From “The Cross in our Context” by Douglas John Hall
Hall writes about love:
If we loved our spouses or our children in the way that many of us say we love God, the unfortunate human objects of our love would quite rightly flee from us forthwith! For a love that involves no dialectic, no yes and no, no familiarity with hate, no suffering, no darkness but only light – such love is not the New Testament’s agape.
As Bonhoeffer stated the matter with his usual clarity, in the sentence “God is Love” the emphasis is upon the first word. Love, as usually conceived, does not define God; God defines love. And if the cross of Jesus Christ is the apex of God’s definition of love, then the divine love has very little to do with the “luv” that is passed around so liberally in our contemporary context.
God…defines love. It cannot be said more powerfully. We are not called to love as we would love. If that was the case, nothing would be different from the way the world is. Hitler would still come to power in many and various forms and genocide would be the rule of the day. Love as we love is one of the greatest reasons to hate others. But at the name of the Most High God…something new is born. Love no longer is ruled by us. Love becomes the unbounded action of God that bridges all brokenness. It doesn’t avoid the brokenness…it faces it and makes a way through it so that our broken ideas about love may not prevail among us and create more discord. For too long, we in the Church have settled for love that is too much like sweet syrup that does not trust the self-sacrificial love of the one we call Lord, Jesus.
Connection: How do we stay in touch with this God who is love - when it is so easy to be wooed away to love as we want it? Again and again, we must seek out others who know of the love of God in the cross and there…hold on to one another…be free to ask questions and trust that we need never be afraid that we are alone when we continue to search for the unbounded love that is our God available to us…today.
Most High God, be for us the love that transforms our lives. When we are anxious and wanting the world to be just as we would want it, let your Spirit calm us and empower us to rest in God (love) alone. Amen.
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