Love Loudly

Author: Mark Fenstermacher
April 22, 2022

Outside the Lviv train station, where civilians were gathering to catch trains to the relative safety of western Ukraine, a female pianist sat and played “What a Wonderful World” as people raced by.  At the same train station, a man named Alex played Hans Zimmer’s song “Time” on a piano located outside under the open sky.

As Alex plays, air raid sirens go off. Police urge the people to take shelter. Instead of running away, the pianist keeps playing in defiance of the violent assault on the innocent. Alex later said that when the sirens got louder, he decided to play louder. A pedestrian walking by heard the music and joined in to play a few chords.

When the world is afflicted by hate, fear, corrupting greed, racism, lies, and violence, it can be tempting to give up on the Jesus way to life. It can be tempting to fall silent before the noise of injustice and violence.

Easter, I commented on Easter Sunday morning, is God’s sign that love has the last word and it calls us to love more loudly. Instead of running for cover, instead of being passive in the face of evil, God is calling you, me, and the Church to love more loudly.

What does that look like in your corner of the world? I encourage you to pray, to get more and more familiar with the way of Jesus (try reading through the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew in (chapters 5, 6, and 7), and live God’s love out more boldly than ever before.

Jesus said something extraordinary and world changing as he spoke to his disciples and friends before his arrest. “So now I am giving you a new commandment,” Jesus said in John 13:34 (New Living Translation). “Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.”

If there was ever a season when we were called to love loudly, this is it!

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Join us for a very special Sunday this coming weekend. Our music ministry will be presenting the Easter Cantata at 8:45, and we will be beginning our new sermon series God’s Easter Community.  We’ll see what God has to say to us about living a life that refuses to be fearful.

Invite a friend, co-worker, or neighbor to worship with you!

I am blessed to serve Christ with you. 

Grace and peace,
Pastor Mark

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