You may not be old enough to remember the Walt Kelly comic strip “Pogo”. The gentle spirited title character, an opossum, was balanced by an unrepentantly cantankerous porcupine. Porky never smiled once in the twenty-year run of the comic strip.
One day a curious Pogo asked Porky how porcupines make love. Porky responded tersely, “Don’t make love; don’t like nobody well enough to.” At the follow-up question, “Well, how do you turn over in bed without sticking yourself?”, Porky stalked away, replying, “Do stick myself. Serves me right too, don’t like nobody.”
One of my colleagues observed that the character of Porkypine delights us because he says what we may think but never say. We know we were made for love, yet we find ourselves as often as not, ill-tempered, cynical and disappointed in one another. And just as often, we’re disappointed with ourselves. It’s difficult to pretend that they’ll know we are Christians by our love when we’re attached to judging one another and holding one another at bay.
The upside is that we imagine we’re better protected and think we’re less likely to get hurt, but of course the one suffering from withheld love is us.
This Sunday we’ll be talking about “love” once again, not in some insipid, sentimentalized way, but about love strong as death, that leads to life.
Tune in to worship this Sunday through ccovb.org livestreamed at 10:15 a.m. to hear the rest of the story. Or any time through archived sermons, through Facebook, or YouTube throughout the week.
Prayer: Holy One, Jesus taught us to pray, and we remember His way. He also taught us to love. We seem to have forgotten. Remind us of the way you would have us go, and give us the courage to take it. Amen
God’s grace, mercy and peace be with you,
Rev. Dr. Anna V. Copeland
Senior Minister, The Community Church of Vero Beach, Florida