hope does not disappoint us, because God’s agapé has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
Michael Curry started discussing agapé as “sacrificial love that seeks the good and well-being of others, of society, of the world.” When he finally got around to seeing the spiritual aspect of agapé, he began by pointing out, “The Greek word used by the New Testament writer for the word ‘love’ is ‘agape.’” Then he commented about John 3:16, “God gave. That’s agape. And love such as that is the way to the heart of God, the heart of each other. It is the way to a new world that looks something more like God’s dream for us and all creation, what Dante spoke of as ‘the love that moves the sun and stars.’”
“Sharing godly agapé liberates the true self, so that we can more fully live. When you know, nurture, and ultimately share your true self, you breathe God’s agapé into every space you inhabit.
“We were made by a power of agapé, and our lives were meant — and are meant — to be lived in that agapé. That’s why we are here. Ultimately, the source of agapé is God, the source of all our lives.
“The more we listen to agapé — let it guide us through life — the faster we find that sweet spot, that intersection where our deep gladness and the world’s hunger meet and walk the path of agapé together.
“Agapé is meant to saturate all levels of human living and existence, because the God who gave us life is agapé.
“The agapé you need to discover inside yourself is something fierce. This agapé is a verb: it’s an action, with force and follow-through. When we really put agapé to work, it starts to reveal its extraordinary power.
“There is a simple way to connect to the divine, anytime you feel like it. If God is agapé, and agapé is an action, you’ve only got to get out there and do it. You’ve got to get out there and receive it. From a small gesture to a large sacrifice, every day provides an opportunity to do agape, so long as you’re not living a life in isolation.
“The way of agapé can change each of us, and all of us, for the better.
“Agapé, as I read in the Bible, is ubiquitous. It affects all aspects of life. Agapé is all around us. It is in nature — in the ocean, the trees, the sky, the mountains, all of it. But connecting to God’s presence in nature isn’t passive, either. It requires active presence.
“The great theologian and philosopher Howard Thurman reflected on the profound experience he had watching Halley’s comet in 1910, and he gave a name to the awareness and awe that came over him, ‘the givens of God,’ which the human heart by its very nature hungers to connect with. When we succeed, we feel it. God’s agapé is everywhere, in all things, and that includes you.
“Martin Luther King showed how to discover the power of agapé, which he called the redemptive power of agapé that we can use to make of this old world a new world, for agapé is the only way.
“For agapé to survive when dreams are deferred, it must be practiced day in, day out. And in the end, living the way of agapé requires what Dr. King called ‘cosmic companionship.’ When it’s dark on earth, God is the one who whispers, ‘Say, let me tell you about this dream…’ Dr. King realized that to walk the way of agapé, we need to nurture a relationship with the source of agapé.
“Agapé — unselfish, sacrificial, unconditional, and liberating agapé — is the way, frankly the only way, to realize God’s dream of the beloved community, on earth as it is in heaven. It’s the only thing that can, and that ever will, make the world a better place.
“There is a universal hunger at the heart of every human being: to give agapé and to receive agapé. It connects all people of faith, hope, and good will. That agapé knows no borders, no limitations, no divisions or differences of race, class, caste, nationality, ethnic origin, political affiliation, or religious conviction. That agapé can break down every barrier that blocks the way to the realization of God’s dream of the beloved community.
“God’s agapé is a gift of God, flowing from the very heart of creation.
“Human beings — fragile as we are — are the beautiful, heartbreaking conduit, but ultimately not the source. God may be the source of agapé, but people are the vessels.
“The way of agapé — the power of God — is the key to our hope and to our future. The liberating agape of God is the key to the Way of Jesus.
“The way of agapé is how we stay decent during indecent times.
“So here I am … encouraging a revival of agapé as a way to a liberating and life-giving relationship with God, with others, with all God’s creation on the planet. The revival of agapé as the guide for living; for relationships; for leaders; for our individual and collective spiritual, material, and physical well-being. Our job is to share agapé, and in the case of Christians, to witness to the way of agapé that came to us from Jesus’s teachings.
“The way of agapé will show us the right thing to do, every single time. It is moral and spiritual grounding — and a place of rest — amid the chaos that is often part of life.
“Dreamers understand that we need to change the world with agapé, not hate. For John Lewis the civil rights movement, above all, was a work of agapé. He learned that by facing an army of weapons drawn against him with agapé as his only defense.
“Agapé is God’s way, the moral way, but it’s also the only thing that works.
“What we call nonviolent resistance, or turning the other cheek, is in fact the strategic deployment of agapé.
“Striving to look outward at the common good whenever possible is about as countercultural as you can get in this country. But that’s what agapé means.
“Agapé is powerful, transformative, free, and freeing to all.
“When the way of agapé becomes one’s way of life, it’s a game changer. It shapes every decision we make — and that changes everything.
“Part of living the truth of agapé is working for a good, just, humane, and loving society. It means praying through participation in the life of our government and society. Through caring for others. Through working for policies and laws that reflect Jesus’s call for agapé, to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Through fashioning a civic order that reflects goodness, justice, and compassion, and the very heart and dream of God for all of God’s children and God’s creation.
“There’s power in agapé. There’s power to help and heal when nothing else can. There’s power in agapé to lift up and liberate when nothing else will. There’s power in agapé to show us the way to live.
“When God, who is agapé, becomes our spiritual center of gravity, and agapé our moral compass, we live differently, regardless of what the world around us does. The world changes for the better, one life at a time. So don’t give up on agapé.
“We need help from the very source of our faith and values — from God’s agapé. And we also need soul companions to help us along the way. We need spiritual energy, the source of agapé that is bottomless and endless. And then, we need each other.
“Agapé as an action is the only thing that has ever changed the world for the better.
“Faith dares us to believe that in the end, agape wins. We can’t see it, but we believe it anyway.
“The world has changed before, and it can change again, for the better. And we can find peace and joy in our hearts in the interim, even as we carry on the struggle for a humane, just, and peaceful world ruled by agapé."
