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Posts Tagged ‘love’

Above All–Love

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , on September 22, 2011| Leave a Comment »

I think about the number of times I have written about love in this three year series and yet, it keeps coming up: gospel after gospel, epistle after epistle. And yet, we are so accustomed to the word, it seems to have lost its power in our day to day lives.

I Peter 4:8
Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

So, a little reminder. This is not the love of flutterings in the heart or sweet whispers in the ear. This is the love of acceptance and challenges, trust and risk, out of the comfort zone and into the chaos of human mistakes. This love takes courage. This love is conscious. This love is on purpose.

This love is not easy because you may not get love back.

This love takes practice. This love is about process not results; persistence not signposts; and honesty. People who are hard to love must be loved authentically. Fake love or actions that only “look” like love have no power.

I’ll say it again. The power of love is in its authenticity. Anything else is Cupid.

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Love as Brothers

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on September 10, 2011| 2 Comments »

Of course, not all brothers love each other (or sisters either for that matter), but there is something indelible there. The Amplified translates this phrase: “loving [each other] as brethren [of one household].” The root of believers — operating as a family.

I Peter 3:8
Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble.

For some people, the idea of family is riddled with issues, either because of brutal or emotionally handicapped parents or destructive behaviors by individual siblings. These are not people who will gravitate readily to the idea of a “church family.”

Others have close family relationships and they have a different problem: they know the wonder of strong familial ties and often find a group of believers can rarely engender that kind of closeness or trust.

I guess I’m somewhere in the middle, but probably leaning to the first example. My mother was mentally unstable and I never knew from one day to the next what I would awake to. My father died when I was child and I only had one sibling, five years my senior who left the family home for college and never returned in any kind of meaningful way. It was not until we were adults that we developed a truly mutual relationship. So, I confess, I’m not quick to embrace people with whom I am thrown together because we are affiliated with the same church body. It’s a trust issue, I know. I know.

Here’s what should happen anyway (in theory . . . in my mind): believers are bound to one another by their faith in God. This is actually a blood bond because of the nature of the Christ. It does not flow through our veins, but through our Spirit selves.

According to Peter, spiritually-based relationships should have harmony, sympathy (empathy), compassion, and humility. In general, this means deference to the other, concern for the other, sensitivity to the other, and willingness to compromise.

Wait a minute. We could be doing this all the time, church or no church; family or no family; believer or no believer.

These are the basics of “human.” These are the essential ingredients to relationships of all types: with strangers, lovers, or even casual acquaintances. Basics. Love of the first order. Love without strings. Love without labels.

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Peter’s Women

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 8, 2011| 5 Comments »

Sarah? I’m to emulate Sarah, wife of Abraham, a major control freak who convinced her husband to take his servant/concubine [Hagar] to bed in order to “get on” with God’s promise already. Culture prevailed (a norm). And so it was with Peter’s women.

I Peter 3:3a, 4, 6a
Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, . . . Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. . . like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her master.

All right, I’m sorry, but as many of you know, most of the female to male submission passages are hard on my digestion. It’s not that I don’t want to show respect to my husband as a person, I do; I should. I certainly don’t denigrate him to others, and after almost 30 years of marriage, I think we’ve worked out a lot marriage kinks (leaving others for heaven’s explanations).

It’s also lovely to be reminded by Peter that a person’s beauty (male or female, I believe) comes from within. It has to so; otherwise, the aging process would send us all to the looney bin. Love, marriage, friendship: they all have to be rooted and grounded in the “person” who resides inside the body, who is eternally young and vital, who is not of this three dimensional world.

Since the whole idea of marriage or male & female appears to be a non-issue “in” heaven [see both Matthew 22:29-30 & Galatians 3:28], men and women are seen equally by God, doesn’t that truth balance out this very specific teaching of Peter (that same Peter who hedged and refused to eat with gentiles in the face of certain powerful Jews)?

Peter was asked constantly by God to think outside the box (creatively & innovatively). He broke several essential Jewish laws when he entered the home of Cornelius and shared both the gospel of Christ as well as a meal with gentiles. He left his wife and family to follow Jesus for months at a time. He challenged his own belief in miracles, tried walking on water, shared in the multiplication of food, and experienced the transfiguration. Everywhere he turned, Jesus stretched and pulled him away from the norm of the day. And for a long while, he allowed his beloved Master to take him there.

