Love and the Commandments

-
I'm taking part in Rachel Held Evans' blogging the lectionary, which is turning out to be quite the challenge.
Acts 17:22-31
Psalm 66:7-18
1 Peter 3:13-22
John 14:15-21
Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. 
This sentence from 1 Peter (1 Peter 3:13, NRSV) is probably precisely the wrong thing an obsessive compulsive perfectionist needs to hear.

Ah, but see -- this is what happens when scripture is taken out of context because the very next bit says:
Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord.
Which is a great message of hope for recovering obsessive perfectionists like myself.

I read something on a blog yesterday that once I would have blindly agreed with before I had EfM under my belt and having spent the past year reading about Judaism and early Christianity. Now, it left me profoundly uncomfortable.

I commented as much on the blog, which I regret now because there isn't enough space to properly explain or recognize the process of how I'd gotten to this place. Fortunately, the blogger was all grace and kindness in response.

All this to say that it is in the following verse that God is meeting me today. Not just in pointing out how my ego-need-to-be-right (aka recovering obsessive perfectionist) gets in the way:
'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.' (John 14:21, NRSV)
Reading this verse seemed to confirm to me: God hasn't deserted Jews. They love God and God loves them, as God ever has since Abraham and Sarah when God made that first covenant. (My theology also argues that God has loved since the beginning of time, inclusively all.)

That a little Jewish sect grew exponentially and became its own religion does not make us superior. Both faiths love God and are loved by God. Judaism doesn't need Jesus to tell them this, but I think He needs to tell we Christians that.

How do we show our love? "They who have my commandments and keep them..." As Christians, we speak of the commandments Jesus gave us: "You shall love The Lord your God with all your heart..." and "You shall love your neighbor as yourselves."

The sage Hillel, 30 or so years before Jesus, added: "The rest is commentary." (Actually, it might've been a different sage, but I can't find that reference at the moment.)

How do you love God? How do you love your neighbor? (And who is your neighbor?) These are the rest of the law found in the Torah, which Jews today keep to varying degrees and reapply to today's world, just as we Christians do.

And sometimes we fail to do.  Just as I failed to do in that moment of commenting on that blog -- did I do it with the gentleness and reverence called for in 1 Peter?
Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an account of the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence. (1 Peter 3:15-16, NRSV)
Nope.

But in the remembering and returning to these commandments, to Jesus, to God, to love, I, you, we are restored. By remembering and acting with love at our hearts, we extend God's lovingkindess (chesed) to others.
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. (John 14:21, NRSV)
It all boils down to love. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment.

Popular posts from this blog

Where Bloggers Create Party!

-
Image
My Desert Cottage Not much has changed in my art room since last year . I had a substantial to-do list this year and I didn't quite get to all of them. Here's what was on my "to-do" that got t'done: 1) I made pretty labels for my binders: 2) I cleaned out my closet. (There is no before picture: just imagine stacks of boxes, giant plastic containers and the like.) The closet now holds some stamp storage (off to the side behind the purple velvet dress that's hanging; a chest of drawers packed with fabric (now consolidated into one space except for another drawer in last year's pink chest of drawers); and a sacred space. The wall has book pages taped onto it. I got the idea and the technique from Aunt Peaches . Eventually, the small stained glass cross will move and be above the ombry that I have on permanent loan (currently holding my prayer books and a bible), which is a bit of a long story, but basically when I no longer have a use f...
Read more

"where there is darkness, light" - Prayer of St. Francis series

-
Image
Today's guest blogger is Joe Pote. As a s tudent of the Bible since early childhood, Joe was literally raised in church, attending multiple church services and Bible studies each week. Having also endured the devastation of a failed marriage, Joe combines a sound understanding of biblical principles with personal experience of the issues and concerns of believers who have experienced divorce.  He would like for you to visit his website .  I sat huddled at my desk, face pressed into palms supported by elbows propped on desktop, staring into the darkness of my own hands…feeling the darkness pressing in from all sides.   The work day was ended.  It was time to go home, a brief ten minute walk from the office.  Yet, I lingered, dreading home…knowing the unfixable problems waiting there…praying that God would show me what to do. My four beautiful children waited at home, bright lights in my life, who I was always pleased to see.  But their mother also ...
Read more

Where Bloggers Create Party II: My Room 2010 (with lots of pictures)

-
Image
I'm excited to be joining the Where Bloggers Create Party for the first time. I discovered it last year, ages after it happened and I literally spent the day looking through them all! I hope you enjoy my space. The sign on my door. I made it as a make-and-take a couple of years ago. Here's an overall view of my room. You can't tell because of the lighting but the walls are not pink. They're pale lavender. The bookcase I bought from Target a year or two ago. It's "Shabby Chic". The bottom drawer holds my German scrap and the "transparent" stuff. The bookcase from Target that used to be under the window is now vertical. The addition to the top of pink chest of drawers is a library card file that was gonna be tossed from church until I rescued it. It holds rolls of seam binding and millinery. I might paint it next year.... Next to it is a tiered holder of mostly lace, but some feathers and flowers. The chest of drawers holds glue, large photos, fa...
Read more