Colossians 3:1-13
Love is the action that creates the social and economic contexts in which life has the best chance to thrive. Without love, the world literally falls apart.
- Love’s Braided Dance, Norman Wirzba
We started out this summer looking for clues about the faith values that inform us and help us explain what seems broken in our country and the world just now. What is it that matters to us and to God that looks and acts differently from what’s in the news? If we have a chance to explain what we think is the right way to act, what words frame that?
I don’t know about you, but I was pretty uncertain we’d find a clear answer. Sometimes when nobody seems to be paying attention, it can feel like we’re crazy. What seems obvious to us is so out of the mainstream; if it’s not obvious to everyone, ho can we describe what a healthy world and nation look like?
Now as we’re a couple of months into the project, it seems clearer to me. The scriptures have been saying the same thing over and over: love God, love your neighbor. Behave in the most loving way possible and you’ll be living the life Jesus described. Duh! Seems easy. Only it’s not. If it were ever easy, we wouldn’t have multiple Bible books ranting about how people were supposed to put love into action. Living from a core of love is hard, especially when the world around you is looking out for themselves, abusing power, taking advantage of others…
Today’s scripture is yet another list of what love looks like (or mostly what it’s not): profanity, lust, self-serving, greed. Remember back when we read Corinthians? Love is patient, kind, not jealous or boastful or rude, not insisting on its own way? In the midst of an Empire that is anything but loving, it’s possible to think with the mind of love, act with the heart of love, speak words of love.
Over the centuries folks have been inclined to see these passages as rules. Lay down enough rules and everything will be fine. A teacher once told me she thought all kids’ problems would be solved if we just posted the 10 Commandments in the classroom and made them follow them. Not my favorite teacher. I’m inclined to say the classroom would be better if we loved kids enough to listen to their hurts and understand that life can be brutal. Kids who don’t know they are loved anywhere else, need a school that loves them.
We all need people who love us, believe in us, encourage us, walk beside us. People who don’t pay attention to the things we get wrong more than when we get it right. People to try to become loving community with us. We can learn how to live lives centered in love if we do it together.
We’re reading from a new book today: Love’s Braided Dance by Norman Wirzba. Wirzba is the son of immigrant parents who survived the holocaust. He knows first hand how the world can break us, and how we can heal. His book builds on Robin Wall Kimmerer’s work we’ve been reading so far this summer. She tells us that nature shows us how to care for each other and work together to thrive. Wirzba names that natural phenomenon “love” and explores how love works when we believe enough to try to make it the heart of our living.
Love isn’t a rule, it’s a world-view. It’s a super-power. It’s the presence of all that’s holy in the thick of all that’s not holy. Neal Donald Walsh tells us the most important question around any action is “What would love do?” Marianne Williamson ran for President twice telling us that we needed to learn how to love each other. Love isn’t some smarmy option that pretends everything is great. Love is the strong power that sees what’s broken and still believes it can be healed. That acknowledges that people aren’t all the same but believes we can still work together. That stands up to bullies without giving up on them. That takes what’s MINE and makes it OURS until we all have enough. Love levels playing fields, sees human in every being. Love is God creating the world through us.
There’s a lot of talk about being Christian these days, but not necessarily a lot of talk aout following Jesus. I was taught that being Christian wasn’t about what you did – earning God’s love – but about what you believed – that God loved you. That’s true. But it’s also about what you do – loving God and neighbor. It’s not about posting rules, it’s about caring about everyone. It’s not about being rewarded, it’s about gladly taking resources and spreading them around until everyone thrives.
We do need to be able to explain what the world looks like when it’s following Jesus – or Mohammed or any of God’s messengers who show us a good way. But when people aren’t listening to words, we just need to be about living it. Treat neighbors with respect and compassion. Share food and medicine and rent money. Speak kindly but clearly. Smile often. Tell jokes. Break bread.
“Without love the world literally falls apart.”
With love we can pick up the pieces and heal.