Ex 22:20-26 / 1 Thes 1:5c-10 / Mt 22:34-40
There was an old Quaker gentleman who was very sincere about his religious faith: He tried very hard to love his neighbor as himself and to avoid ever hurting anyone. One night he was awakened by strange noises downstairs. So he grabbed his old blunderbuss, crept downstairs, snapped on the light, and caught a burglar red-handed! In the kindest and most courteous voice the old Quaker addressed the burglar, “My friend, I wouldst not harm thee for the world, but thou standest where I’m about to shoot!”
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So much for love! We all want to do it, but so often we get lost in the details. Sometimes we fool ourselves with cheap imitations, like good wishes: I wish you well, and I think I’m loving you. Not so. As the saying goes, “If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.” Wishing is nice, but it isn’t love.
Neither are those warm, mushy feelings that come upon as at times. Those sentimental feelings are nice, and very pleasant too, but they’re not love either. Five minutes can cool off any bowl of warm mush!
Real love wants the best for the other, and then works at making it happen. Real love acts, but not like a tank. Real love is circumspect. It thinks and prays long and hard in search of what the best really IS for the other. And sometimes it has to say in truth, “I don’t know what the best is in this case. So I’ll just be quiet for awhile, and be open and attentive to the Holy Spirit till I do know.”
Real love for another has at its root the experience of BEING loved, which enables us to see, through the eyes of another, all the goodness God has planted in us. Now if we don’t see the good God has put in us, we won’t be ABLE to love ourselves, and in turn we’ll never be able to see and trust the goodness in others: we’ll never have the heart to love.
Instead, knowing for sure that we’re not lovable, we’ll be equally certain that nobody else is lovable either, and we’ll waste our lives alternately holding each other at a distance and trying to steal love we’re sure we don’t deserve: Buying it or tricking folks into it one way or another. What a waste!
We’ve gathered here in this church because we don’t want to waste our lives. We know Jesus is right when he says the only path to life is loving God and our neighbor as ourselves. We want to do and not just talk about it. So what comes next is clear: We have to let God’s love enfold us and wrap us round. In the embrace of him who sees everything and yet loves us nonetheless, we’ll find the power to act, the power to give ourselves to one another. And in doing that, we’ll find the joy we long for.
Trust his love for you. Trust the full extent of it. Let him enfold you completely. The power to love with all your heart will follow!
