Dear friends, I am
not writing a new commandment for you; rather it is an old one you have had
from the very beginning. This old
commandment—to love one another—is the same message you heard before. Yet
it is also new. Jesus lived the truth of
this commandment, and you also are living it. For the darkness is disappearing, and the true
light is already shining. If
anyone claims, “I am living in the light,” but hates a fellow believer, that
person is still living in darkness. Anyone who loves a
fellow believer is living in the light and does not cause others to stumble. But
anyone who hates a fellow believer is still living and walking in darkness. Such a person does not know the way to go,
having been blinded by the darkness. 1
John 2:7-11
As John the Apostle leaned against Jesus in the upper
room the night before the Lord was crucified, he could probably sense the beating
of Jesus’ heart. As Jesus broke the bread
that heart may have pounded a little more. The specter of a splintered and
sin-stained cross, cast dark shadows on this Shabbat meal, normally
a sacred celebration of rest and freedom. This night, the meal saddened the carpenter’s joy. That sadness in joy is how God’s kind of love
puts one’s cares, wishes, preferences, and hopes off to the side, and on-hold,
in favor of the needs of others. Jesus
knew the only sacrifice adequate to overcome our sins was running through his
human veins. The cup was deep and dry,
and drinking all of it meant becoming sin for us. This He was willing to do, but the knowledge
of necessity did not make it easier to bear.
He wanted to pass the cup. But the
need, our forgiveness, was too great, and he wouldn’t leave us helpless.
In the decades that followed, John understood and
recalled that moment often. As he ate
the bread and drank the cup, remembering the sacrifice of Christ, John would
have connected this love-gift as being the heart of what God wants for all of
his children – not just to remember in a ritual, but pass on in
relationship. This is why John wrote…to
remind all of us that hating is living in darkness, but giving ourselves for
the good of others is sharing the light of dawn in a dark place.
The tribe in which I find myself these days (so-called United
Methodists) has been stumbling around in the dark for some time. In attempting to find a way forward, opposing
viewpoints of where the light is to be found has created a shadowy uncertainty,
where God’s children see their church siblings as being illegitimate pretenders
in the Kingdom. Accusations of hate flow
from either side, and the heart of Christ is pounding once again.
I possess little in the way of offering personal wisdom
for organizational salvation for either side of the conflict. However, I recognize enough of the image John
gave us of living in darkness, to know our only possibility of
shaking loose of this lethal dislike and distrusting shadow covering the land
is repentance, turning once again to following Jesus, letting go of what seems
important in this world, and doing the best for the other.
After all, wasn’t that the new/old commandment?
For You Today
You chew on that as
you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!
For
other posts on this topic: Old Friends and Where LOVE and TRUTH Meet
[1] Images: Pixabay.com Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
