You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Phew! Jesus passed the test set him by the scribe who asked, “Which commandment is first of all?” Though Jesus’ answer may have been both predictable (“Love your one God”) and surprising, (“And love your neighbor as yourself”), his insight seems to have led his questioner to an “Aha!” moment. .
Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘he is one, and besides him there is no other’; and ‘to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself,’—this is much more important than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices.” When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that no one dared to ask him any question.
The scribe’s understanding that God wants us focused on love, not on religiosity and ritual, echoes many passages in the writings of Israel’s prophets and psalms. “For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt-offering, you would not be pleased,” and “The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." says the Psalmist. “I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies,”God thunders through the prophet Amos. “Even though you offer me your burnt-offerings and grain-offerings, I will not accept them...But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."
If Jesus was promoting a reform movement it was aimed at rooting out religious leaders’ distorted emphasis on rules and rituals, on a bloody – and remunerative – system of sacrificing animals to appease an angry God. Religious systems have often learned to prosper financially by sowing spiritual insecurity. Jesus’ message was, and is, “No! God is love. God has drawn near to you, with power and forgiveness and healing and restoration. The realm of God is now! The realm of God is here.” So he says to the scribe, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” He is so close to grasping the breathtaking reality of God With Us, Emmanu-el. He is so close to learning to dwell in that realm, and not in the death-dealing precincts of legalism and fear-mongering and distorted sacrifice.
How about us? Are we “close to the Kingdom of God?” Have we ingested the Good News that God is love, that God cannot but love, even the most unlovable and unworthy?
Are we ready to take on Jesus’ Love Challenge – to truly love God with all our hearts and minds, soul and strength? Are we ready to turn to our neighbors in love, and love ourselves with compassion and clarity? Whatever happens on Election Day we will have lots of opportunity to practice loving our neighbors as ourselves.
Jesus’ answer finally put a stop to the incessant challenges from religious leaders. It opened the way for much more fruitful exploration into the nature of God and love. It opens the way for us to approach the throne of grace and be soaked in love.
© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
Showing posts with label God is love. Show all posts
Showing posts with label God is love. Show all posts
10-23-23 - Love and Law
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Another week, another test. For the past few weeks our Gospel passages have chronicled one long game of “gotcha” between Jesus and the religious leaders, them trying to catch him saying the wrong thing, him neatly sidestepping their loaded questions. In last week’s test, he prevailed yet again, but another set of examiners was waiting in the wings. This week we see the Pharisees get back in the game – and since they were legal specialists, they asked Jesus a question about the Torah, the Law.
When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.
Another week, another test. For the past few weeks our Gospel passages have chronicled one long game of “gotcha” between Jesus and the religious leaders, them trying to catch him saying the wrong thing, him neatly sidestepping their loaded questions. In last week’s test, he prevailed yet again, but another set of examiners was waiting in the wings. This week we see the Pharisees get back in the game – and since they were legal specialists, they asked Jesus a question about the Torah, the Law.
When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.
“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”
Easy A. Jesus answers with the best known of all commandments:
Easy A. Jesus answers with the best known of all commandments:
He said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment.”
No surprises here. This is indeed the most basic command, where Israel’s relationship with God begins. Jesus might have checked the box and moved on – but he wasn’t finished. He went on to cite a much less known commandment and put it on a par with the first: “And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’"
What’s this? An obscure half-verse from Leviticus is up there with loving God? Yes, Jesus says - “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
He isn’t making this up – he is quoting the Law as given by Moses. Nonetheless, in combining these two commandments Jesus presents a radical new way of seeing God and justice. It’s not enough to love God. We have to live out that love by the way we love our neighbors and even ourselves.
We’ll unpack these different kinds of love throughout this week. Today let’s explore this linkage Jesus makes:
No surprises here. This is indeed the most basic command, where Israel’s relationship with God begins. Jesus might have checked the box and moved on – but he wasn’t finished. He went on to cite a much less known commandment and put it on a par with the first: “And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’"
What’s this? An obscure half-verse from Leviticus is up there with loving God? Yes, Jesus says - “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
He isn’t making this up – he is quoting the Law as given by Moses. Nonetheless, in combining these two commandments Jesus presents a radical new way of seeing God and justice. It’s not enough to love God. We have to live out that love by the way we love our neighbors and even ourselves.
We’ll unpack these different kinds of love throughout this week. Today let’s explore this linkage Jesus makes:
- Do you associate loving yourself with loving God? Do you connect God and neighbor?
- Do you feel the most love for God, for your neighbor, or for yourself?
- How might the way we love our neighbor increase our love for ourselves?
- How might the way we love ourselves – or not – connect to our ability to love God?
Sit with these questions in prayer as a kind of diagnostic on your "love life." Talk to God about it, notice where your energy increases.
It’s good to know where we excel in love and where we can grow, for in the realm of God, love is all and all is Love. We need that reminder all the more these days, when there is so much fear and conflict felt and expressed and acted upon. I am constantly called back to John’s reminder that, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.”
