“A challenging proposition”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Tuesday, February 22, 2022
1 John 4:7-21 Forward, p. 24) CEV p. 1288
To be honest, I was a most nerdy child growing up. I would smuggle my Bible beneath my covers after being told to go to sleep and then read it there by flashlight. And I would copy out prayers that I liked—presumably from the Book of Common Prayer but possibly from other devotional books. One of these prayers especially ‘stuck in my craw’. It said something like ‘help me to love xx even when I don’t like him.’ To me, that made no sense at all, as I figured that to love someone required you to first like him. In other words, one could not love someone if there wasn’t the ‘proper’ emotional feeling there to sustain it, and prompt and enable it in the first place.
Since then, I have discovered that the prayer is quite true, namely that love, agape love, doesn’t depend upon one’s feelings or emotions. It is an act of the will rather than a movement of the emotions. It implies acting in a loving way, regardless of how one feels about or towards that person. It is a decision to do what is best for the person in spite of what may be bitter or angry or otherwise negative feelings towards him or her.
Today’s Scripture portion is rather emphatic about our need to love each other, so this question is very much at the forefront. I find that it is especially challenging, and difficult, when I see fellow Christians coming down with very different opinions than I have on the matter of medicine, covid regulations, government interventions, freedom and so much else. I hear their opinions, often quite shrilly expressed, and wonder, ‘How could they? How could they come to believe that? How could they behave in such a way? And, the fact that they presumably are fellow Christians just makes it so much more difficult and challenging.
So, how does one respond in the light of all this? Certainly, we should show them respect, but does this mean ‘hearing them out’? When both ‘sides’ are firmly entrenched, and firmly convinced of the rightness of their views, it hardly productive even to listen to their rhetoric. So, maybe the answer, is not ‘talk’ at all, but love expressed in other more concrete, more tangible ways, such as helping them when they are in trouble or in need. Nevertheless, I must confess that even so, loving some of these people is very trying, very challenging, even at the best of times. May God help us in this difficult task. Amen.
Forward notes: “In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (verse 10).
“Every year, as I look ahead toward Ash Wednesday, I start thinking about what I’m planning to give up for Lent. What will it be this time? Chocolate? Coffee? TV? Underneath all this eagerness to humble myself is always a layer of pride. I want to prove to myself that I can give up something I enjoy for forty days. I want to prove to God that I can do it, too. Why? To show that I will gladly make a sacrifice, because I love God so much.
“But this is an upside-down way to think about Lent (and God, for that matter). I don’t have to prove my own worthiness; Jesus has already proven me worthy by freeing me from sin. I certainly don’t have to prove my love for God; God’s love for me is infinitely greater than any love I can offer in return. Instead of trying to prove myself, I can better prepare my heart for Lent by dwelling in gratitude for God’s boundless, never-failing love.”
Moving Forward: “How are you preparing for Lent? Is your heart ready?
