I have been wondering lately about the human capacity to give and receive love. During this contentious political season this is a worthy question to ponder. First off, capacity means the maximum level to produce or contain love.
In our faith tradition we view The Bible as the basis for our understanding about the relationship between God and humanity and how we humans are to relate to each other. It is fair to say that God’s capacity to love extends well beyond our human understanding.
But what is love? The Oxford Dictionary states “an intense feeling of deep affection.” In Ephesians 3:18-19 Paul talks about the hope that we all experience the full scope and intensity of God’s love for Each of us and therefore for all of us.
With that said, it stands to reason that we should share that very love with the world. Jesus made it clear when asked about the greatest commandment that we are to love our neighbor and ourselves.
“The neighbor” for Jesus means all of humanity. This can be best understood by unpacking the “Parable of The Good Samaritan” found in The Gospel of Luke. To plumb the depths of the above teaching, the story might be changed to “The Good Haitian Refugee”
So how is this love thing going? Do we feel an intense concern/love for all of humanity? That is the gold standard of following Jesus. Where things seem to visually breakdown is in the political rhetoric concerning immigrants/aliens. Illegal or otherwise. (See below a couple of links to articles of interest on this subject.)
To be sure there is a challenge afloat in understanding how to best resolve what is called the boarder crisis. (Which is the continuation of who gets in and who stays out that has lasted throughout our history.) But more importantly as those who attempt to follow Jesus the question becomes, “how can we cultivate an intense love for those coming from the southern boarder?” This question, if realized, represents the gold mine of our faith.
May we all strike that gold!!!!!!!
Peace,
Pastor Mark
Links that may be of interest:
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