Readings: 1 John 4:11-21, John 15:1-8
Let us pray: O
God, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God,
our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
Someone once said to me
that they thought all this talk about ‘God is love’ is really wishy washy –
turning God into some kind of warm fuzzy, good for nothing but contented sighs
and hugs. How wrong they were. But I guess they were going with a particular
understanding of love – one that sees love as a perfect romance, a fair weather
kind of emotion with no edges or depth or staying power to it. The kind of love where a
parent allows a child to do as they wish because love mustn’t chastise, the
kind that is withdrawn at the first sign of conflict or disappointment or is
reserved only for those who deserve or earn it.
The love of Christ is
everything that this wishy washy conditional concept of love is not – and more!
Our reading today from 1
john points to the absolute centrality of love to our lives of faith - all
things begin in love, flow from love, are perfected through love and return to
love. Jesus came to this world as the
most complete expression of love, he lived and died exhibiting a love that had
the power to bring new life to those who believe throughout history. Love is who we are as Christians – not a
polished concept kept on a shelf but an active meaningful way of life. Without love we are nothing, with love we can
transform the world.
So we are mistaken if we
place love anywhere than at the centre of our faith. GK Chesterton[1]
wrote a story called ‘A piece of Chalk’ saying he set out one day to do some sketching with brown
paper and a variety of chalks. But he
found he had forgotten the most important colour – the white chalk. And he knew how vital white was to his
drawing. He says: It is not a
mere absence of colour; it is a shining and affirmative thing, as fierce as
red, as definite as black. When, so to speak, your pencil grows red-hot, it
draws roses; when it grows white-hot, it draws stars. “
Chesterton goes on to say that, just as virtue is not the absence of
vices, so love is not the absence of hatred or conflict, but rather love is a
burning passionate white-hot act of living.
Is this not a way of understanding Christian love – not just a fair-weather
emotion or a desire to take away the bad, the evil things in life but to instil
a passion for love in us all, one that sees past the unlovely and the
conditional and the selective to a way of living that sweeps all that is
divisive and unjust and cruel before it.
It doesn’t mean an absence of pain – all here would know this – but it
does suggest that love sees us through when we are at our lowest and transforms
us and the world at its most generous.
This is a core message from the readings – that the love of God is made
visible in us and through us into the world because we abide in God’s love for
us. For anyone who is looking for the
reality of God in this world – look for acts of love and there you will find
God. This is what takes our understanding
of love out of the somewhat dispassionate place that is the absence of evil and
into the white-hot burning passionate way of living. And this is not just stimulating rhetoric –
but a very straightforward direction for how we are to live – and it is quite
simple - we are told that anyone who lives in this way cannot hate a fellow
brother or sister. Simple as that. The unlovely, the unresponsive, the hurters
and the mockers – we are to love them.
Just as love of God is the centrality of who we are as Christians, so is
the full and complete expression of that love to those around us.
And here is where it gets difficult.
Somehow I think, it is easier to
love God than to love our neighbour. We
have trust in God’s love for us – nothing can break it – but it is not so easy
or so intuitive to love humanity in all its many diverse expressions of
being. Culturally, morally,
economically, in gender, opinions, personalities we are as many as grains of
sand on the beach – and just as likely as the sand to be constantly in friction
with each other as life rolls around us.
Again the text points us to the major reason we find it so difficult to
love our neighbours completely and unconditionally – fear – fear of the unknown, the different,
the wounding, the loss of self. Fear
holds us back from being able to see each other through the eyes of God, in
love. Fear divides and holds us back
from being who God call us to be. And
here’s the thing: ‘there is no fear in
love, but perfect love casts out fear! (v.18) Fear divides the planet, fear
causes wars and fear encourages hatred and prejudice. Fear, not hatred, is the antithesis of
love. For where there is love, fear is
not!
So how is our life as a faith community showing that lack of fear? How do we express ourselves, live our lives
in trusting love in this place? That is
something only you can answer and it is what you are needing to do as you begin
the process of Ministry settlement – recognising both who you are in Christ and
who Christ calls you to be. I encourage
you to think deeply about this and this includes celebrating who you are at
this time. So often we hear
congregations wishing they could be someone else, discontent with who they
are. I guess that’s a kind of fear –
that you aren’t good enough, lively enough, diverse enough, big enough or
energetic enough. You are part of the
presence of God in Jesus Christ in this community – expressing the love of God
in every word, action, experience that cares for each other and for the
community. And we know, don’t we, that,
in the strength of the risen Christ, it is love that will transform our
world.
As we gather at the table today, let us remember all those who have gathered
in the love throughout time and place, all part of the true vine who is Jesus
the Christ. Amen.
Margaret Garland
No comments:
Post a Comment