Is it enough to proclaim and celebrate the Love of God that is Jesus Christ as the antidote for hate in our time and in all times? What does that Love look like? Why, it looks like Jesus the friend of sinners, Jesus the protector of the poor, Jesus the healer, the sacrificial Lamb, Jesus the Crucified One.
You cannot read the founding history of Christianity without being overwhelmed by a profound sense of awe by the willingness of early Christians to be like Jesus and give their lives as martyrs for their faith. These long-ago brothers and sisters allowed their lives to be used of God to establish the church as outpost of the kingdom of grace. Their love of God in Christ was so strong that they allowed that Love to permeate every fiber of their being.
They loved God and, in the power of the Spirit, loved those who hated them, who persecuted them, who betrayed them and who took their lives. Their love was fed by a spring of God’s love rising like a deeper well from within their souls. In their prayer and worship, they sought the loving presence of God. In their dealings with each other, they practiced their love of God.
Their offerings of material and spiritual importance expressed their love for God and one another. Their practices of community, sharing out of their abundance and out of their want, and accepting others with the unconditional love of God, gave witness to the world that they were not bound by fear, hate or greed but were defined by love.
These were people for whom the shape and form of Love was a cross. At the cross of Christ, they discovered nothing mattered but loving God. They were people who could say with Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
These were radical and dangerous people, in all the best, most holy ways. Their lives of love were so complete in Christ, they would change the world.
See, O Friend, what Love can do?
Grace and peace,
Bob Guffey
