Water Daily has been hard going this week. And I have a feeling Jesus’ first century audience had as much trouble interpreting his training talks as we do in the twenty-first. As love letters go, these don’t soar.
And yet I do believe these teachings are given in love, as was the God-in-Man who offered them – God’s “funny valentine” to the world. The prophet Isaiah's words, so often thought to prefigure Christ, say,
“He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him… [Yet] he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”
(Okay, so it’s not quite “Your looks are laughable, unphotographable, yet you’re my favorite work of art…” – but work with me…)
If Jesus is God’s ultimate love letter to his creation, the life and teachings of Jesus are his love letter to those who would call themselves his followers. And He could hardly love us without instructing us how we are to live in the new life he ushers us into, the God-Life he called the “kingdom of heaven,” anymore than we would bear children into this world and expect them to just figure out how to live in it. As we teach our children, so Jesus teaches his followers.
And here it’s about truth and integrity: ‘Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, “You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.” But I say to you, Do not swear at all… Let your word be “Yes, Yes” or “No, No”; anything more than this comes from the evil one.
This teaching doesn’t seem to need as much “unpacking” as others this week – it’s pretty straightforward. Let your word stand for something. Don’t bear false witness against others, or yourself, by saying one thing and doing another. Don’t swear oaths – just let your “Yes” be “Yes,” and your “No” be “No.” Ah, what a nice world it would be if everyone did that simple thing. But so often we seem to feel the need to hide behind falsehoods, small and large.
Let’s leave big “cover-ups” for major infractions out of it for now. Let’s just discuss the little white lies, the need to tell people what we think they want to hear instead of what’s honestly in our minds; the need to embellish our resumes as we speak, or to engage in people-pleasing like promising to attend an event or do a task that we’re not sure we’re going to follow through on. What is the remedy for these kinds of responses?
It goes back to love. The key is to stand firm in our belovedness. If we are rooted in our belovedness before God, that fills the picture, and there is less room for shame or insecurity or a desire to control, all those feelings that cause us to say one thing and do another.
Valentine’s Day is a good day to reflect on how loved you are – you might list the people who love you, and meditate on the ways you experience God’s love in your life. You might list the people whom you love, and why. Love is a lot broader than romantic connection, sweet as that is when it happens.
Love is the code in which the holy, wholly Other God communicates with God’s creation, including stubborn-headed creatures like us. The better we learn that code, and how to communicate in it, the truer we will be, in every sense.
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