2025.07.20 | A Love Supreme
A Love Supreme
Reflection on the Fruit of the Spirit
Love
Romans 11:17–24
Reflection by
Rev. Dr. Marvin Lance Wiser
Eden United Church of Christ
Hayward, CA
20 July 2025 | Pride Sunday
Muchas gracias por su testimonio, Viki.
Beloved, yesterday we stood with our neighbors at CV Pride, beneath banners of rainbows and resistance, celebration and struggle. We are proud that our very own Pastor Ashley led the interfaith community blessing, and so many could hear of the open and affirming good news that we have been sharing since last century. Today, we return to the sanctuary of Scripture with the fruit of the Spirit called, Love, on our minds and in our hearts.
And we meet Paul in Romans, speaking in our familiar tree language:
“You, though a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root…”
Paul is writing about belonging—about how the wild and the cultivated can live from the same rootstock. He’s reminding early Christians, Gentile and Jewish alike, that no one has a monopoly on God’s mercy. God is always grafting new life into the tree. And when the tree grows in love, the branches multiply, and the fruit ripens.
Now, anyone who gardens—or has been part of a church—knows that grafting is delicate work. It means opening up what is already there and wounding it, so something new can be joined. It requires a careful hand and a patient heart. And even when it takes, it’s not seamless. The scar remains. But the fruit that comes—oh, the fruit!—is greater than what either branch could have borne alone.
So it is with the Beloved Community. It is not born of sameness, but of love that makes room—honest hearts that break open—love that invites, honors, protects, and celebrates. Love that says to the grafted-in branch, “You belong here. You are not a guest—you are part of us.” That’s not superiority, nor charity. That’s solidarity, transformation. And sometimes it starts with shared snacks, maybe even some chips and slices of orange.
En nuestro pasaje de hoy, Pablo está hablando sobre la pertenencia—sobre cómo lo silvestre y lo cultivado pueden vivir del mismo tronco. Les recuerda a los primeros cristianos, tanto gentiles como judíos, que nadie tiene el monopolio de la misericordia de Dios. Dios siempre está injertando nueva vida en el árbol. Y cuando el árbol crece en amor, las ramas se multiplican y el fruto madura. Y esto es un trabajo delicado. Requiere abrir lo que ya está allí y herirlo, para que algo nuevo pueda unirse. Se necesita una mano cuidadosa y un corazón paciente. Y aun cuando el injerto prende, no es perfecto. La cicatriz queda. Pero el fruto que nace es mejor de lo que cualquiera de las ramas podría haber producido por sí sola.
Así es con la Comunidad Amada. No nace de la uniformidad, sino del amor que hace espacio—de corazones sinceros que se abren—del amor que invita, honra, protege y celebra. Amor que le dice a la rama injertada: “Tú perteneces aquí. No eres una visita—eres parte de nosotros.” Eso no es superioridad, ni caridad. Es solidaridad, transformación. Y a veces comienza en compartir unos snacks, quizás unas papitas de tortilla y unas rodajas de naranja.
John Coltrane knew something of this kind of love. His 60-yr old album “A Love Supreme” is a four-part prayer, not just in notes, but in spirit. It rises from struggle and surrender, reaching upward with gratitude. It's jazz, yes—but it’s also liturgy. Coltrane’s “Acknowledgement” repeats like a chant: A Love Supreme… A Love Supreme… That’s the love we’re talking about: rooted, unwavering, and not afraid to branch out.
Isaiah Collier and the Chosen Few have picked up that thread sixty years later. They have been reciting Trane’s prayer in honor of the 60th anniversary of “A Love Supreme.” In their “The Hate You Give is the Love You Loose,” they hold a mirror to our world—where hatred and violence prune too many lives before their time. Their music is warning, lament, and hope, all braided together. It calls out: “What kind of fruit are we growing in this society?” Strange Fruit? Like the 1930s song that Billie Holiday popularized? Or Fruit of the Spirit? Cultivating love, life, and belonging instead of fear, death, and exclusion. What will our response be?
Church, on this, our Pride Sunday, the Spirit invites us to be a tree that makes room, not to hang, but to bloom. Out of our scars, become something new. Not just tolerating, but celebrating the queerness of all God’s people. Not just open, but affirming. Not just accepting, but advocating. Not just loving in word, but in spirit and deed, with the patient, radical, ever-grafting love that binds us together, ensuring that we bear fruit not just for us, but for all, and for the seventh generation. Amen.