“As my Father has loved me,
so I love you. Abide in my love.”
Sounds good, but what does it
mean?
How did God show his love for
his son, Jesus? Did God keep Jesus
safe? No. Did God make sure that Jesus’ life would be
easy and productive? Definitely
not. Did God clear the path for Jesus so
that he could reach his goals more easily?
Again … no.
God sent Jesus out into the
world to proclaim the good news. God let
Jesus struggle with Satan in the wilderness.
God let Jesus get tired enough that he sought rest in Syrophoenicia. God did not let him rest there. God let Jesus trudge from one village to
another, often with the authorities mad at him by the time he left. God let Jesus feel despair on the cross at
Calvary.
“As my Father has loved me,
so I love you.”
That’s some tough love and
that’s what Jesus promised us. So how is
this good news?
Some people believe that God
directs every moment of our lives; that we live exactly according to God’s
plan. I don’t believe this. To me, a god that would do this does not love. This idea of God makes God into a dictator,
not a parent.
I believe that God is much
more like a good mother. God calls to
us. God tries to let us know the best
path that we can take. God does not
force us to take that path. We are free
to ignore God’s call. We are free to
turn the wrong way. When our choices
bring us to pain, God does not take them away from us, but God does stay with
us while we suffer. When our choices lead
us into danger, God worries about our safety and tries to call us back from the
danger.
This is how I understand God’s
love.
Everyone here who has been a
parent knows about this feeling. We want
so much to protect our children, to keep them from all harm. I would feel much safer seeing Paul and Rosa
go to school in the morning wearing elbow and knee pads and hockey
helmets. It would be great if I could
keep them away from knives and stoves forever.
But this wouldn’t be good parenting.
This would be putting them in a kind of a prison. A good parent is a guide, not a ruler.
Just as we have to allow our
children to make their own mistakes, God lets us choose our own path. Just as we cringe when we watch our children
trying to cook for the first time, God watches over us as we make our journey through
life. Just as we cry our own tears when
our children get hurt, so God feels the pain of our suffering.
This is the love of a mother
or a father for their child. This is God’s
love for us. Whether we have children or
not, most of us can understand this love by thinking about our own parents.
“As my Father has loved me,
so I love you. Abide in my love.”
Do you remember what a
comfort it is to feel that love? When
you made a bad choice and your mother or father was there waiting for you to
come home? How they told you it was
okay, you would know better next time?
Do you remember the smile you
got as your parents tried to eat that meal that even you couldn’t choke down?
Do you remember being held as
you cried after something went terribly wrong?
This is God’s love for each
of us, every day. This is the love that
Jesus told us to abide in. This is the
love that Jesus promises is there for all who look for it.
By the grace of God this love
is ours.
Jesus tells us that we have
our own part to play in this love.
“This is my commandment, that
you love one another as I have loved you.”
It is our calling as Christians
to extend this love to each other. It is
our calling as Christians to try to guide and help each other as we struggle to
follow God’s call. It is our calling as
Christians to love one another as we make our mistakes, as we wander into
danger, as we cause ourselves and others pain.
It is our calling as
Christians to love each person just as if they were our own son or
daughter. No matter what mistakes they
make, we are to love them. No matter how
difficult they are to like, we are to love them. No matter how much pain they cause to
themselves or to others, we are to love them.
This does not mean that we
have to like what people do. We all know
that some people do awful things. We have
all done awful things ourselves. But
when people accept that what they have done is wrong, we need to be able to
accept them back, not as a repentant sinner, but as someone we love.
This is a very difficult
calling. To share the same unconditional
love that we feel for our children with everyone. But this is what Jesus is asking for us to
do.
I can’t do it. I try and some days I do better than others,
but I’m not there yet. I think that when
we finally get to the point that everyone on earth can feel this love for
everyone else, we will finally reached the Kingdom of God.
In the meantime, we abide in
God’s love. We can rest assured that at
the very least, God, our heavenly mother, loves us this way. And we can give thanks for the love of our
own parents, particularly today for the love we have received from our mothers.
Thanks be to God.
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