“…love is the
fulfillment of the Law.”
--Romans
13: 8 -10
Why is the world so angry these days? Why is America so angry? Why are
Christians so angry? And why are we all so reflexively defensive? It seems to
me that part of the problem is we have forgotten how to love, and forgotten
what love looks like, how love acts, and what love costs. A man gets shot and
instead of coming together in sorrow and compassion as a nation we start
pointing fingers, Democrats desperate to blame Republicans and Conservatives
righteously blaming Liberals! Each side bitterly blaming the other. A husband
and wife are brutally murdered (possibly by their own son) and our president
posts cruel self-righteous messages about how the victim brought it on himself.
After a school shooting, instead of coming together in solidarity to protect our
children each side reaches for a camera to start broadcasting vitriole and
reasons why the other side is responsible for another unimaginable nighmare,
another empty seat around some poor family's table. Why is it that we aren't
coming together? Why are we treating each other this way? What has happened to
us as a nation? As a society? As a people? It's like we are just looking for
enemies? Why aren't we treating each other with love?
Perhaps we just need someone to remind us what that is... and what it looks
like.
Here at Christmas time we often get quite caught up in the whole sentimental
baby in the manger with lovely clean sheep hovering about, breathing their
sweet warm grassy breath over the rosy cheeked, pink and freshly swaddled
infant. This image of Christmas with its gentleness and radiant beauty can
distract us from the truth—Love is hard. It requires sacrifice. It demands
patience. And it can be exhausting…and risky. When we are expecting something
tender and sentimental, we may be utterly shocked by the truth-- the wood of
that manger inevitably leads to the wood of the cross. It’s unavoidable. Love
makes us vulnerable, and that is very uncomfortable. Something we (by instinct)
avoid at any cost. And yet, here at Christmas that is exactly the image of
Christ we are presented with. A newborn child, helpless; the God who is Love
lying in a manger, dependent for food and warmth upon His own creation, the
comfort of His mother's breast and the warmth of her flesh holding Him close.
The rough fingers of his carpenter "father" gently lifting him to
change a diaper or at least the straw that makes up His bed.
Love makes us vulnerable, and that is always uncomfortable. And Love maes
demands upon us, demands we too often might rather avoid.
But, as Paul reminds us in his letter to the Romans, “love is the fulfillment
of the Law.” The Law is capitalized here because it refers not just to human
laws but to the Law of God (as found in the Torah). Think about that; Paul is
telling us that all those rules found in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and
Deuteronomy—all those hard and fast regulations—boil down to one thing: Love.
Paul gives us three wonderful lessons at the end of Romans that—if we take them
seriously—will utterly change the way we treat each other. Especially anyone we
might be tempted to call our enemy. First:
“Vengeance
is mine, I will repay, thus sayeth the Lord.” (12:19)
This tells us that getting revenge (or getting even) is not our business; that
belongs to God.
Second:
“If your enemy is hungry, give him
something to eat;
if thirsty, give him something to drink.
By doing this, you will heap
red-hot coals on his head.” (12:20)
Hence, if we begin to think of someone as our enemy, we now know how God wants
us to treat them: with generosity and compassion. This is what Love looks
like... The answer isn't revenge, the answer isn't cruelty or meanness, but
generosity and compassion. Of course, we might think this is just the old
"Kill them with kindness" ploy, but is there something more to it? Is
the strangeness of this lesson not just about how we treat our
"enemies" but how we transform them (and ourselves)... By heaping
red-hot coals of generosity and kindness upon them, we might change their
hearts... But, more importantly we might change our own. It is hard to hate
someone you are caring for, harder even to see them as an enemy when you see
their hunger and thirst and their need for help, for compassion, for Love. It
seems that the Law of God is asking us not to harden our hearts against our
enemy but to become even more like Christ as we approach them. To see them not
with the eyes of politics or nationality but with the eyes of Jesus.
Which leads me back to this:
“…love
[truly] is the fulfillment of the Law…” (cf.13:8-10)
Why do Christians so quickly forget these essentials? Especially in a time of
conflict? Whether it is personal or social or even international, what is it
about these simple lessons that eludes us? Why does their obvious meaning fade
so quickly when our eyes are clouded by anger and resentment?
Let us ponder this as we approach the celebration of the birth of God’s Love
made flesh. This whole turn the other cheek, feed the hungry, care for the
sick, visit the prisoners, clothe the naked, care for the vulnerable and the
outcast thing isn’t just some liberal agenda run amuck. It is the fulfillment
of the Law of God. And it is our call as Christians, as the Body of Christ we
are called to live it, to embody it, to love our enemy and bless those who
curse us, to give ourselves away, and by so doing to give our flesh to the Love
of God. To let God’s love shine through our words and actions we must abe
willing to allo the wood of the cradle to reveal the wood of the Cross. This
way of life, this way of Love –it is the salt we are called to be for the
earth; it is the Light our faith must shine in a world frightened and lost in
the darkness of hate.
It is the Law and the Law is Love. What kind of blessing will you become this
Christmas? And who will you bless? If you are still looking for a way to shake
up your holiday season, let that become your Advent prayer.
