Strong Love


Love as strong as death (Song 8:6-7)

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God.  (Ephesians 5: 1,2)

This has been an “interesting” week, hasn’t it my dear Bethel family.  Our world is slowly opening up.  We have all been able to enjoy visits in person with people that we haven’t seen in a long time.  We can eat indoors in restaurants.  We can visit elderly people in assisted living.

Yet, at the same time, everything seems oddly uncertain and unsafe.  We are all like baby giraffe’s born into a the new “double-vaxxed” world but are having a whole lot of trouble getting our shaky legs under us and walking on this new ground.  We knew the rules of lock-downs.  We get social distancing, masking, contact tracing and hand sanitizing.  We don’t like these rules, but they are firm, exact and familiar.  The boundaries are defined even though we  push hard against them.

But this new, post-covid world seems to have thrust us into new fields without fences and we aren’t sure if we should just huddle in the middle living exactly like we were before, or skip to the edges and beyond into new fields and new ways of living.  The Covid variants loom large – but the freedom of vaccines loom larger.  We’ve been chafing to see the people we love in person and maybe even hug them – but we are also worried about their safety and well-being.

And so what do we do with this life without Covid fences?  Well – first of all – I need to say that our Public Health officers having been doing a valiant job with keeping us informed and keeping us safe.  Their information is a current as it gets and they really do have our best interests at heart.  But at the same time its turned into a huge ‘balancing act’ hasn’t it.  We want people well.  Not only virus safe, but well in a holistic sense; which includes our social, emotional, financial and spiritual needs.

And one of the things that we have learned more than anything is that we are created to be in community with each other and our inability to be with each other has had devastating effects on our well-being.

So what do we do?  Well – I’m going to encourage you all to simply do this:

Love one another.

No rocket science here.

But this loving one another is demonstrated in the selfless love of God for us.  This love cares more about the other – those on the margins – those that need  protection and safety.

As followers of Jesus, we are called to be imitators of this love.

Because that is greater than anything  – even Covid – even public health orders – even Death.

Blessings today, and remember that you are part of this Love.

~Rev. Lynne

 


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