More from the parable about being a neighbor.
Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?" (Luke 10:25-26) He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." And he said to him, "You have given the right answer; do this , and you will live." (Luke 10:27-28)
Can it be just as this? The lawyer will come back with "who is my neighbor?" and yet, the question that most often comes up among religious people is "what is love" or "Love to what point" or "love under what conditions" or "what does love mean" or... Eternal life is ours already. It has been, his now, and will be handed over to us as though it is ours without condition. We are the ones who put the condition on having this eternal life. We are the ones who put conditions and qualification on this love of God and of neighbor. In this loving...of God and neighbor...is this life, eternal. There is no chicken and egg here. Eternal life (this love that is God's eternal way of being with us) is a reality that is present for us - we enter it - we are moved by it - we trip over it and are made aware of it even as we fall down - we are wrapped up by it - we extend it to others & others offer it to us. This love that helps us to define neighbor within God's Reign punctuates everything. Like the simple breath we take as we praise God, eternal life is already in the making...in the question...in the time it takes to journey from Jerusalem to Jericho...every step...every breath...every action that reflects the one whose love is...quite eternal...eternally for us.
Connection: So how's eternal life going to look today!?!?
By your love, O God, there is no time without your presence and no time when we are outside the Reign that is your Reign...forever and ever. Praise to you, O God of All Ages and beyond all ages. Amen.
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