"What the world needs now is love, sweet love."

Oh, boy! Does the world ever need love now! “What the World Needs Now is Love,” a popular song from the 1960s, was written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach. The song is as timely today as it was during the tumultuous decade of the 1960s—a time of divisiveness, prejudice, hatred, and violence.

Today, in the United States and in other countries, there seems to be an increasing culture of divisiveness, bigotry, hatred, and violence. Many people have become distrustful and fearful of those who are different—different because of race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or ability. It seems that we have forgotten the kindergarten lessons of playing nicely with others. And we are ignoring Christ’s commandment to “love one another as I have loved you” (John 13:34).

A very powerful example of loving others is provided by the life of Jonathan Myrick Daniels, who is honored on August 14th each year by the Episcopal Church. Jon Daniels, a graduate of Harvard, was a student at the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, when he heard the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. call for clergy to become involved in the Civil Rights Movement in the South. Jon, a white boy from New Hampshire, promptly took a few weeks’ leave of absence from his seminary studies and joined Dr. King in the Selma to Montgomery March in the spring of 1965.

In the summer of 1965, Jon felt called to return to Alabama to help register voters in Downes County. In explaining why he returned to Alabama, Daniels said, “Something had happened to me in Selma, which meant I had to come back. I could not stand by in benevolent dispassion any longer without compromising everything I know and love and value. The imperative was too clear, the stakes too high, my own identity was called too nakedly into question...I had been blinded by what I saw here (and elsewhere), and the road to Damascus led, for me, back here” (Episcopal Archives).

On August 14, 1965, Daniels and others were arrested for participating in a March in Fort Deposit, Alabama. They were transported by garbage truck to a jail in Haynesville, Alabama, where they were incarcerated in deplorable, unsanitary conditions. The group was released on August 20th, without explanation. Daniels and three companions, two Black teen-age girls and a Roman Catholic priest, headed to a nearby store to purchase sodas for the group. Outside the store, they were challenged by a white man carrying a shotgun. He ordered the group to leave the store and pointed the gun directly at a Black girl.

Jon Daniels pushed the girl, Ruby Sales, to the ground and took the shot that was intended for her. He was shot at close range in the abdomen. He died immediately.

When he heard of Jonathan Daniels’ tragic death, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "One of the most heroic Christian deeds of which I have heard in my entire ministry was performed by Jonathan Daniels" (Virginia Military Institute).

Jesus said, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13, KJV). Jonathan Daniels did not lay down his life for a family member or a dear friend. He did not lay down his life for a white person. Jon Daniels gave his life for a Black girl whom he barely knew. He laid down his life while working to ensure that all people in our nation could exercise their right to vote. He laid down his life to ensure that equality would become a reality in our country.

Jon Daniels gave his life because he understood that ALL people on earth are one. He wrote, “I began to know in my bones and sinews that I had been truly baptized into the Lord’s death and resurrection...with them, the black men and white men, with all life, in him whose Name is above all names that the races and nations shout...we are indelibly and unspeakably one”(Episcopal Archives).

Jesus gave us a new commandment: “Love each other. You must love each other just as I loved you” (John 13:34 NRSV). We are called to love one another because we all are God’s children—God’s beloved children. We are called to love one another because, in the words of Jon Daniels, “We are indelibly and unspeakably one.”

After giving us the commandment to love one another, Jesus said, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35 NRSV). People won’t know that we are followers of Christ by our beautiful churches or our music or our theology. People will know we are Christians by our love—by our love for all people, whatever their race, creed, sexual orientation, or ability.

So, let us all share God’s love by loving ALL people. Let us show the world that we are Christians by honoring the dignity and worth of every person. Let us show forth God’s love by clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, and working for justice, freedom, and peace for all people.

As the Most Reverend Michael Curry, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church often says, “If it’s not about love, it’s not about God.”

And as the Beetles sang in the 1960s, “All you need is love, love; love is all you need.”

What the world needs now is love, sweet love. Let us love one another as Christ loved us.

Amen.

References

Virginia Military Institute Archives. “Jonathan Daniels, Civil Rights Hero.”

https://www.vmi.edu/archives/genealogy-biography-alumni/featured-historical-biographies/jonathan-daniels-civil-rights-hero/

Southern Poverty Law Center. “Jonathan Daniels.”

https://www.splcenter.org/jonathan-daniels

The Archives of the Episcopal Church. Jonathan Daniels, 1939-1965.

https://episcopalarchives.org/church-awakens/exhibits/show/leadership/clergy/daniels

Biblical References KJV—King James Version NRSV—New Revised Standard Version