The absolutely best action we can take is to love actively and consciously, and increase our capacity for love every single day.
It’s good to know where we excel in love and where we can grow, for in the realm of God, love is all and all is Love. We need that reminder all the more these days, when there is so much fear and conflict felt and expressed and acted upon. I am constantly called back to John’s reminder that, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.”
The absolutely best action we can take is to love actively and consciously, and increase our capacity for love every single day.
6-16-23 - Are We Disciples of Jesus Christ
You can listen to this reflection here.
Our gospel reading this week has Jesus sending his new disciples out on their first mission trip – to go to all the towns and villages he will visit, proclaim the good news that God is near, and heal the sick. Oh yeah, and cast out demons and raise the dead, as needed. And don’t take any baggage or money – just rely on the hospitality you encounter. And if you’re not welcomed, hit the road and find some place that wants you. And if you get arrested or worse, don’t worry – God will be with you and tell you what to say.
How do we interpret these instructions in our day? Some Christ-followers take these words at face value and go out to share the Good News of God’s love. But more of us stay home, busy with work and family. Our “going in the name of Christ” mostly means going to church and maybe engaging in volunteer activities there or for other organizations whose values align with ours. Few of us are out blazing trails, telling our stories, healing the sick. What do we do with these instructions for Jesus’ road warriors when we’re not out there and may have no intention of altering our priorities?
Let's start with the call to proclaim Good News. If we don’t know what’s good about this Good News, we don’t have much of a message to share. Jesus said the Good News was about freedom, release, forgiveness, healing, the inbreaking of God’s life into this world. Where have you experienced those things in your spiritual life? What stories flow from those experiences? With whom might you share those stories?
Then there’s the “doing” part – healing, raising, releasing, forgiving: where and when in your life do you offer those ministries that Jesus said were integral to living the Good News? Is there anyone with whom you pray for healing? Anyone who you remind of their status as beloved no matter what they’ve done or said, or not done or said? Are there dead places you’ve helped bring God’s Life to? Any that are calling to you now?
These are the “what’s” – proclaiming the Realm of God, healing the sick. Jesus also talked a lot about the “how” and the “how not.” Most notably he said not to take any resources with us, to rely solely on God’s provision and that of the people among whom we go. That is probably the most challenging part of Jesus’ teaching for me and folks I know. I don’t see us untethering ourselves from our financial and emotional security systems anytime soon. Are we any good at all to Jesus, or to the people who need to hear of his love?
Might we find small ways to do this, trying to get to know our neighbors or people around us who have acute needs, not offering gifts or advice, but simply as people, building relationships that can lead to community, and seeing where the Spirit takes us?
The harvest is still plentiful, and the laborers are still few. Folks around us are still harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus doesn’t ask us to go to them out of guilt, but out of excitement at the joy of being his followers, and anticipating blessings. Are we his disciples?
Our gospel reading this week has Jesus sending his new disciples out on their first mission trip – to go to all the towns and villages he will visit, proclaim the good news that God is near, and heal the sick. Oh yeah, and cast out demons and raise the dead, as needed. And don’t take any baggage or money – just rely on the hospitality you encounter. And if you’re not welcomed, hit the road and find some place that wants you. And if you get arrested or worse, don’t worry – God will be with you and tell you what to say.
How do we interpret these instructions in our day? Some Christ-followers take these words at face value and go out to share the Good News of God’s love. But more of us stay home, busy with work and family. Our “going in the name of Christ” mostly means going to church and maybe engaging in volunteer activities there or for other organizations whose values align with ours. Few of us are out blazing trails, telling our stories, healing the sick. What do we do with these instructions for Jesus’ road warriors when we’re not out there and may have no intention of altering our priorities?
Let's start with the call to proclaim Good News. If we don’t know what’s good about this Good News, we don’t have much of a message to share. Jesus said the Good News was about freedom, release, forgiveness, healing, the inbreaking of God’s life into this world. Where have you experienced those things in your spiritual life? What stories flow from those experiences? With whom might you share those stories?
Then there’s the “doing” part – healing, raising, releasing, forgiving: where and when in your life do you offer those ministries that Jesus said were integral to living the Good News? Is there anyone with whom you pray for healing? Anyone who you remind of their status as beloved no matter what they’ve done or said, or not done or said? Are there dead places you’ve helped bring God’s Life to? Any that are calling to you now?
These are the “what’s” – proclaiming the Realm of God, healing the sick. Jesus also talked a lot about the “how” and the “how not.” Most notably he said not to take any resources with us, to rely solely on God’s provision and that of the people among whom we go. That is probably the most challenging part of Jesus’ teaching for me and folks I know. I don’t see us untethering ourselves from our financial and emotional security systems anytime soon. Are we any good at all to Jesus, or to the people who need to hear of his love?
Might we find small ways to do this, trying to get to know our neighbors or people around us who have acute needs, not offering gifts or advice, but simply as people, building relationships that can lead to community, and seeing where the Spirit takes us?
