Last Sunday brought us not only World Communion Sunday but also our 3rd week in the 6 week series. (And for anyone wondering — yes next week — this coming Sunday — Oct. 8th — is titled week * — even though I will not get to be there — we will be meeting….10AM….with information to share — so get excited, and here’s that reminder to be doing the homework…..)
We began in prayer and then checked in with our homework. It was a choose 2 (or 3 for those overachievers among us!) adventure with the invitation to define love, to think of the most loving person we know (& think about why), and to talk about love with at least one other person. There were rich offerings from those who were present — definitions and reflections on the homework. One piece that struck me and was named in different ways from more than one person was the idea love being safe. I really appreciate this understanding of love & find it might very formative for us to think about love as safe….for example what are we open to do and who are we open to be when we feel safe? What might the world look like if we all felt safe? These are some of the questions we can consider if we have an understanding of safety and a feeling of “safe” when we consider love.
As we heard the Lukan text (Luke 7:36-47) perhaps one of the most difficult to hear was Jesus saying to his host,
41 “A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.”
Do we think about this question? This idea of loving more? Does it make us feel uncomfortable? Do we even think we need extravagant love? Or perhaps do we think actually, we are pretty good — we don’t need the fullness of the love of God — the forgiveness of God — the gift of grace, the sacrifice we remember each time we celebrate the sacrament of communion? And if that is true (which to be clear … that’s not what I think) then how can we ever love more? How can we ever allow our love to make others feel safe?
I leave us with these questions to ponder and pray for God to speak to our deep, to our mind, to our very hearts. And this week the homework we have before us is as follows,
- Read & Meditate on Colossians 3:12-14
- Consider, what does it mean to “put on love” — what does it even look like?
- Try putting on love at least once. How does it feel? Is it even possible to put on love daily? (If yes, how?)
Blessings y’all!
Rev. Sabrina Slater