The Greatest of These is Love - October 13
Today’s Readings - Psalm 1, 2, 3; Jer. 36:11-26; 1 Cor. 13:(1-3)4-13; Matt. 10:5-15
When asked what the greatest commandment is Jesus replies,” You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, . . . soul, and . . .mind, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But what does it mean to love God? God loved us first so we know what the most pristine, supremely sacrificial love looks like but how on earth could we ever return that kind of love?
Frederich Buechner in his book The Remarkable Ordinary, asks this very same question. His response is this, pay attention, love the way we might love anyone else. So, for example, think of your best friend. You take time to notice what’s happening to her. You watch, knowing that things change, life happens, and we can’t always predict what will happen next so it’s important to pay attention. And we wait, remaining present, waiting for whatever may come.
As with our best friend, with God we pay attention, we watch for all the ways God is made manifest in the world around us, for all the open windows of possibility God provides. Paul Tillich said that the first duty of love is to listen. And so, we wait, listening for that still small voice, being mindful that God speaks to us through unfamiliar and sometimes unlikely paths. If we aren’t watching, waiting - paying attention - we may miss God. This is how we love others and how we love God - we see them with eyes of compassion, patience and sometimes curiosity. We see with the eyes of wonder and possibility, and we give thanks and glory to the ways God has showered us with God’s outpouring love.
To love God is to see God in all the wonderful and messy, perfect, gorgeous and hideous ways that creation manifests itself, surrounding us with evidence of God’s creative genius and sometimes humor. To love our neighbor is to see in each person a reflection of God, and even to see God in our own not always so attractive, loveable image; to love ourselves on the days we say hurtful things to those we love or on those days we wish we could go back to bed and start again. It means to love others even when we don’t agree, or we’re afraid of the differences the other person presents. It means looking for some “unexpected beauty, or pain or need” (F. Buechner, Secrets in the Dark, p. 99) in those we know well and maybe especially in those we rarely take time to notice.
Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth spells out what love is better than has ever been said before or since. In the end how we live out our faith, is an expression of how we love others and God and how we show gratitude for all that we have received from God. This is what really matters, to try in our imperfect way to love God and to love our neighbors, to see God’s reflection in the world and in all of those we meet. As Frederich Buechner has said, “They are all God’s peculiar treasures,” and God loves each and every one of us. No one is an exception, no one a mistake.
Faithfully,
Sally+
Reflection and Challenge – Seeing and loving all of God’s creation is an impossible task. How might we approach this so that each day we accomplish a little more than the day before?