Love Is

Genesis 3:6-9 (NRSV)

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?"

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Ours is not to reason why
As we fall from way up high
Into the water (Into the water)
Like a lamb to the slaughter.

"God's Mistake" by Roland Olazabal, Tears for Fears, from Raoul and the Kings of Spain, 1995

The chorus of this song tells us that love is "God's Mistake." Is there a more harsh reading of God's love than this? God makes a mistake and that mistake is love? Not any specific love either, all love, the best love. That's just plain harsh. But there is, even if flawed a logic to this.

Imagine God creating us and placing us in the garden without love. Without love, God would have felt free to, would have been forced to control humanity from the first moment of creation. Without love, God could play with humanity the way a child plays with dolls. Without love we would have simply been playthings for God and we would not known any different. But instead, we were created in love, in the image of God.

We were created to tend to creation and enjoy God. But here's the twist, the only way we could have been guaranteed to be obedient is to be created either without either love or free will. Without the love of God and the freedom to love God that freely given, we would not have been able to sin.

Without God's love, we would just be playthings, puppets, we would be without value. But we would not be able to sin.

Because of God's love, we were able to fall from way on high. Because God created us to love freely in return, we are able to misuse this freely given gift. I suppose God knew this possibility from before the beginning, still God chose to love freely give us the opportunity to return that love just as freely.

Here's the twist, and it may feel like the twist of a dagger. Because we can choose to love, we can choose to sin. We were not given one without the other. To love without giving love's object the option to refuse love is abusive. It's stalking. It's far worse than that.

But if Love is God's Mistake, it is only because it is also God's greatest gift. Love is a risk worth taking.

Sowing the Seeds of Love-The Surplus of God

Luke 3:10-11

And the crowds asked him, “What then should we do?” In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.”

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I spy
tears in their eyes
they look to the skies
for some kind of divine intervention.
Food goes to waste!
So nice to eat,
so nice to taste.
Politician granny with your high ideals
have you no idea
how the majority feels?
So with out love
and a promised land,
we're fools to the rules of a government plan.
Kick out the Style!
Bring back the Jam! yeah, yeah.

And anything is possible when you're sowing the seeds of love.
Anything is possible sowing the seeds of love.

"Sowing the Seeds of Love" recorded by Tears for Fears written by Roland Olazabal and Curt Smith from the album by the same name

We live in a nation where we want what we want, and many of us have worked hard so that we can get what we want. We have earned what we have. Blaming anyone for wanting to keep what they have worked hard to earn is foolish. Yet we run into one problem, the difference between having and hoarding.

I want to keep what I got, but is that what God is calling me to do? In a word, no.

When the crowds asked John the Baptist how to follow the Lord so that they won't be chopped down like large trees whose only value is as wood for the fireplace, he told them to give. He told them to give generously out of their surplus. He told them if their needs are met they are to share with those whose needs are not. What good is food spoiled? The best place to store extra food is your neighbor's belly.

It's penny wise to store surplus in a silo. It's pound foolish to store so much wealth that you invite a replay of the French Revolution--a time when so many were so poor that the weak toppled the rich. John says share, when everyone has what they need life is better for everyone.

We need a divine intervention because we can't figure this out for ourselves. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Maybe, the the grace of God and the generosity of those with two coats we can all stay warm. Maybe, the the grace of God and the generosity of those with food to spare we can all be fed.

On a side note, those who say Government programs aren't doing this well--you've got a point. Often those programs are built neither from personal surplus nor from God's love. That's the point, we need to sow the seeds of love.