I just called to say ‘I love you’ Part 2

Last week we explored something around the nature that ‘God is love’, and that he is the source of our being. We set off with a line from a Stevie Wonder song.

Today we take a line from another song. Not so well known, but brilliant none the less. The band Delirious? (Their name does have the question mark) had a hit with Our God reigns, and it includes the line ‘God did not screw up when he made you’.

This has always struck a chord with me. The title is from that popular Christian Chorus of the late 70s, and it reminds us that whatever is going on in the world God is creator and ruler, this version written in the 80s with Aids and Famine in the headlines questions whether or not we accept that. It is a huge paradox, and the song hits it head on –

40 million babies
Lost to Gods great orphanage
It’s a modern day genocide
And a modern day disgrace

If this is a human right
Then why aren’t we free?
The only freedom we have is
In a Man nailed to a tree

100 million faces
Staring at the sky
Wondering if this HIV
Will ever pass us by

The devil stole the rain
And hope trickles down the plug
But still my Chinese take away
Could pay for someone’s drugs

Our God reigns, our God reigns
Forever Your Kingdom reigns

And then late in the song

Psalm one hundred and thirty nine
Is the conscience to our selfish crime
God didn’t screw up when He made you
He’s a Father who loves to parade you

For me the words force me to look beyond the immediate to our understanding of God. It makes me ask that fundamental question, Does God reign, or have we abandoned him, and of course the answer is, Yes he does, and even if we have abandoned him, he has not abandoned us.

As the source of our being, he made us out of the love which is himself, and each one of us  unique. God is unique, and so that is what it means to be made in his image. To be unique. And each of us has that divine love, that spark of the sacred within us. Those who suffer, those who struggle along with those who thrive and those who find love. God dwells within each of us.
The message of our Christian faith is that we are called to love God, and our neighbour whatever their circumstances, wherever they are from and irrespective of the things that they do.

God does not force us to do anything – he loves us too much for that – and so it is up to us to learn how to love our neighbours and to value and care for them.

Another of the statements we are familiar with is that God is Truth.
If we accept that, we can then accept that we are true expressions of his love, and that includes the incredible diversity of human life. Not only are we all unique, but we are all different, wanting, needing, expressing, believing and exploring different things. And God so loved the world – not, God so loved the people like me.
Sometimes we need to look beyond what people do in order to accept this. Make no mistake, human beings can, and have done, and continue to do the most despicable things, and that is not OK. But there is something within each person that causes them to be loved, and maybe if folk were loved more they may do less dreadful things.
Parents usually love their children whatever they do. Good parents share their love selflessly for their parents. God is the ultimate parent, and his loves his creation. 

Our scriptures teach us that God wants to be with us, and wants us to be with him, and he wants us to be joyful, and he commands us to love one another.

Try reading this next section which are verses from John 15 out loud

 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.  This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.  If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 

 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.  My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.  This is my command: Love each other.

So, we are made from love, we have love dwelling within us, we have Christ’s joy inside of us, and we are called to love. This is big stuff.

I think our task is to do three things. The first is love God. We do this by endeavouring to grasp the meaning of who he is by listening to the teaching of Jesus. That in turn can lead us to worship during which we hear the message come alive through hearing the Gospel, and receiving some pointers through the sermon. We also take something spiritual into ourselves as we receive our Communion when we can.
The second is to love our neighbours – and this is our lifetimes work. We are called and gifted to serve, to share, to care for and to include all those who have that spark of the divine within them. We are not called to judge.

Thirdly, we are called to love ourselves. That means being the person who we love, which in turn means being the person we believe is the best representation of the love of God that we can be. The simple question is ‘Do we believe what we do, and how we live our lives brings joy to God and neighbour? If not, we have some work to do.

Bless you, Bless you, Bless you,

As ever,

Fr Marcus