The current Pope of the Roman Catholic Church gave a speech the
other day talking about a very Lutheran topic, OK, a very Christian topic:
Knowledge is empty without love. On Sunday May 1 we read from 1 Corinthians 13,
"If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love,
I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And
if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and
if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am
nothing."
This is one of
the most counter cultural critiques of the Apostle Paul's time, Martin Luther's
time and most definitely our time. Currently in our country we have
those who falsely claim to be Christians who are touting laws that hurt the
weakest in our midst, all while claiming some moral high ground or theological
truth that trumps all else, including love. All of these attempts are vacant of
any sense of love for the other, one of the central tenets of
Jesus' ministry: Love your neighbor (Matthew 5:43, 19:19, 22:39,
Mark 12:31, Luke 10:27 and repeated in Romans 13:9, Galatians 5:14 and James
2:8 - which is a direct quote from Leviticus 19:18).
I joined Bishop Kirby
Unti to support the "Washington
Won't Discriminate" campaign
to defeat I-1515, the
anti-transgender initiative. We were joined by other clergy, rabbis and
community leaders at Renton United Methodist Church to kick of the campaign and
to show our solidarity for all of God's children. We were there also because as
Christians we are called to love. In the face of the hate and discrimination
that has been touted falsely in Jesus name it is imperative
that we show the world the truth in the face of fear.
And that is the saddest part of all, that fear has replaced the truth.
There are those in our midst who would much rather have us live in fear than to
live in love. You see every time someone points and says “You must fear them!”
is the time that Jesus steps over to the “them” and says you are loved. This is
the most amazing part of our grace filled faith that we can trust those words, “You
are loved.”
And that is counter cultural. That is what is turning the world
upside down. That is what those in power fear the most. When we truly live into
the love of God we take away the most important tool of those who need to hold
on to power and riches at all cost: fear.