But Peter was also a slave to his culture. He was no different from the other disciples, mostly unidentified, who marveled and wondered at the relationships that Jesus had with women, from the woman at the well to the woman who washed his feet with her tears and hair to Mary of Magdala, one cursed and healed of seven demons.

Both the liberal view and the conservative view of women can be found in scriptures. What do I believe? Which verses will corroborate my presuppositions?

The last time I encountered the bold words of Paul and his passages on submission of wives to their husbands [Ephesians 5:21-32], I accepted their literalness but took a pass on embracing them purely on a male/female basis. Instead, I chose, instead, mutual submission, which I still believe to be more fitting. So, I do the same today.

We could all argue until we are blue in the face about these passages. It’s not worth it. Instead, I’ll opt for that gentle and quiet spirit and may it yield an unfading beauty that transcends human interpretations, mandates, and rules about being a Christian woman and wife. Selah.

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Chosen Blues

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 30, 2011| 3 Comments »

I’m not feelin’ anything ’bout bein’ chosen today.
I say, I’m not feelin’ anything ’bout bein’ chosen today.
I’m wonderin’ then, is the good Lord tellin’ me a different way?

I Peter 2:9
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

I used to get a lot of comfort from being “chosen.” I guess it just came along with the package of being saved. That was how I was taught: God chose me, like an adopted child, I was pulled from the fray.

So, why, after thirty years of contentment, am I uncomfortable now? Why does it feel a little uppity and “I’m better than you” [see Urban Dictionary]. Gosh, I could get a coffee mug with that phrase or I could put WWJD on it or some other Christian cliche. Is there a difference? I’m in and you’re out; Red Rover, Red Rover, let one more of my friends come over.

Can I put a spin on this that won’t be catty?

Maybe it’s a privilege thing. I get some clarity and because of it, I can share what I see. It’s a responsibility thing?

I guess, I am more comfortable in the thanksgiving mode: thank you God for saving my soul. And it weren’t for You, I’d probably be dead. My twenties were a downward spiral because I was experiencing the other kind of blues: the “non-chosen” blues for not being in the right group, not getting chosen for parts on plays, not being a success, not handling my relationships well, etc. When I experienced the Christ, I didn’t feel particularly chosen then either, just switched over to a different game where those other situations didn’t matter as much.

Just because I’m sure that I’m sure that I’m sure that God is real and Christ is real and the Holy Spirit is real and I have a chance to “become” in a way that I never could before or ever wanted to before, does make me want to talk about it and write about it, but chosen?

Of course, I know God is sovereign and maybe there is a “choosing” dimension to all of this. But for now . . . I’ll leave the discussion to others.

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Obey the Truth & Love Deeply

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 27, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Not all of the translations include the phrase “through the Holy Spirit” when it comes to obeying the truth, but I see that as an essential piece. Otherwise, it’s a lost game. Obedience needs the grounding and grace of Spirit; so does love for that matter.

I Peter 1:22
Since by your obedience to the Truth through the [Holy] Spirit you have purified your hearts for the sincere affection of the brethren, [see that you] love one another fervently [deeply] from a pure heart. [Amplified]

So what is the “Truth” here. Some commentaries simply say it’s the gospel: to obey the gospel? I think I can believe in the gospel, but I don’t believe that obey would be the same thing here. Alternatively, of course, there is obedience of the Christ, also called in the Truth (by Jesus himself) in John 14:6 (as in “I am the way, the truth & the light . . . ).

In the Old Testament, the truth of God is more often rendered as faithfulness. It is a form of truth, this dependability in what God says and what God will do or promises to do: whether it’s destroy, repair, or restore.

We do know the opposite of truth is falsehood. And no good thing comes from falsehood, no good thing comes from a lie, no obedience to a deception will produce good fruit. So, even if we don’t know exactly what “truth” is, evidence eventually piles up.

But let me turn to the One who helps us obey the Truth (whatever truth might be), and that is the Holy Spirit, my favorite topic of late, my hope in the midst of all challenges, my resource, my guide, my closest ally. “When the Friend I plan to send you from the Father comes—the Spirit of Truth issuing from the Father—he will confirm everything about me. You, too, from your side must give your confirming evidence, since you are in this with me from the start.” [John 15:26-27, The Message]

In the same way that asking for wisdom on regular, daily basis is effective and necessary (like manna from heaven), I’m thinking that asking the Holy Spirit for help to “obey Truth” is a reasonable and maybe insightful addition to my prayer routine.

