From “The Cross in our Context” by Douglas John Hall
Love, as Paul declares in the beautiful hymn of 1 Corinthians 13, “does not insist on its way… (but) bears all things, believes all things, endures all things.” We hear this scripture, usually, as divine imperative under which we should live, and that is right. But we ought to hear it first as a description of the love that God manifests, voluntarily; for that is the presupposition of any such love that we might here and there, now and then, manage to live out. And what it makes very clear is that, wherever love is the objective and motive of the act, the act necessarily involves relinquishment of the impulse to pure power.
We must always look to the foundation – the rock. Our God love before us and therefore shows us the way of love. The cross is a “way” one loves in this world and we say that Jesus was the love of God incarnate – really present – among us. But even the way of Jesus is shaped in the way of God’s love that is before us and after us. I’ve never looked at this Corinthian text as a description of the love God manifests voluntarily. So often, as Hall notes, I read it as the calling or the imperative for my loving. Yes, it is that but…it is always a love that comes from that bedrock of God’s love that is sacrificial without the “impulse to pure power.”
Connection: To be reminded of the depth of God’s love can shape our day. Who do you have that will remind you of that love? Sometimes it can be the look in a child’s eye, the voice of someone you trust, the beauty of the world around you, or a deliberate voice spoken as a reminder. Good News comes into our day in many ways.
Your love, O Lord, is the energy of our day. For when we are reminded of how you pull for us and never leave us alone, we are made alive. Let your Holy Spirit continue to tickle us with your promises. Amen.
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