Looking for you

I spoke a bit last week about spending time at the Jersey Shore.

And after having spoken about it, I’ve remained in a bit of a reflective mood as I spent a lot of time down there growing up and after a long time away, I returned there a few summers ago with my wife and children.

For the last two summers we’ve gone down there and this upcoming summer we will go again, only this time it will be just Jenn and I, the kids might come down for a night or two but that remains to be seen.

And I guess that mood, that reflective mood comes because my time down on the shore was such a wonderful time and spent under various circumstances and in various seasons of my life.

I first remember going down to Wildwood with my parents and brother where we would spend a glorious week in August where we’d stay at the iconic Pan Am Motor Lodge and eat pancakes at Uncle Lou’s or seafood at Ed Zaberer’s.

We’d spend most of our days on the beach followed by a night walking the boardwalk and riding rides on Maury’s or Hunt’s Piers.

Later in life, my grandparents bought a condo in Belmar and the whole family, my immediate family, my aunt and uncle and their children would all gather there being sure to take family pictures on the great big sectional couch they had on the lower level.

We’d all pose one way or another capturing a moment; a moment in time of spiked haircuts and braces and smiles.

Smiles that told the story of two people who fell in love in nineteen forty something and produced this brood that gathered together at dinner and would pause to watch the sun fall below the horizon through the western facing window in the dining room.

Smiles that shone on the face and through a metallicized mouth of a boy who knew he was loved and because of that love is probably able to talk to a whole slew of people this morning about love, and an only greater love there is to be experienced in this lifetime.

And eventually, my grandparents moved from that condo to a place further from the Shore but never far away.

And it was never far away, not just in memory or the fondness of recollections held by a taciturn teenager, but because we, my father and I would continue to visit the shore even if just for an hour two throughout the years and seasons my grandparents lived in New Jersey.

We’d visit the stark gray and desolate Shore in late fall and I would think about just how beautiful that place was even in the cold mists of November; beautiful in the dark just as it was in the light, the Shore was a beacon, a welcoming home.

Even today, an afternoon on the Shore looking toward the horizon, be it in the coolness of spring or on the hottest of summer days, reminds me that I am forever loved.

For as I look toward what appears to be the infinite, I can recall the warmth on my back from the sun and the knowledge that behind me too lives the affecting gaze of a family who loved me and love does not fade.

Not true love.

And still, I did not need to turn from that eastward gaze to know then love was there, love behind me propelling towards me, hurtling through me, piercing a youthful heart, I knew I was loved.

And, in a sense, I suppose I was lucky to have had and continue to have a family who loves me.

Some here this morning might not feel so lucky; some may not have had the childhood I did or love turned out differently for others.

Yet, I promise you, we share the same love, the same piercing love I felt as a child and continue to feel the love we all experience in one way or another through God’s love.

Friends, you are sought after; Jesus is looking for you.

Be you full of all the richness this life has to offer or be you forlorn; you have received the greatest love that can be loved for you are loved by God.

Just as when the crowds come to the Shore and you can feel the hustle and bustle of those around you, just as when the church is full on Christmas and Easter and you hear the hum amidst the congregation, it might be easier to realize that love.

And even in the desolate times, when the winter wind whips through you deep, as deep as God’s love is for you, when it might be harder to realize that love because you are in pain or your heart hurts in loneliness or anger, God still loves; God’s love whips as fast as the winds around you, as deeply as your soul might ache.

Jesus is looking for you.

And because Jesus searches, Jesus finds.

Friends, Jesus is the shepherd who gathers us to God, who gave up his life so that we might remain with the flock.

And that is love.

Though sometimes we might want to run away, Jesus pursues; but mostly, we do not run.

We want.

We want to be loved; we want to feel God’s love wash upon us and we can.

We can feel that love for we know Jesus and Jesus knows God.

And it is real.

And it is just as real as any love felt and given through human love and human emotion and it is even greater than that.

But my words cannot state this reality adequately, my words are just platitudes if I only speak of love and not knowledge of love.

We know God’s love, we are able to realize God’s love because we are a community sharing in that love and Christ gave his life to ensure this community of Christians, in the room and across the world might stay together in God’s name.

There are many who would lead us astray, there are many who would lead us astray even in Christ’s name, but we are followers of the one true shepherd and not the hired hand who runs at the first threat; flees when there is any sign of difficulty.

Jesus laid down his life for us and the false shepherd, the hired hand would not and does not.

And we are known by Christ; just as in human terms of love, just as my family knows me; so too does Christ know us.

And Christ knows us worthy of his love.

Christ knows we are worthy of God’s love for Christ knows the Father.

If I appear to be speaking circuitously or I am on some tangent, I apologize and I will summarize.

You are loved.

You are sought after.

Jesus is the shepherd doing the seeking and he will go so far as to lay down his life for you and this community so that we are taken in by false prophets and hired hands.

And we know that because he already did.

He gave his life so that we might realize God’s love.

I was born blessed, I realize that; my story earlier confirms that I grew up loved and nourished and well.

That love points to a greater love.

That love, as great and wonderful and lifegiving and necessary as it is, is still a hint of the perfect love we are all gifted and to which we aspire.

We are loved perfectly.

With that perfection comes joy, joy that we are loved.

And hope, hope that we may share in that love.

And charity, charity so that within those we help might burn the spark, the passion for Jesus we feel when we are drawn to the table as one body, in one name.

That the shepherd sought us out makes our task to leading others to the shepherd that much easier.

And so let us look eastward towards Jerusalem; to the cross; to Calvary.

Let us find victory there in the love that God provides.

Let us find community there through the shepherd that draws us together.

Eastward, ever eastward, knowing a propelling love behind us; love from family; love from God; strengthens us anew.