The Most Rev. Michael Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, delivers his sermon “Choose Love” during the morning worship service Sunday in the Amphitheater.
“Choose love, because the alternative is unthinkable,” the Most Rev. Michael Curry told Chautauqua. “Now turn to your neighbor and say to them, ‘Choose love.’” And the congregation at the 10:45 a.m. Sunday ecumenical worship service in the Amphitheater said, “Choose love.”
Curry’s sermon title was “Choose Love,” and the scripture readings were Joshua 24: 14-15 and Matthew 22:34-40.
Joshua, in preparing the Israelites to enter the Promised Land, told them that they must “revere the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness.”
He said to “choose this day whom you will serve,” if they were unwilling to serve the Lord.
In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus encountered a lawyer who asked what was the greatest commandment. “Jesus went right to Deuteronomy 6:5, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your might.’ Then Jesus went to Leviticus 19:18 ‘… you shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Rabbi Hillel said, ‘This is the essence of Torah; all else is commentary.’ ”
Choose love, Curry said.
James Russell Lowell, American poet, critic, diplomat and abolitionist, wrote The Present Crisis in 1845 when the United States was on the verge of war with Mexico and the Civil War was on the horizon. Curry quoted one verse and noted that the NAACP used the name The Crisis as the name of its magazine.
“Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, / In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side; / Some great cause, God’s new Messiah, offering each the bloom or blight, / Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right, / And the choice goes by forever ‘twixt that darkness and that light.”
“In 1845 the nation was about to tear itself apart,” Curry said. “In this nation, in this election year, in this world, we are tearing ourselves apart. Once to everyone and every nation, ‘the choice goes by forever ‘twixt that darkness and that light.’ We must choose love.”
There is currently a debate on how much free will people have. Curry said that determinism seems to have won the day over free will. People are being told that they are helpless victims who can do little about their situation.
“I am not letting us off the hook. Much is determined, but there is a whole lot within reach,” Curry said, “When I was a parish priest in Baltimore, I would tell the congregation that we can’t do everything, but we can do something. We have agency to make something happen. ‘Once to everyone and every nation, the choice goes by forever ‘twixt that darkness and that light.’ We must choose love.”
Curry’s father, who was also an Episcopal priest, often quoted Joshua 24: “Choose who you will serve.”
“Joshua told the people if you don’t know who you will serve, choose,” Curry said. “It is written in the Hebrew, ‘I don’t know about y’all, but I choose the Lord.’ You must choose love.”
Jesus often got into conversations with lawyers, Curry said. They were schooled in the rabbinic tradition of asking questions of the text, and to continually ask questions.
Nicodemus, a lawyer, came to Jesus at night. “Why did he come at night? I say because he was the first Episcopalian and he wanted to get close when no one was looking,” Curry said. “When Jesus encountered the lawyer in Luke 10, Jesus answered the question, ‘Who is my neighbor?’ by asking, ‘What does the law say?’ Then comes the story of the Good Samaritan.”
This exchange came up during the beginning of Passover, or Holy Week for Christians. “Jesus was wrestling with which road to take. He could overthrow the Romans by violence or he could take the way that would give life to everyone,” Curry said. “Jesus had the power for revolution, but he chose the way of love.”
The greatest commandment in the Torah is to love God with all your heart, soul and mind. The second is to love your neighbor as yourself. Everything the Hebrew prophets were railing about began with the reason God created the world — the reason Moses went to free the people, that is — love God and love your neighbor.
“If you are a Democrat, your neighbor is a Republican, and if you are a Republican, your neighbor is a Democrat, and Independents can have either way,” Curry said. “Love your neighbor when you are in the best frame of mind.”
He continued, “To love God, your neighbor and yourself is the trinity of life. You have got to love yourself if you love God and God will love what God has made. We have agency. We are children of God and the Bible says God is love, so love yourself.”
To love God, your neighbor and yourself is a formula for life, said Curry. “I am giving you good medicine. The secret of life is to choose love.”
In 1 John 4, the writer says that love is of God, and those who say they love God but hate their neighbors don’t love God.
Curry said that his performance metric, his one goal in his retirement year, is to “get every Episcopalian to know by heart one verse of scripture, 1 John 4:7-8. ‘Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.’ ”
Curry asked the congregation to say “God is love” together, then asked just the men to say, then just the women, then all together again.
He continued, “Love has the power to lift up and liberate, because the God who created us gave us agency and that agency is love. Through love, we find the power to live in good days and bad.”
Curry quoted the Frank Sinatra song “That’s Life” as an illustration: “I’ve been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet / A pawn and a king / I’ve been up and down and over and out / And I know one thing / Each time I find myself / Flat on my face / I pick myself up and get / Back in the race / That’s life.”
“That’s life,” Curry sang, and the congregation applauded. “Jesus was down for the count on Good Friday, but he was up on Sunday. That is the power of love. You can transform the world by that power.”
Curry grew up in Buffalo and admitted to being a fan of the Buffalo Bills. “You know I am a man of faith because I stuck with them in the ’90s when they went to four Super Bowls. A friend called after the last loss and told me ‘I figured out what Bills stands for. It means “Boy I love losing Super Bowls.’ ” He is going to have to pay me an indulgence to get into heaven.”
He then became thoughtful and said, “After the shooting at the Tops Market on Jefferson Avenue, the community came together and the Bills took the lead. I used to ride my bike near that store and the man killed 14 people who were just grocery shopping. The Bills took the lead and they won the season that mattered. If they never win another Super Bowl, they won the game that matters. They had ‘Choose Love’ on their helmets.”
Choose love and you change the world with your love.
Choose love and let justice roll down like waters.
Choose love until everybody is somebody.
Choose love and study war no more.
Choose love and love each other as God’s children.
“Once to everyone and every nation, the choice goes by forever ‘twixt that darkness and that light,” Curry said. He then led the congregation in singing one verse of “This Little Light of Mine.” The congregation stood and applauded and shouted.
The Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton, senior pastor for Chautauqua Institution, presided. Robin Musher, a retired attorney from Pittsburgh and president of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Class of 2024, read the scripture. The prelude was “Carillon de Westminster,” Op. 54, No. 6, by Louis Vierne, played by Joshua Stafford, director of sacred music and the Jared Jacobsen Chair for the Organist on the Massey Memorial Organ. For the anthem, the Chautauqua Choir sang “If ye love me,” music by Philip Wilby and text from John 14: 15-18. The choir was under the direction of Stafford and accompanied by Rees Taylor Roberts, 2024 organ scholar, on the Massey Organ. The offertory anthem, sung by the choir, was “Greater Love,” music by John Ireland and text from Song of Songs 8: 7, 6; john 15: 13; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 Corinthians 6:11; 1 Peter 2:9 and Romans 12:1. The choir was under the direction of Stafford and accompanied by Roberts. Soloists for the anthem were Joanne Sorensen and James Evans. The postlude was “Toccata en ré majeur,” by Marcel Lanquetuit. Support for this week’s services and chaplaincy is provided by the Samuel M. and Mary E. Hazlett Memorial Fund.
