For Baby, For Bobbie
John 11:7-16
Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble because they see the light of this world. But those who walk at night stumble because the light is not in them.” After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
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During a 1992 interview with American Songwriter magazine, John Denver said that the song For Baby, For Bobbie, was the fourth song he ever wrote. The inspiration for the song came after Denver flunked out of Texas Tech, to the disappointment of his parents, and moved to California to play music. At this time, John Denver joined the Mitchell Trio, and at a gig in Scottsdale, Arizona, he met a girl to whom Denver wrote and dedicated this song. In his words, the song was "an early attempt to order my romantic thoughts." While a song about love, it is also a song that speaks to deeper relationships built on mutual support and the source of that call to be there for one another. Of course, we might also extend that to our connection to the Divine one who "walks in the rain by our side and clings on to our hands." It might be difficult to imagine what that kind of bond might look like, but we can catch a glimpse of how meaningful these relations are in our reading as Jesus visits his friend Lazarus.
Before we look to talk about these relationships in our song for reflection and reading, it might be good to take a moment to brush up on the various ways the Bible talks about love. If you forgot, these are the four foundational forms of love and relationships the Bible talks about: eros, storge, philia, and agape.
Eros: Eros is the Greek word for sensual or romantic love. It's passionate, encompassing, and the type of love we hear John Denver singing about in For Baby, For Bobbie, as well as in other books of the Bible such as Song of Solomon.
Storge: Storge is a term for love that you may not know as well. It often refers to familial love. It's the type of love Martha and Mary had for their brother Lazarus and one of the forms of love God calls the church to embody.
Philia: Philia, or the bond of deep friendship, is the most non-romantic intimate love that the Bible teaches as a spiritual practice. This type of love requires respect, trust, compassion, and empathy. We might even say it is the type of love Jesus had for Mary and Martha, and Lazarus as he visited his friend who was sleeping.
Agape: Agape is the highest form of love. It is the love that God has for humanity and creation, immeasurable love, self-sacrificing love, and self-giving. The love we have for one another is not always perfect, we know that we sometimes attach terms and conditions to our love, but with agape, there are no conditions; it is pure love.
We should strive to live out each day the love that God has for us (agape). At the very least, we should carry out the philia form of love in our relationships with one another (and yes, that includes people we disagree with, people we've never met, and people with whom we might have a complex past). Because in these moments of human connection, we are called to do what is hard, not what is easy. Jesus doesn't do what is easy when it comes to waking his friend Lazarus. It would have been easy for Jesus to prevent Lazarus' death, which is contrasted by what is hard, the reversing of destruction and chaos found in a resurrection moment. For those who have long-established friendships, romantic partners, or even new beginnings, you'll know that doing what is easy doesn't always produce the best results. Doing what is difficult work yields good fruit due to our sacrifice and ability to show care regardless of what we receive in return. If we can undo the forces of destruction and chaos, we've succeeded in being good friends, family members, partners, etc.
An example of this practice in action comes from a recent news article about a Little League game in Waco, Texas. The pitcher loses control of the ball and, at a decent speed, hits the batter in the head with the ball. While the batter was wearing a helmet, they were still knocked to the ground and took their base. However, that mistake shook the pitcher, and as they took to the mound began to cry. Now the batter who walked first walks over, hugs the shaken pitcher, and tells them, "You're doing great. Let's go." Though on opposite teams, these kids lived out the type of deep human connection that Jesus demonstrates in our reading from John. It would have been easy to take advantage of the situation and let the pitcher keep going and then console them later, but instead, they did what was challenging at that moment. Now it's up to us to make the conscious choice to step up to the mound each day in our relationships with one another and God.
While John Denver sings of a love that is poetically beautiful and aesthetic, it is a love that unfortunately did not last. Yet that did not stop him from walking in the rain among people that he loved (and nature), clinging to the hands of people who were the least of these, and singing songs that spoke to the soul. So let us aim for the level, that quality, of friendship and love in our daily and spiritual lives. Can we strive for that higher goal of knowing that our actions are as powerful as anything we might preach on Sunday morning? And in the words of Kahlil Gibran (late Lebanese-American poet):
And let your best be for your friend...
For in the dew of little things, the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.
Let us open our hearts to the restorative power of the Spirit at work in our world that draws us into a deep relationship with God and with the image of God that is reflected in all our souls and the heart of creation. And let us not be afraid to do what is hard, not what is easy, but what is hard, because it will open up the pathway to loosen the shackles of chaos and destruction (ideologies that place our wealth above sharing with neighbors, practices that keep us wrapped in a veil of self-importance, and hearts that are closed to the cries of those in desperate places). Let agape, the never-ceasing love of God, be our guide. Amen.