Word to the Wise
Sunday, May 13, 2012 - 6th Sunday of Easter - B
[Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48; 1 John 4:7-10; John 15:9-17]Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love. [1 John]
"God is love!" I've seen this stitched and framed on many a wall! The second scripture and the gospel scripture for today are centered on this reality. Do we assume we know what it means? In the Gospel of Luke, a legal scholar dialogues with Jesus about the most important of the 631 precepts of the MOsaic law. He corrrectly identifies love of God and neighbor as the most important. But then he tries to narrow the focus by asking, "Who is my neighbor?" Jesus responds with the parable of the Good Samaritan. What appears in this story is an unconditional compassion for others. Is that what Jesus means by love? Is that the way WE define love? Is it our place to define it? After all, Jesus and John point out that it is God who has taken the initiative in loving us and calling us to discipleship. It is Jesus who washes the feet of the disciples, commands them to do the same, and dies and rises for us. It is Jesus who commands us to bear fruit that will remain, which is summed up by him in his command to "love one another as I love you!" Do we dare to define love any other way?
A grand old song proclaims that "love is a many spendored thing!" The challenge, as I see it, is in an honest self-examination about what we mean by love in our own lives and whether it approaches Jesus' definition. Is love "an unconditional regard for another" as often promoted in secular ways? Is it just a feeling, or is it an action? Do we see it more as a "noun" or as a "verb?" Perhaps the better question is: "Do we see love as Jesus sees it?" AMEN
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