Yesterday, Christians around the world reflected on a passage from Matthew assigned from the Revised Common Lectionary in which a lawyer (surprised?) challenges Jesus of Nazareth by asking him which one of God’s commandments is the greatest. With the United States so divided while in the throes of a pivotal election and being in the wake of a summer in which our country was grappling with its foundation deeply rooted in structural racism, this reflection about the interwoven instructions to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves couldn’t be timelier.
Michael Curry, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, reminds people every chance he gets that, “If it’s not about love, it’s not about God.” This concept fuels the flames of my heart because it reminds me of the green felt banner that I made in the late ‘70s with my fellow Sunday School classmates at the church my family and I attended while I was growing up in San Mateo, California. Just a decade or so removed from the Summer of Love and just 20 miles south of the Promised Land for hippiedom, it’s not surprising that we spelled out “God Is Love” in giant yellow felt letters above a field of abundant felt flowers. Now, whenever you hear someone say that God is love, you, too, can summon an image of a 1970s craft project... You’re welcome!
In a brief passage in his new book, Love is the Way, while reflecting on having reached billions of people with his sermon at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding, Bishop Curry observed, “Beyond our national identities and loyalties, beyond our religious and spiritual convictions and commitments, there is a universal hunger at the heart of every human being: to love and be loved. It connects all people of faith, hope and good will,” (emphasis added). When we acknowledge this and lean into this knowledge, Curry observes, “That love can break down every barrier that blocks the way to the realization of God’s dream of the beloved community.”
So, where does this leave us today? What are we being invited to learn and apply from this lesson? How are you being challenged to love your neighbor—even those who don’t look or vote or love like you? What image or teaching can help you be in touch with the idea that God is love and that by loving our neighbor we are loving God?
For me, I summon that green felt banner enlivened by flower power.