Love comes with community
The events of this week have left a deep, uncomfortable ache in many of us. How long oh Lord? How long?
Earlier this week I'd read a quote from Dorothy Day the founder of The Catholic Worker who had reflected on the miracle of the loaves and fishes. Without the willingness of the one who had the loaves and fishes to share what little he had then the miracle could not have taken place.
I feel as a white privileged male I have very little to offer or contribute that will bring about the change that's needed to end the chronic injustice that is the daily reality of so many. However, if I can offer it to God and plead with him to somehow transform this and all our individual responses then maybe, just maybe we could see a miracle take place. Dorothy Day went on to write, "We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that loves comes with community."
Today in the liturgical calendar is Trinity Sunday. It's often associated with creation but today I want to explore more deeply that connection with love and community.
16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” Matt 3:16-17
For thirty years Jesus had been building to this moment. He knew what he had come to do and say and ultimately I think he knew what lay ahead of him. He's nervous, maybe feeling a little vulnerable knowing from this moment on the next 3 years are going to be challenging to say the least.
At this moment the Father peels back the veil and gives us a glimpse into a reality that has been the Son's experience for all eternity.
Jesus comes up out of the water, is enveloped with words of love and then the Spirit of empowering love touches him.
What we're witnessing here is Jesus' daily reality. C.S.Lewis described it as, 'A kind of a dance.' Father, Son and Spirit all honour and glorify one another in community.
Cornelius Plantinga said, "They exalt each other, commune with each other and defer to one another...In constant movement of overture and acceptance, each person encircles the others...God's interior life overflows with regard for others."
When you glorify something you are calling out a particular quality that you see in someone or something. You're saying 'wow' to the scent of a rose, 'wow' to the tone of their voice, 'wow' to the wisdom of their mind etc etc. You create space for that 'glory' to shine and endeavour to draw attention of others to it.
That culture of honouring love, of glorifying and creating space for that person to shine has been the experience of the Trinity for all eternity.
We will take a few more sessions to fully unpack the implications for us of this moment in the life of Jesus.
For today I want to sit and think about how the trinity can speak into the events of this past week.
If as Lewis claimed the Trinity are engaged in a kind of a dance where each constantly orbit around one another to glory, honour and empower.
But, imagine a different scenario!
What if the Father chose not to 'dance' around the Son an the spirit but chose to remain stationary, chose a self-centred life. What if they all adopted that stance and chose a stationary 'you-orbit-around-me' stance?
There's no dance, no glory, no honour...no love.
Why is this important Jonathan?
Different views of God have of course different implications.
If God exists but is 'unipersonal' - then there was a time where 'love' didn't exist!
True love can only exist with community, as Dorothy Day told us right at the beginning.
A unipersonal God can be a God of power, greatness and even wisdom but they cannot be a God of love.
If God, from all eternity, without end and beginning, is a community of persons who know and love one another then then the ultimate reality is love. This is what I call 'the Big love of God.' Love in community. Trinity.
This is whose image and likeness we are made in. We are designed to enter that dance, to be one who speak words of honour over others, who empower others through our actions, who create space to glorify others. We are not designed to live stationary lives or to adopt a posture of power demanding others orbit around us.
I share Richard Rohr's prayer to conclude:
O Great Love, thank you for living and loving in us and through us.
May all that we do flow from our deep connection with you and all humanity.
Help us become a community that vulnerably shares each other's burdens and the weight of glory. Listen to our hearts longings for the healing of our world.
May we carry honour, glory and love into our fragmented world, to the broken, the bruised and especially to those that mourn today.
Knowing you are hearing us better than we are speaking, we offer these prayers to our loving heavenly Father.
Amen
Earlier this week I'd read a quote from Dorothy Day the founder of The Catholic Worker who had reflected on the miracle of the loaves and fishes. Without the willingness of the one who had the loaves and fishes to share what little he had then the miracle could not have taken place.
I feel as a white privileged male I have very little to offer or contribute that will bring about the change that's needed to end the chronic injustice that is the daily reality of so many. However, if I can offer it to God and plead with him to somehow transform this and all our individual responses then maybe, just maybe we could see a miracle take place. Dorothy Day went on to write, "We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that loves comes with community."
Today in the liturgical calendar is Trinity Sunday. It's often associated with creation but today I want to explore more deeply that connection with love and community.
16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” Matt 3:16-17
For thirty years Jesus had been building to this moment. He knew what he had come to do and say and ultimately I think he knew what lay ahead of him. He's nervous, maybe feeling a little vulnerable knowing from this moment on the next 3 years are going to be challenging to say the least.
At this moment the Father peels back the veil and gives us a glimpse into a reality that has been the Son's experience for all eternity.
Jesus comes up out of the water, is enveloped with words of love and then the Spirit of empowering love touches him.
What we're witnessing here is Jesus' daily reality. C.S.Lewis described it as, 'A kind of a dance.' Father, Son and Spirit all honour and glorify one another in community.
Cornelius Plantinga said, "They exalt each other, commune with each other and defer to one another...In constant movement of overture and acceptance, each person encircles the others...God's interior life overflows with regard for others."
When you glorify something you are calling out a particular quality that you see in someone or something. You're saying 'wow' to the scent of a rose, 'wow' to the tone of their voice, 'wow' to the wisdom of their mind etc etc. You create space for that 'glory' to shine and endeavour to draw attention of others to it.
That culture of honouring love, of glorifying and creating space for that person to shine has been the experience of the Trinity for all eternity.
We will take a few more sessions to fully unpack the implications for us of this moment in the life of Jesus.
For today I want to sit and think about how the trinity can speak into the events of this past week.
If as Lewis claimed the Trinity are engaged in a kind of a dance where each constantly orbit around one another to glory, honour and empower.
But, imagine a different scenario!
What if the Father chose not to 'dance' around the Son an the spirit but chose to remain stationary, chose a self-centred life. What if they all adopted that stance and chose a stationary 'you-orbit-around-me' stance?
There's no dance, no glory, no honour...no love.
Why is this important Jonathan?
Different views of God have of course different implications.
If God exists but is 'unipersonal' - then there was a time where 'love' didn't exist!
True love can only exist with community, as Dorothy Day told us right at the beginning.
A unipersonal God can be a God of power, greatness and even wisdom but they cannot be a God of love.
If God, from all eternity, without end and beginning, is a community of persons who know and love one another then then the ultimate reality is love. This is what I call 'the Big love of God.' Love in community. Trinity.
This is whose image and likeness we are made in. We are designed to enter that dance, to be one who speak words of honour over others, who empower others through our actions, who create space to glorify others. We are not designed to live stationary lives or to adopt a posture of power demanding others orbit around us.
I share Richard Rohr's prayer to conclude:
O Great Love, thank you for living and loving in us and through us.
May all that we do flow from our deep connection with you and all humanity.
Help us become a community that vulnerably shares each other's burdens and the weight of glory. Listen to our hearts longings for the healing of our world.
May we carry honour, glory and love into our fragmented world, to the broken, the bruised and especially to those that mourn today.
Knowing you are hearing us better than we are speaking, we offer these prayers to our loving heavenly Father.
Amen
Comments
Post a Comment