A couple of days ago I took the Five Love Languages survey. I wanted to see which which of Gary Chapman’s five love languages I appreciate most. According to the survey, of the five, I value physical touch the most. A close second is verbal affirmation. Now I like it when someone gives me a gift, does something for me, or wants to spend time with me, but the first two, according to the survey, really ring my bell.
The premise is this: If you love me, show me. In a way that I appreciate.
I suppose we are all like this. We all have certain things that are meaningful to us, and when someone uses that to communicate affection it touches us. In times of celebration or sadness, appropriate gestures which touch the heart mean a lot.
But here is the catch. If we don’t watch it we’ll limit our expression of love to ways we like to be loved, and fail to get the point across. We turn it to focus on ourselves, our need to love in some way, and leave it to the other person to say, “Well, she means well.” In that case it’s not really an expression of love, its doing what we like to do.
Remember that if you love someone, you will show it in truly meaningful and touching ways. It takes work and knowing the person.
It got me thinking about loving God and today’s lectionary reading.
A lawyer of the Pharisees asked Jesus a question intended to trip him up. That wasn’t loving, was it? “What is the greatest commandment?” The Pharisees loved ranking the commandments and then arguing over it.
Jesus responded by quoting from Deuteronomy 6:5. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your being, and all your strength.” Then he slipped in another one from Leviticus 19:18. “You must love your neighbor as yourself.”
I think Jesus’ point is that the way we show God we love him, the way that touches his heart most, is by loving others. Not by expressions we dream up, not things that please or bless us, but by doing what gratifies God the most.
It makes sense. If we love God we’ll do what is most meaningful to him.
The verse from Deuteronomy is part of what the Jewish people call the Schema. From biblical times they continue to recite it twice each day. It is their basic creed. There is one God and we are to love him with all we have in us.
I suppose we could offer sacrifices. We could show up on Sunday to sing and clap to our favorite songs. We could talk about how God has blessed us with this thing or that. We could do all that makes us feel warm and fuzzy on the inside.
But it wouldn’t do us much good when it comes to loving God. He told Isaiah the prophet, “these people turn toward me with their mouths and honor me with lip service while their heart is distant from me, and their fear of me is just a human command that has been memorized” (Isaiah 29:13). So our worship and our blessings don’t exactly set God’s heart to racing.
After all, if we love God, we’ll express it in a way that touches him.
Maybe that’s why Jesus tacked Leviticus 19:18 on to Deuteronomy 6:5. Maybe that’s why he talked to his disciples so much about love. God’s love of the world, God’s love for them, and how they should love each other – and their enemies.
God loves this world he created and all the people blinded by the dark shadows cast by the original sin. More than anything he wants to restore the world and redeem the people, and he provides Jesus to make the way. That way is through a cross that atones for our sin and provides guidance for selfless living.
It really causes God’s heart to skip a beat when we take up his concerns and make them our own. He redeemed us for a purpose beyond bragging about going to heaven one day. If he loves, he wants us to love.
And it begins among ourselves. Jesus said his disciples are known for loving each other, giving themselves for each other. There is no place to hold grudges and keep distance over petty things.
Then it reaches out into the community where our embassy is located. We love the community because Jesus loves it. We do what Jesus wants done, because we love him so much we’ll do anything to please him. We take the focus off getting a blessing and we become the blessing.
That means we research the community, to find out how it needs to be loved. We have a means to do that, and we are discovering how the community needs to experience God’s love. Then we do things to reach out to the community in ways that touches their heart.
All because if we love the community as God does, we’ll represent him in ways that touch the community, thereby touching God’s heart. That is how we love God.
So my challenge today is two-fold:
First, love each other. Get over whatever has caused dissension and strife.
Second, love this community. Work with me in finding out how the community is reached and then join in the effort to reach it.
In other words, let’s be the embassy of God.
Matthew 22:34-46 (Proper 25 A)
No comments:
Post a Comment