Agape language and hope

Occasionally I continue checking blogs that mention agape. Recently I found a story from “Wit and Wisdom” May 6, 1998; quoted in onlinechristianforums.com/storytellers-stories/22661-speaking-agape. Here is a tightly edited version:

“In the early 1960s, Brother Andrew, from Holland, smuggled a load of Bibles in his VW across the Romanian border and past communist guards. He checked into a hotel and asked the hotel clerk where he might find a church. The clerk looked at him a little strangely and answered, ‘We don't have many of those you know. Besides you couldn't understand the language.’ ‘Didn't you know?’ Andrew replied, ‘Christians speak a kind of universal language.’ ‘Oh, what's that?’, asked the clerk. ‘It's called Agape.’

“When Andrew finally met with two members of a church, they sat staring at each other across the room until Andrew spotted a Romanian Bible, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a Dutch Bible. He turned to 1 Corinthians 16:20 and held the Bible out, pointing to the name of the book. They quickly found the same chapter and verse in their Romanian Bibles and read: ‘All the brothers here send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss.’ These men spent half an hour conversing and sharing - just through the words of Scripture. They were so happy in this fellowship that crossed all cultural boundaries that they laughed until tears came to their eyes.’

“At the hotel, the clerk approached Andrew and remarked, ‘Say, I looked up 'agape' in the dictionary. There's no language by that name.’ Andrew replied, ‘I was speaking in it all afternoon.’”

That story is a good illustration of what can happen in a person’s life when the spiritual power of agape works to bring the influence of God’s Presence. Because this can happen anytime and any place, that’s why Jesus talked about the influence of God  (formerly referred to by the antiquated translation the “Kingdom of God”) as a present reality and also as hope. During the last few years I have come to believe that spiritual agape is how God brings us awareness of divine Presence and holds out hope of even greater influence in our lives.

The connection between such present reality and hope is what Paul was reflecting when he wrote: “This hope doesn’t put us to shame, because the agape of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:5)

And it is that spiritual meaning that Paul brought to the Early Church, and that has been passed along  thru all the intervening generations -- with the hope that agape would be re-discovered.

That hope has been realized during the last 100 years. During those lost centuries, when no one could remember what was the spiritual meaning behind that strange Greek word “agape,” the hope still lingered that someday the true meaning would be brought back to life. We are now living in those days of re-discovery. That's why it's so important to put into practice the excitement of that discovery.