Sacramental Living

So this week’s Epistle Reading from the lectionary is the oft-recited love chapter from Paul.  Since the driving idea of the congregation I serve is “Loving God, Loving People” I’ve been musing over the nuances and implications of love.  I have tended to focus on the active aspects of love.  I think this greatly stems from the congregation I previously served that was almost exclusively focused on “knowing.”  Yet the impressive display and pursuit of knowledge did not translate into doing much of anything significant for Christ’s kingdom.

If I understand John Wesley’s read of the apostle John’s writings, it seems that knowing and loving are synonymous; for to love is to know God precisely because God is love.  So the crux of the gospel life is to love God and love all people.

Over on Emergent Nazarenes, Brian Postlewait weighs in on this perspective while considering the book “How (Not) to Speak of God.”  I look forward to reading the book.  Meanwhile, it seems that Paul’s understanding of love (in the afore mentioned love chapter) requires action in the context of sustained relationship.  Aren’t our neighbors everyone we come in contact with, after all?

Related Posts:

• Book Comments: “Beyond Smells and Bells”
• Doing Church and Being Church
• The Frustration of Foolishness
• “If I could just be one . . .”
• What Is Emergent? Who Is Emergent? – Part 1