The harvest is still plentiful, and the laborers are still few. Folks around us are still harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus doesn’t ask us to go to them out of guilt, but out of excitement at the joy of being his followers, and anticipating blessings. Are we his disciples?
5-12-23 - Swimming In Love
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Language fails when we try to convey the overlapping unity of love and persons in God, a triune swirl of inter-relatedness in which we are invited to swim. Jesus, at least as his remarks are rendered in John’s Gospel, seemed to have almost as much trouble making it clear:
“In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”
Where does Jesus end and the Father begin? Where do we end and Jesus begin? Are we in the Father and in Jesus, or vice versa, or (g) all of the above? The answer is (g)… and maybe (z). God is love. Jesus is love. We love and are loved, and so are drawn into the eternal and present Love of God.
When two people fall in love, there is often a period where identities merge. We want to fuse, to lose ourselves in the glorious other, whose every word and movement is wondrous. This stage of in-love-ness is intoxicating – and it’s not forever. If the relationship is to grow and strengthen, we need to differentiate again, to carry our own identities, loving and respecting the other person, being with but not needing to be one with.
Does Jesus suggest we lose our identity when we let the love of God become a part of us, and we of God? I don’t think so. The Christian tradition celebrates that each of us is unique and precious. Our self does not get obliterated as we enter the stream of God’s love. Rather, being loved for who we are allows us to become more fully who we truly are, shedding the inauthentic carapaces and personas we grow to protect ourselves and cope with adversity.
We don’t lose ourselves swimming in God’s love any more than we do when we swim in the vast, refreshing ocean. We become more fully alive. We are contained in our bodies, and yet somehow one with a primal element. We exult as we move in that unbounded water, which allows us to dive and dance and turn somersaults and ride waves, all kinds of things we can’t do on land, just as dwelling in God's love enables us to do and think and say and offer all kinds of things we can’t in our natural selves.
Today in prayer let's go swimming. Imagine a waterfall flowing into the sea. Let’s say the sea is the Love of God, the waterfall is Jesus, and the spray that rises as they meet is the Holy Spirit. This sea is always being renewed, refreshed, replenished, the water all one, so you cannot distinguish sea from waterfall from spray. Imagine jumping in. How does the water feel? How does it make you feel? How do you want to move in it?
If this is God’s love, how does it feel to be immersed in love? How would you share the water with others? How would you invite others to join you in that pool?
Swimming in the love of God allows us to access the source of Love that has no limit, so that we love out of the reservoir of God’s infinite love, not our own limited supply. As we approach the summer “swimming season,” I hope you’ll have lots of opportunities to be reminded of the water in which we were reborn, in which we will swim always. Splash!
Language fails when we try to convey the overlapping unity of love and persons in God, a triune swirl of inter-relatedness in which we are invited to swim. Jesus, at least as his remarks are rendered in John’s Gospel, seemed to have almost as much trouble making it clear:
“In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”
Where does Jesus end and the Father begin? Where do we end and Jesus begin? Are we in the Father and in Jesus, or vice versa, or (g) all of the above? The answer is (g)… and maybe (z). God is love. Jesus is love. We love and are loved, and so are drawn into the eternal and present Love of God.
When two people fall in love, there is often a period where identities merge. We want to fuse, to lose ourselves in the glorious other, whose every word and movement is wondrous. This stage of in-love-ness is intoxicating – and it’s not forever. If the relationship is to grow and strengthen, we need to differentiate again, to carry our own identities, loving and respecting the other person, being with but not needing to be one with.
Does Jesus suggest we lose our identity when we let the love of God become a part of us, and we of God? I don’t think so. The Christian tradition celebrates that each of us is unique and precious. Our self does not get obliterated as we enter the stream of God’s love. Rather, being loved for who we are allows us to become more fully who we truly are, shedding the inauthentic carapaces and personas we grow to protect ourselves and cope with adversity.
We don’t lose ourselves swimming in God’s love any more than we do when we swim in the vast, refreshing ocean. We become more fully alive. We are contained in our bodies, and yet somehow one with a primal element. We exult as we move in that unbounded water, which allows us to dive and dance and turn somersaults and ride waves, all kinds of things we can’t do on land, just as dwelling in God's love enables us to do and think and say and offer all kinds of things we can’t in our natural selves.
Today in prayer let's go swimming. Imagine a waterfall flowing into the sea. Let’s say the sea is the Love of God, the waterfall is Jesus, and the spray that rises as they meet is the Holy Spirit. This sea is always being renewed, refreshed, replenished, the water all one, so you cannot distinguish sea from waterfall from spray. Imagine jumping in. How does the water feel? How does it make you feel? How do you want to move in it?
If this is God’s love, how does it feel to be immersed in love? How would you share the water with others? How would you invite others to join you in that pool?
Swimming in the love of God allows us to access the source of Love that has no limit, so that we love out of the reservoir of God’s infinite love, not our own limited supply. As we approach the summer “swimming season,” I hope you’ll have lots of opportunities to be reminded of the water in which we were reborn, in which we will swim always. Splash!
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