Spirit of Love: Loving God
I love these two texts. I love them together set side by side like this.
The text from Deuteronomy is one part of the Shema, the Jewish confession of faith that proclaims one God. The word Shema actually means “hear” in Hebrew. As in Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.
The text from Ephesians is also prayer – a prayer for the Ephesian community, that they might be strengthened by the Spirit, and that Christ would dwell in them as individuals and community, because they are rooted and grounded in the fullness of God’s love, love that is so big and so vast that it can hardly be comprehended, but love that will enable them to do so much if they will let it.
I think it is important for us to once again situate ourselves in the arc of the journey we have been on together through Brian McLaren’s book, We Make the Road by Walking. Because when we remember where we’ve been, sometimes we can see the road ahead more clearly.
We began this adventure last fall with creation of all things and then the promise of a great nation, with offspring more numerous than the stars in the sky or the sands on the shore – a promise made to Abraham should he choose to follow God.
From that promise sprang generations of people.
People who were loyal to God but also stumbled from time to time.
People who found themselves enslaved by the powers of Pharoah.
People who murmured in the wilderness.
People who demanded a King.
People who ignored the prophets.
But God kept showing up to the people.
And eventually Jesus was born and lived among the people of God.
This Jesus was God in flesh.
That is to say he, who was at the beginning with God, was also with people.
He ate with people.
He laughed with people.
He wept with people.
He taught among the people.
He sometimes argued with the people.
He died.
But he rose again.
And he once again ate with the people.
And he walked with people.
And he told the people to keep walking.
He sent them forward to continue the path.
And he promised that while he couldn’t stay with the people as a person in flesh, God would provide them with a guide – an advocate. An advocate to help them on the path.
The Holy Spirit, the same Spirit that presented at Jesus’ baptism, swept into a gathering of the people in Jerusalem at Pentecost, unifying them into a new kind of one-ness that surpassed the body and flesh experience of the disciples.
And so, in light of this journey, we will spend the next few weeks thinking about how that same Spirit infuses us and binds us together into one-ness.
We will think about how is it that through life in the Spirit, we are able to love God, love our neighbor, and love ourselves?
How is it that through life in the Spirit we are attuned to our connectedness in spite of our differences, our hope in the midst of hard things, our call to service – to the humility of washing another’s feet like Jesus did?
How is it that when we do those things, we are better able to see the fullness of God’s work around us in all things?
That is the work of the rest of our journey in this series.
We begin today by pondering how it is that we love God. Where “love” is an active verb.
It sounds so simple on the surface.
When we love someone in our lives, McLaren points out that we move toward that someone in a special way. We see them with appreciation and respect. We seek their company. We are curious about them, we want to grow to know them more. We want them to know and respect and appreciate us as they grow to love us.
To be in love is a mutual relationship, McLaren notes.
Here’s the thing that I cannot say enough. I cannot say it loud enough or in enough ways for it to be heard by all who need to hear it:
God already loves us.
Each one of us.
All of us.
All of creation.
God created and saw that it was good.
And from that love, God became flesh to be with us.
And from that love he let that flesh die and be raised to new life.
God already loves us. Each one of us. No matter what.
So…how do we love back?
This week I was revisiting a teaching by the Jesuit Fr. Richard Rohr. As happens, because the Spirit is tricky that way, the chapter I was listening to was very conveniently connected to the Ephesians passage for today. Rohr spoke this truth: “I have never been separate from God, nor can I be, except in my mind.” (from The Universal Christ)
McLaren suggests that through the Spirit, we are all drawn somehow more deeply into love. How do we get our minds out of the way? How do we return God’s unfailing love in a mutual relationship? How do we let the Spirit do what the Spirit is trying always to do…to connect us to the God who loves us?
McLaren suggests six things that form something of a circle.
1. We show up to God, becoming aware of God’s presence and actually presenting ourselves to God. That is one thing we do in worship, but it is also work for us to cultivate as a private and personal and small group habit.
2. We show appreciation for the ways we see God at work. We express gratitude. We say thank you, often. Through prayer, through laughter, through service.
3. We honor and respect God. This is another reason we gather in worship each week. When we are our best selves, this honor and respect also shapes our moral, ethical, vocational, economic and even political choices. We try to shape a life of being that demonstrates honor and respect to God.
4. We confess and repent when we mess up. Because let’s face it, we’re not all really good at this loving God thing all the time, right? And we mess up. But let’s circle back. God loves us. And so we keep showing up, called back by that unfailing love.
5. We support what God desires. We seek to understand those desires by studying scripture, and by listening deeply to the love God has for others. We seek to actively join in that love.
6. We let God support and love what we desire. We have to let God support and love us…we have to be willing to make our desires known even to a God who knows us better than we know ourselves. Because that is part of the work of circling back to the first step – showing up to God.
We are part of this big story of God. We are part of God’s big family. We are part of the fullness of creation. We receive God’s love most fully when we love God fully. We become part of the fullness of God that permeates this world when we open ourselves up fully to love God.
I think that sounds a little overwhelming – to be part of something so big, to be loved by such a powerful force, to be part of the flow of love in the universe. It sounds so awesome. And I’m just little old me.
But what if?
What if we lean in and love God with all of our heart and soul and might? In all that we do?
What if it is as simple as just beginning to love ALL of creation, no matter what?
What if it means loving the trees and the breeze and the neighbor and the refugee?
What if it means loving the cicadas and the noise they make?
What if it means loving even when we disagree?
It sounds so awesome. And it really is the best next step into loving God with all of ourselves.
Let’s lean in.
Let’s let God’s love draw love from us, out into the world.
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