This is a repeat-after-me song

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One of the things you become keenly aware of when you're away from a community or workplace for a time, is what makes your place unique or special. When I checked in to my email yesterday and checked in with Peggy this morning, it was no surprise to learn of the ways you have been caring for each other and holding each other up especially in the light of the recent news of Diana’s death. 

For those who are newer to St Clement’s, Diana Geys was a beloved member of this community: she faithfully cared for the altar linens; she was a person of deep prayer; she dressed up for absolutely every occasion (every year before the Altar Guild lunch, Diana would go and get her hair “set” and she was always game to dress up for everything from Camp Sunday to our Sound of Music fundraiser). Diana also had just the most incredible journey of faith. As Peggy shared with you last week, we’ll have an opportunity to honour that journey at a later date when we gather to give thanks to God for Diana’s life. 

Many of you will have heard that shortly before Diana died, she took part in our Music Mondays challenge. Lynley had invited members of the congregation to send in a line from scripture or a religious poem and he would set the words to music. We’ll have an opportunity this morning during the offertory hymn to sing the words Diana submitted. They go like this: “Look into your heart/Look into your heart before you sleep/Look into your heart/Look into your heart before you go to sleep.”

These words are timely for our celebration of St Peter and St Paul this morning. In our gospel reading, we have the famous passage where Jesus says to Peter three times, “Do you love me?” The passage is found in the last chapter of John’s gospel. It’s been said by scholars that this chapter acts as a kind of epilogue. An epilogue is “a section or speech at the end of a book or play that serves as a comment on or a conclusion to what has happened.” Jesus asking Peter three times, “Do you love me?” is the author’s way of saying, “Dear reader, before you finish this story, before you go to sleep, look into your heart and make sure you haven’t missed what this book’s been all about."

If you were to sum up what the story of Jesus is all about, I wonder what would you say? I think it's at least in part about asking yourself before you turn to face your death, or before you turn to face your next chapter, or your next turn in life’s journey: where have I loved Jesus well? (And, I’m deliberately posing the question as, “where have I loved Jesus well?” as opposed to “have I loved Jesus well?” Anglican theology at its best assumes that God’s love is always present in our midst, even when we get in our own way).

I’ve often thought of the conversation between Jesus and Peter as the ‘OG’ prayer of examen, or the original lectio divina. The prayer of examen and lectio divina are two Christian spiritual practices. The prayer of examen is where you pause at the end of the day, it could be as you’re getting ready to go to sleep, and you pray a series of very simple prayers, which might include questions like: God, where did I see you in my home? In my daily chores? In my morning routines? Where did I miss your presence?

God, where did I see you on my commute? In the day’s comings and goings? Where did I pass by too quickly?

God, where did I encounter you in my meals, shared or alone, quick or leisurely? Where was I ungrateful?

God, where did I hear you in the media? Where did I see you on my many devices? How did I distinguish your voice from that of the forces of evil which threaten to tear down and destroy rather than lift up?

This practice is a way of going back over our day to reconsider the moments when we loved God well, and the moments when, gee, we could really do with a do-over. It follows the example of Jesus, who gives Peter that second chance. Earlier in the story, if you’ll recall, as Jesus is arrested and put on trial to be crucified, Peter denies knowing Jesus three times. Now, after the resurrection, Jesus asks Peter three times, “Do you love me?” It’s an example of literary symmetry, and of God’s abundant forgiveness and welcome home. 

Jesus asking Peter three times “Do you love me?” is a kind of prayer of examen—it’s also a kind of lectio divina. Lectio divina simply means divine reading. Read a passage of scripture three times, and after each reading pause to ask a simple question, something like: What word or phrase captures your attention? What is God saying to the Church through this passage? What is God calling you to do through this passage? (We know this practice as well from the Indigenous Church as ‘Gospel-based discipleship’)

And, if thinking of this passage as a prayer of examen or a kind of lectio divina isn’t quite cutting it for you, then maybe you can join me and the kids in thinking of it as Jesus teaching Peter a simple repeat-after-me children’s song. Fun fact: the song we learned during the children's talk, “Jesus loves me this I know”, was written by two sisters in the late 1800s—Anna Bartlett Warner and Susan Warner. It was originally included in one of Susan’s novels as a poem read aloud to comfort a dying child. They don’t put that on the CD cover. We tend to sing a more cheerful version when teaching Sunday School, which is a good thing, I think, and it’s good to know that this little ditty has some really quite profound roots. 

When the words were set to music by William Batchelder Bradbury the refrain was added: “Yes Jesus loves me/Yes Jesus loves me/Yes Jesus loves me/the Bible tells me so.”

Three times—Yes Jesus loves me. I wonder if it’s a reference to this passage of John’s gospel we’ve been talking about today? In the 1862 hymnbook where this song was first published, the inscription reads:

This little gem of a hymn was sent by a devoted Sunday School worker to the author . . . accompanied by the note: ‘I enclose a hymn for which I am very anxious to have a tune as beautiful as its words and thoughts. In our Sunday school it is a perfect charm. I have never known a hymn which so completely captivates the children. Boys who at first did all they could to break up our evening meetings, now venture inside, and cannot help joining us when we repeat those precious words: ‘Jesus loves me.’ There is but one thing wanting: give us a good tune, and we will make everything ring with its music and the echo of that song will be felt in many hearts when you and I can no longer lead them.’

 The power of music, eh?

What is the message or phrase or question that brings you back time and time again to the simple but profound truth that Yes, Jesus loves you? It doesn’t have to be particularly complex or clever. It could be as plain as Jesus loves me this I know; or, Look into your heart before you sleep; or, Jesus whispering to you the question he once whispered into Peter’s ear: “. . . do you love me?"

Amen.