Friday, April 29, 2016

Without Love We Have Nothing

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.