By Jerria Martin
Special to the Times-Journal

I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.”

—Martin Luther King Jr.

 

Growing up, I was always taught that God is love. My mother told me that those who have been born of God and know God are God’s children, and God’s children have God’s nature. Thus, God’s children will love. As a student at Princeton, I learned that in the Greek language there are four types of love: eros, philo, storge and agape.

However, agape is the love that sustains and empowers me.  Agape love is Christian love, the love that God has for us, the love that is God.

This is the love that Paul describes in his letter to the church of Corinth that is patient and kind.

It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. It’s the love that never ends.

This love universally unites and breaks down barriers of age, race, religion and gender. This love is found in what we freely and sacrificially GIVE to others.

This is the awe-inspiring love that God is calling for in our communities.

In our fallen nature, this is the most difficult love for us to have for one another.

This Godly love is challenging, it pulls us out of the confinements of our own selfish love and requires of us a universal altruistic spirit. This type of love is difficult in our individualistic society, but when done right can be the love that unites us all as one body.

We believe that God loves us, each of us as if there were only one of us. This is the starting point of our faith.

We believe in the incarnation, but theological doctrine and human experience are inseparable. Those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also. This is the greatest charge to the community of believers.

We are called to be guided and motivated by the acts of love our Father has demonstrated in Christ Jesus.

The incarnation, an act of love. The life and works of Jesus were all acts of love.

The death and resurrection, both acts of love. Atonement for our sins, an incredible act of love! God has proven his love for us time after time. He requires us to love as He loves. Surely it is our acts of love and deeds of faith that proclaim our love for God and our relation to Jesus.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus defines for his disciples what is to be their relation to him. They are to dwell in him.

He is not to be the object of their observation, but the body of which they are a part. As they indwell him in his body they will both be led into fuller apprehension of the truth and also become the means through which God’s will is done in the life of the world.

In the words of St. Teresa:

Christ has no body but ours,

No hands, no feet on earth but ours,

Ours are the eyes with which he looks

Compassion on this world,

Ours are the feet with which he walks to do good,

Ours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.

We are the body, one body, that’s connected, lifted, empowered and inspired by one awesome love.

I remember doing an interview at Princeton, as president of the student body, with a journalist from the prestigious Daily Princetonian at our Student government end of the year Unity Day picnic.

The young reporter, looking at the multitude of students from various cultures sitting at the tables dining together, playing horseshoes together and jumping together on the blow up houses that may or may not have been meant for children ages 5 and younger, asked me, off the record — Jerria, how did you do it?

How did you go from being the campus queen of a historically black college to successfully leading a prestigious Presbyterian seminary that consists of students from over 30 different countries and all 50 states, from various religious backgrounds, every age from 22-80 represented?

How did you lead them in coming together to implement over 30 new programs in the school, to raise $20,000 in one week after Hurricane Sandy, to walk the campus calling each other brother or sister?

How did you unite 524 drastically diverse students? I told her the answer is easy, I found 524 new ways to love and made 524 new brothers and sisters.

Though we started out with a lack of cohesiveness, we smile, play, dine and even worship together today knowing that we are all united by one love.