I give you a new
commandment, that you love one another.
Just as I have loved
you, also should love one another.
By this everyone will
know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another
Jesus seems very intent
on getting his message across...a message summed up in a single word
LOVE
That's the beginning
and the end of the Christian life...LOVE
All you really need to
know about the Christian life – and the God who calls us.
Love.
Simples!
But I'm rather afraid
that if you stood by the Co-op check-out and asked everyone who came
through the first word that sprang to mind when you said “Christian”
love might not be the answer.
A straw poll conducted
yesterday came up with “Boring” “Science” “JBigotry”
“Dior” “Fundamentalist” “Perfection” and “soldier”
before finally someone suggested “love”....
and if I'm honest I
wasn't very surprised.
You see, though we are
a people shaped by God's love, called to live each moment responding
to it – we are actually really bad at showing it.
God pours out his love
and invites us to share it with others– but we struggle to believe
that there's enough to go round...so we hoard it.
Though love and fear
should be mutually exclusive, we are anxious. We close our fists to
hold God's gifts tightly instead of playing pass the parcel so that
everyone can be included.
Indeed, it can seem as
if our faith is more of an insurance policy against a miserable
eternity than a life-enhancing source of overflowing joy....
But take comfort...If
we're anxious that there's not enough to go round, we're not alone.
The reading from Acts
presents Peter learning a very important lesson.
Throughout history til
this point, the Jewish people had rejoiced in their special
relationship with God. They WERE God's chosen...defined by the Torah
and the Covenant...
And within the Torah,
the dietary laws draw a clear line between those who follow them –
who are the insiders, God's people – and those who don't.
So what you eat defines
who you are unmistakeably...and Peter was confident that those who
followed the purity code were God's favourites.
But that day in Joppa
God turned the Jewish world upside down...removing the barriers of
history and showing Peter that there were to be no limits on God's
grace from now on
“What God has made
clean you must not call profane...”
Against his upbringing,
against his life-long experience, Peter found himself awake to a new
reality, invited to see the whole world in a different way.
If God then gave
them the same gift that he gave to us...who was I that I could hinder
God. ...God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads
to life”
In other words he'd
learned, as we must learn, that God's love is always broader, deeper,
stronger......and completely inclusive.
Nothing and nobody is
beyond its scope – and there will always, ALWAYS be enough to go
round.
So – spend a minute
thinking about the people you struggle with.
Those whose behaviour
alarms you...Those whose outlook is radically different from your
own...Those whose messy lives make you think “For goodness
sake......”
Those who seem to have
no time for you, and make you feel small and unimportant.
Think about them.
Then...remind yourself
that God loves each of them so much that he chose to DIE to prove it.
Remind yourself that
God loves each of them just as much as he loves you.......and that
God loves you just as much as he loves them.
Finally listen to the
words of Jesus once again
I give you a new
commandment, that you love one another.
Just as I have loved
you, also should love one another.
By this everyone will
know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another
Ask for God's help in
learning and living his lesson of love – a love that includes
everyone, regardless of race, creed, gender.....or anything else you
can think of....a love that never gives up, regardless of our
response...a love that lasts forever.
Someone said BORING? Sigh. That's the worst insult of them all.
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