Living in the Spirit

October 24, 2020

Scripture Reading:
Matthew 22:34-46

When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ He said to him, ‘”You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’—Matthew 22:34-40

We use the word love rather loosely. It is both a noun and a verb in English. In Greek, the word translated love in English relates to several terms. The word translated love* in the above scripture, sometimes called divine love, describes actions we take–like wishing someone well, taking pleasure in something or perhaps the company of someone, longing for something or someone. It denotes both the love of reason and esteem. It means to choose God’s choices for ourselves.  

I have had the refugee children, the ones separated from their parents at our southern border, on my mind. We now cannot unite them with their parents because we did not keep track of them. The song from the musical Oliver, Where is Love? came to my memory when I thought of these lost children or lost parents, I do not know which. If you will recall, Oliver was separated from his mother and placed in an orphanage. This was his song to her:

Where is love?
Does it fall from skies above?

Is it underneath the willow tree
That I’ve been dreaming of?
Where is she?
Who I close my eyes to see?
Will I ever know the sweet “hello”

That’s meant for only me?
Who can say where she may hide lit ?
Must I travel far and wide?
‘Til I am beside the someone who
I can mean something to …
Where…?
Where is love?

Who can say where…she may hide?
Must I travel…far and wide?
‘Til I am beside…the someone who
I can mean…something to…
Where?
Where is love?**

Expressing love by choosing God’s choices certainly applies to care for others and is the driving force behind doing justice.

Prayer: God, bless each of these separated families and those who are working diligently to reunited them. Forgive us when we or those that represent us do not choose your choices. Amen.

*https://biblehub.com/greek/25.htm

**Song from the Musical Oliver by Lionel Bart

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.