Scripture
Isaiah 54: 10
“For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.
John 16: 26 - 27
In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.
Reflection
So I am going to date myself by offering to you the theme song to my favourite television shows to watch on a Saturday night as I was growing up…..”The Love Boat, soon will making another run/ The Love Boat promises something for everyone.” Okay so how many of you sung along in your head with those lyrics? Yes it was a sappy show where each week the Pacific Princess would be boarded by an eclectic group of individuals and by the end of the cruise there would be romance and love. I have been wondering if my exposure to these sorts of shows has led to my love of sappy romantic comedies. I suppose it is a possibility. I will be honest I grew up with a very idealized vision of love. I grew up thinking that love was this amazing wonderful thing that just happened to someone in their life. It was something that one fell into when that one special person came along. Well I am sure that like many of you, I have come to realize that that is not really what love is about.
The scriptures that I chose speak to God’s love for us, each one of us. It speaks of the depth of God’s love and it speaks to the permanent nature of God’s love, the steadfastness of God’s love. Yet, if we look through the Bible we will see so many examples of the people of God not really living into being the people of God. To be honest, if I were God I would struggle to love these people who seem so fascinated with not doing what they know God wants of them. Yet, God continues to love them and continues to love us, even when we don’t truly follow what God wants from us and wants for our lives. This idea, which has been floating around in my brain, has caused me to really wonder about one of my mother’s favourite statements. That is “love is a decision that you make every day.” I have wondered about this, is love an emotion, or is love a decision? The answer, I think, is both. We each make a decision to be loving our lives and in doing so we begin to feel as sense of care, compassion, empathy, for another, feelings of love.
The challenge is that we live in a world where it seems as if that decision to love is only reserved for those who are close to us, the rest of the world, well they are not in family, circle of friend, close community, so do they really matter? The world, I think, is in a place of deep angst, where love is a rare commodity. I read something the other day that gives me hope, “As the world struggles to figure everything out, I’ll be holding doors for strangers, letting people cut in front of me in traffic, saying good morning, keeping babies entertained in grocery lines, stopping to talk to someone who’s lonely, tipping generously, sharing food, giving kids a thumbs-up, being patient with sales clerks, smiling at passerby, and buying a stranger a cup of coffee. Why? Because I refuse to live in a world where love is invisible. Be kind to a stranger, give grace to friends having a tough day, and be forgiving with yourself. Let’s make love visible, one small act at a time.” Each of these acts is decision and we make thousands of small decisions each and every day. If we remember to make the decision to love each day, then each of the following decisions is then see through the lens of love. What world that might be. I wonder if that is the world that God had envisioned. When love becomes a decision, it the becomes more that what it might have been, it becomes more that just a warm feeling of care for another.
When we make the decision to love, then love moves from something that we feel, to something that we do. Love, when we make the decision to love, becomes and action. and it is a powerful action that can change not only our own live, but the world. Author A.R. Lucas has said, “We’ve been infected with the idea that love is an emotion only felt between two people. But love is universal. An energy. A contagious force. A gift. To offer money to a homeless person is to love. To smile at a stranger is love. To be grateful, to be hopeful, to be brave, to be forgiving, to be proud, is to love.” When we make the decision to love, our actions speak for us. These actions can then move out through the world as we show our care and compassion to all around us. It is our challenge as Christians, to love not just those who are close to us, but to show, to act in, love with all we meet. In doing so I believe that we begin kingdom work. That is the work to being the kingdom of God to our world now. We live in a world that truly needs love now, not the love of grandiose gestures, but the love of small acts of kindness, care, compassion, and love, that can truly change the world. So let us choose to love today.
Prayer
God of Love and Mercy, we ask that you give us the courage to choose love in a world were love seems scarce. We ask for the wisdom to know that love isn’t like the movies or books that we read, rather it is a decision that we make each and every day, sometimes many times a day. Help us to choose love and in doing so we become your people once again, people of love, compassion, mercy, grace, and forgiveness, we become the people that the world needs now. We ask all of this in the name of Love Incarnate, your son, Jesus. Amen.
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