I’ve never been too good at the obedience code anyway. There’s a little rebel in me I guess. And although that has held me in good stead on occasion, giving me a foot up when it comes to thinking outside the box or creatively, it also lands me in a little hot water, pushing back against authority, etc.

Now, as to loving deeply, this too requires Holy Spirit participation, only because deep love, coupled with a pure heart, can only have one Source. I cannot love deeply or purely on my own. And of course, deep love is honest . . . it’s rooted in Truth. They are woven together.

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Precious Faith

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on August 21, 2011| Leave a Comment »

We have three foundations to belief in God: faith, hope and love. And although love is the greatest of these (I Corinthians 13), Peter exalts faith. Much like the challenge of loving an enemy, faith too must do battle, but with doubt.

I Peter 1:7a
So that [the genuineness] of your faith may be tested, [your faith] which is infinitely more precious than the perishable gold which is tested and purified by fire. [This proving of your faith is intended] . . . [Amplified]

No one wants to go through trials and grief, but there is no question that difficulties make human stronger. Whether those situations give more experience or wisdom, they also build faith. This is nothing new.

Today, however, I pondered the idea of faith being precious though challenged. What would make faith so dear, so prized, so valuable that it must also “suffer slings and arrows?” At its root then, faith must be protected, or at the least, treated with great care.

I think about the absurdity of the treatments often used to fight cancer, chemicals that kill all fast growing cells and ultimately, a few others along the way. The body is threatened with death with each and every treatment. And yet, if the body can survive, can withstand the treatments, there is a chance for remission. Core cells are needed to sustain life: they are precious.

There are core cells to faith as well. It is the pulsing center of faith, the heart. Where is this heart? I don’t know. I think it’s different for each person, but I believe it’s the “Keep” of faith and must be revered.

I believe each person has a faith-planting moment. Perhaps it’s the point of accepting the Christ leadership or the indwelling of the Holy Spirit or perhaps it was a miracle like healing or escape from danger. For me, it was the day I stepped into my apartment in New York and I had a “whoosh” feeling, dropped everything from my arms onto the floor and wandered around my apartment singing the only Christian song I knew: “Jesus Loves me, this I know” for about forty minutes, over and over again. I knew that I knew that God was real and I would follow and believe. My precious faith was born that day.

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The Rest of This Day

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on August 15, 2011| 3 Comments »

It’s a hard reminder that our lives are not our own, no matter how much we believe they are. Oh sure, there are responsibilities and choices that only I can make for myself, and yet, in the end, it is God and all that is infinite that chooses to give or take away, to end or begin.


James 4: 13-14
Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a city and spend a year there and carry on our business and make money. Yet you do not know [the least thing] about what may happen tomorrow. What is the nature of your life? You are [really] but a wisp of vapor (a puff of smoke, a mist) that is visible for a little while and then disappears [into thin air]. [Amplified]

Conceptually, it should be a joy: after all, isn’t God sovereign? Doesn’t God promise to do what is good for me, even better than the birds of the air [Matthew 6:26]? But I don’t walk each day in this confidence. I am still wary of the next moment. I still want to “control” it: after all, what is familiar, even painful seems better than the unknown.

But the future is the great unknown. We can create probabilities, but we cannot create absolutes.

And so, I ask, what will I experience for the rest of this day? Can I keep my hands open? Can I say “yes” to this day before it unfolds? Can I trust god with my time, my experiences, my journey?

When/what is the next moment anyway? Is it now? no now, no this other now. I can watch the clock or I can turn that invisible countdown outward.

When my elderly mother lived with us, up until her 91st year, she would get so frustrated because she felt so unproductive in those last years. In fact, one of her biggest concerns, “What should I do for the rest of my life?” She never considered the number of those days, just the fullness of them. She wanted to see her minutes and hours as valuable to others, useful.

Can I be more mindful of my day time? Can I hear the stray comment, the smallest encounter, the big mistakes as well as the great successes as opportunities to embrace the “rest of my day” in God, through Christ and the Holy Spirit?

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