Topic: Love

We are called to take sides in a conflict between the prophet of love and peace and the prophets of hatred and violence.

We are called not to know, but to be known, not to see, but to be seen by God, who gazes upon us with a love so wide and long and deep that it surpasses all our imaginings.

Jesus calls us to take the way less travelled, to leave behind the sin that entangles, to be welcomed by God, that we may have power to welcome and love even our enemies.

When the world falls apart, God recognises the pain, the despair, and the anger, and gifts us with faith, with an assurance that God’s power of love will yet prevail, that God will accomplish the justice and the peace we long for.

The Parable of the Prodigal Son may really be intended by Jesus as the Parable of the Loving Father and the Angry Brother.

The beatitudes proclaim God’s preferential love for the poor and challenge us to rethink our own dependence on financial security.

Love is both command and promise and is what gives meaning to all our offerings to God.

From the desire of a baby for the breast, we can learn a lot about our need of God’s nurture.

Jesus summarised the way by saying “Love God with everything you have and love your neighbour.” We find that easy enough to accept as the answer to a question but much harder to really live by.

It is true that God is love, but God’s love is so tough, demanding and uncomfortably interactional that we will sometimes experience it as harsh, unpredictable and unreasonable.

God breaks down all social barriers and differentiates between us on love alone.

Our goal is intimate union with Christ, and everything else in our lives as Christians will arise from that.