Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
God is love; sin is denial of love:
denial of God’s love for us,
of our love for one another,
of love’s power over all other powers.
We deny the Lord, we say “I do not know you,”
when we substitute deserving or order,
efficiency or security for love.
Our denial of love can only lead us
to violence, to evil, to harm.
Ah, how we wound each other
trying to be Safe.
But in the face of our violence
the Gentle One comes to show us the way,
the way of love, the triumphant way of love.
His friends misunderstand him,
fail him, deny and betray him;
and he loves them,
and gives himself to them.
People accuse him and humiliate him,
assault and arrest him;
and he loves them, and heals them.
They judge him and condemn him,
attack him in a mob, beat him
and torture him to death;
and he loves them and forgives them.
He will not deny them love.
Nothing can overcome his love.
In the end their righteousness fails;
their evil and its power,
even death and its power
are swallowed up in his life-giving love.
This is resurrection.
He has already won the victory
and we are still fighting him.
We wrench ourselves away from God
and one another, but love still holds us anyway;
our rebellion comes to nothing.
Even our deepest evil is overcome,
and we are left helplessly, completely
and purely beloved.
In the end we are left with nothing at all
but love.
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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