Lenten Study Session 4: “I Choose Love”
Lenten Study Session 4: I Choose Love with Mark Miller
Watch the Video Clip (5 – 7 minutes)
Listen to Mark’s words of introduction and listen to the song. Listen to the song a second time. Feel free to sing along. If you have purchased the songbook Roll Down, Justice!, a reproducible congregational box of the song is found on page 105.
Mark Miller’s Reflection
“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”
The gospel stories of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection continue to inspire, uplift, and amaze me. They inspire, uplift, and amaze because Jesus consistently chooses love. When it would be easier for him to appease with the powerful religious leaders and Roman backed authorities he chooses love. Even as his friends disappear and the crowds that once shouted “hosanna” turn on him with shouts of “crucify,” he chooses love. Even after betrayal and humiliation, even when he is dying, he chooses love.
The words to the song “I Choose Love” are by my friend Lindy Thompson, written in response to the murder of nine people who were at their church bible study. The people of Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church of Charleston, S.C., chose love when they offered forgiveness in the face of hatred and violence.
We always have a choice. Every day we have a choice–how will the events of your day and your life affect you? It’s the challenge of the witness of Jesus–the challenge of a truly faithful life–a daily spiritual discipline for each of us to rise up every day and say “I choose love.”
Moment of Meditation (2 – 3 minutes)
Call the groups’ attention to the nine chairs that you have set up in the room. Ask them to remember the news story when a Bible study became a blood bath. Using a notebook or a sheet of paper, respond individually and silently to the video, the song, and Mark’s introduction. Jot down responses to one or more of these questions:
What breaks your heart?
In what areas of your life do you need to choose love?
Discuss the Scripture – Luke 23:34 (10 minutes)
Have the scripture verse read aloud in two or three translations. Invite members to share with the group any experience they have with the text. For example, this scripture may remind someone of the isolation that he or she experienced upon getting divorced. Or perhaps the scripture inspires someone to forgive, to overlook some ways in which people are being disrespectful and hateful. Perhaps it calls to mind a time when a person chose love in the midst of a painful situation.
Connect with the Justice Challenges (20 minutes)
Meet in smaller groups (three or four persons). Have each group identify what for them might be the most difficult situations for their members to forgive. Consider bringing these scenarios to their attention as a discussion starter:
People who murdered my child – act of terrorism, act of rage, random violence
Being overlooked for a promotion and asked to train the new person
Being asked to leave a job – fired or laid off
Being forced to buy health insurance
Being asked to leave a church
Invite each group to identify two or three of their situations where they find it hard to forgive or forget. Give every group a chance to respond although it is not mandatory that all share.
Confession (2 – 3 minutes)
Encourage the group to observe a moment of silence as they remember the words of the scripture, the song, and Mark’s introduction. Tell them that during the time of confession they are free to speak aloud a sentence of confession of how they–their family, church, or community–have failed to love, failed to forgive, failed to believe that each person can begin again. Note: Be sure to remind the group to maintain confidentiality–that the confession does not identify others unwittingly.
Lead the group in this prayer: God, we have closed our hearts and turned away. Forgive us. In this moment, we confess that we have not been all that you want us to be. Forgive us. Please hear our confessions at this time (silently or aloud): _________________________.
Prayer of Intercession (2 – 3 minutes)
Lead the group in this prayer (or one from the heart): Lord Jesus, we are committed to being your witness in this world. But Lord God, sometimes it is hard, it is difficult, it is painful. We have sat with these nine empty chairs. This could have been our Bible study; it could happen to us right now. Give us strength and courage to choose love and peace and hope in the midst of every situation.
Closing (2 – 3 minutes)
Play the video one more time and sing along. Offer a prayer of benediction and an invitation to see God in every face that we meet in the coming week.
Extending the Study
Use the song as a solo response to a sermon on this text and in churches that offer a “Seven Last Words” service on Good Friday.
Identify, plan, and carry out a mission project that will demonstrate love in the community. If you are not already doing so, collect for a local food bank or provide toiletries and paper goods for a local shelter.
Commit to a week of choosing love. Intentionally interrupt bad memories and angry thoughts and use this mantra: “today, at this moment–through my pain, through my fear, through my rage–I choose love.”
Consider reconciliation. Is there someone who has been shut out of your life–by that person’s choice or your own–that you would consider renewing a relationship? Note: not every relationship that is ruptured warrants repair; forgiveness is not the same thing as trust.
Additional Resources
Lenten Biblical Reflection, Roll Down, Justice!:
About
Faye Wilson, Ed. D
Study Guide Author
Faye Wilson, writer of this study guide, is a certified lay servant in the Peninsula-Delaware Conference. For twenty-one years she was on the staff of the General Board of Global Ministries, mission agency of The United Methodist Church, leading seminars and writing books and articles to help people become more involved in mission work
She continues to work in the area and has written leader’s guides to the United Methodist Women mission studies Poverty, How is It With Your Soul?, and Food and Faith. She serves as the music leader at the Peninsula-Delaware Mission U, an initiative of United Methodist Women, where she teaches songs of “justice and joy” from around the world.
A pianist, she lives in Salisbury, Md., and is the minister of music and arts for Mt. Zion United Methodist Church in Quantico, Md., and chairwoman the stewardship committee. She also is vice president of the Salisbury District United Methodist Women.
Her favorite scripture is Isaiah 58:6-12; she makes every attempt to live it literally. She has volunteered for ten years with HALO (Hope and Life Outreach), a shelter for women and children. Since establishing her own home in 1978, she has invited more than twenty-five persons to share her space for varying lengths of time.
Mark Miller
Mark Miller is a lifelong United Methodist with a passion for composing and performing music that brings about the beloved community that Christ desires the church to be.
He is associate professor of church music at Drew Theological School and is a lecturer in the practice of sacred music at Yale University. He also is minister of music at Christ Church in Summit, N.J. His hymns are published in several songbooks and hymnals including The Faith We Sing and Zion Still Sings.
Since 1999, Mark has led music for worship at conferences around the United States. He has been a lay delegate to three United Methodist legislative assemblies (“General Conferences”) and directed music for the 2008 General Conference, enabling him to join in Christ’s mission to break down dividing walls in The United Methodist Church through policy, prayer, and music performance. He deeply believes, as scholar-activist Cornel West says, “Justice is what love looks like in public.”
Mark earned a bachelor of arts degree in music from Yale University and a master of music degree in organ performance from The Juilliard School in New York.
This resource was designed with a United Methodist perspective, but we believe the content is also relevant for non-UMC seekers who are doing anti-racism work with a spiritual foundation.
