“A Tapestry of Love” Pastor Peter Hanson Colossians 2:2-4 Christ the King Lutheran Church Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost September 21, 2014

 

The Apostle Paul writes: “I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know about God.” Last week, we talked about being woven together, about God being our master weaver, about God creating something out of nothing, recreating something new out of something that was weary, worn out, used up, even discarded. Next week, we’ll look a little more deeply at what it might mean that we are called to be “in touch with everything there is to know about God.” Today, though, I want to talk about that “what” that we have been woven into, and why. We have been woven together into a tapestry of love, for love, drawn together to show God’s love for one another.

About a year ago, I had lunch with my friend, Marty. Marty is a good friend of my from college, who coincidently is a good friend of Steve Fischer’s, since they grew up in the same hometown of Owatonna, which coincidentally is where my grandparents lived for most of my life. We were just chatting, catching up a bit on our lives, our families, our work—I was interviewing for this position at the time—when Marty suddenly couldn’t contain himself and said, “I’ve got something for you.” And so he pulled out of his pocket an envelope marked Kottke Jewelers on it. Now Kottke Jewelers is Marty’s dad’s jewelry store, and had been his grandpa’s store before that—the oldest family-owned business in Owatonna still operating in the same place after nearly 100 years. I knew that store, of course, since my grandparents went there for everything from watch batteries to anniversary presents, and because it’s where we bought our wedding rings. In fact, “going to see Marty’s dad” was a bit of a euphemism among my college friends for getting ready to pop the question. A big smile on his face, Marty pushed the envelope over to me, and there inside was a watch. This watch, right here. And tied to the watch was a sort of claim-ticket and work order for the watch. Under customer’s name it said “Les Hanson,” my grandpa. Under the description of the work order were the words, “watch running slow, needs new battery, general cleaning, check up on works, etc.” There was a check by the box that said work completed, followed by the words tried to call with a long ago date, then a new note that said “grandson will pick up” a much more recent date, and then the words “amount due: 0”.

I looked at the watch, the claim check, and Marty—still smiling—and we sort of pieced together what had happened. My grandpa must have dropped off his watch to get repaired, then forgot about it or maybe decided not to worry about it, just around the time he and my grandma moved up to Bloomington to a senior residence, where they lived for the final chapter of their lives, my grandpa living well into his 90s. Marty’s dad must have come across the watch wherever he kept unclaimed merchandise, and hearing that I was back in Minnesota and that Marty and I had been catching up, made the newer notations on the claim check and gave it to him to give to me. So my grandpa gave me his watch—indirectly. He gave it to me through the kindness and generosity of Bill Kottke, who thought I’d like to have it as well as through his son, who he knew was my friend. Simple acts of kindness and love now multiplied over time and space. Woven together in a tapestry of love. I never had a chance to thank Bill directly. When Bill passed away about a week ago, I was sure to pass along my thanks once again to Marty, though.

It seems to me that this is part of the “why” God wants to weave us into a tapestry of love. It is a tapestry woven in love. A tapestry woven for love. We come together across our differences and distinctions, united in, through, and across our diversities, in order to show God’s love to one another and to the world around us. God brings us together to

 

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practice acts of kindness, acts of beauty, acts of mercy and reconciliation, acts of peacemaking and justice, acts of generosity to one another. And as often as not, we are able to engage in these acts of kindness, mercy, peace and justice, generosity and abundance because of the connections we have. Not so much six degrees of separation as several degrees of interwoven-ness.

Elsewhere in the New Testament, Paul writes about us being joined together into the Body of Christ, while at the same time individually members of it. He talks about the ways that we are all differently gifted—some are teachers, some are preachers, some are behind-the-scenes doers, some the fundraisers and cheerleaders—and as Paul says, the body can’t be all hands, can’t be all feet, can’t be all eyes or all ears or all voices, or else, where would the body be, Paul asks? No we rely on one another, like the various parts of the body rely on one another. We suffer together when one part suffers, we rejoice together when one part rejoices. And together, working as a unified body, we can engage in acts of love for our neighbor, working across the warp and the weft, shuttling back and forth as we begin to be immersed in God’s mission, showing love for the world that God made.

Of course, Jesus gives us the command to love one another as he has loved us—just as we read in the gospel today. But like everything Christ commands us to do, he also gives us the tools we need to carry out that command. And what we need to carry out this command to love another as he has loved us God in Christ has made readily available to us: our individual gifts, talents, experiences, and perspectives come to us from God the giver of life, and the community we are woven into also comes from God—the Master Weaver. The tapestry is a symbol of our community—our whole selves entering community, the strength we find in community, following Christ in community.

And it is in this community of strong, whole Christ-followers that we are called to not only practice love for one another but actually to outdo one another in showing honor. Now I don’t think Paul meant that we should literally by in competition, certainly not if that competition leads as it often does to bragging rights, egotism, and what my grandpa used to call “showing off.” But what if we saw ourselves in a friendly competition with one another for showing love and kindness to our neighbors. Maybe think about it more as encouraging one another, spurring one another one, motivating one another by the kinds of ways that we show generosity and honor to one another. Think of it as giving back, think of it as paying it forward, call it what you will, but we are called as a community to love another and to continually outdo one another at acts of honor, mercy, reconciliation and love. That encouragement, that affirmation, that reassurance and inspiration help us as a community to be a tapestry of love—providing strength to one another, interweaving our blessings to be a blessing to those around us, multiplying our acts of love through being woven together.

I wrote in our online devotion a couple weeks ago about the tradition of Kalifoshon in the Lutheran Church of Senegal. As the community awaits an occasion, such as a wedding or the birth of a child, weavers among them begin to weave long narrow strips of cloth together, using a loom like this one, often built right into the trees. The result is bolts of this narrow fabric, tightly woven, often in shades of white and indigo. Then, as the occasion gets closer, these long narrow strips are sewn together by members of the community. If it’s for a wedding, they might be sewn into a large rectangle, big enough for a bedspread or a table cloth. At the ceremony, then, the couple are wrapped in this cloth, as they are reminded of the hours of careful and prayer-ful work that have gone into it—much like our prayer shawls we bring to those in the hospital or grieving.

 

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If the cloth is being made for the arrival of a baby, then it is a smaller rectangle that’s sown together, often times with brighter colors either woven in or over-dyed onto the fabric. This is the cloth the baby would be wrapped in just after it’s born, and eventually, it is what the mother would use to strap the baby on her back Again, with the blessings of the entire community woven in, this baby is literally wrapped up in a tapestry of love. It’s a constant reminder of this community loving one another, and even outdoing one another in acts of love, respect, and caring, as this would be the carrier of choice for mothers to use on a special occasions, such as this procession of pastors’ wives at the annual offering festival in the Lutheran Church of Senegal.

Sisters and brothers, we have been and we continue to be woven together into a tapestry. And this tapestry is there to provide us with a sense of community, to give us strength and complementarity as we work together as the body of Christ. We are called to love one another, called to strengthen one another as we share God’s love with the world around us. To encourage one another, striving even to outdo one another in our acts of love. We’re called to give back, to pay it forward, to pass it on, like Les Hanson and Bill Kottke and so many others have done so well, an example provided for us which Marty and I and I’m guessing the rest of you are striving to live up to.

Chosen and woven, we are made new. God’s word alive in the things we do. Glimpses of God now within the weave, we follow Christ in Community. God weaves us all in a tapestry. A tapestry of Love. Amen.