Saying Yes to God

Some years ago, I had the privilege of attending a lecture/talk by Herbert O’Driscoll.  Unfortunately, I did not take notes, or in any case, I cannot find a record of them.  I don’t have a detailed recollection of what Herbert said. The internet was no help in this case so, with apologies to Herbert for misunderstanding his message and possibly going completely off the rails, here is my reconstruction and interpretation of what I believe was Herbert’s message. 

What I recall is that for Christians to live in relationship with God and the world requires three things.  At this point I am only able to remember two of those things.  First, we must be in an intentional community which is seeking to understand God’s intention for the world.  Second, we must say “Yes” to something that we believe God is calling us to. 

That, I believe, is what we are called to be and do as Christians.  We are called to be in community – as a part of a Christian Community in some form.  This is not necessarily a formal church community.  Church has taken many forms in the past and continues to take many different expressions of what happened at Pentecost.  As the established churches are struggling to continue, the Holy Spirit is moving and inspiring people to seek new ways of being the people of God in the world.  We, therefore, need to be open to where the Spirit is calling and leading us, always conscious of the need to try and discern if it truly is the Holy Spirit and not just the devices and desires of our hearts and minds and egos and wish-fulfillment. 

This is true also of our response, our “Yes” to God.  It is not enough to only sit back and be observers.  We must respond with a yes that is love-in-action.  We need to try to ensure what we are discerning where the Spirit is actually leading us and are not following those pesky devices and desires of our hearts and minds.  We must also seek to understand how best we can say “Yes”.  That can take many different forms and we may be surprized in where the Spirit leads us if we actually say “Yes” and are open to those possibilities. 

Jesus gives us the Great Commandment to love one another, I believe that this is the essence of that commandment.  We are to respond to people in love and not hate or indifference.  AS Leonard Cohen said, “let’s talk of love not hate, things to do It’s getting late, there’s so little time and we’re only passing through.”  I must turn from my go to guy for lyrics to anther go-to guy, Richard Rohr and his understanding of this.  He notes that love in not just actions but, it is actually who we are:  

·         The love in you—which is the Spirit in you—always somehow says yes. (See 2 Corinthians 1:20.) Love is not something you do; love is something you are. It is your True Self. Love is where you came from and love is where you’re going. It’s not something you can buy. It’s not something you can attain. It’s the presence of God within you, called the Holy Spirit or what some theologians name uncreated grace. You can’t manufacture this by any right conduct, dear reader. You can’t make God love you one ounce more than God already loves you right now. You can go to church every day for the rest of your life. God isn’t going to love you any more than God loves you right now.  Richard Rohr May 22, 2019

Blessings on you journey

Love is More Important Than Doctrine

A few weeks ago, I read something which resonated with me.  It was the statement (unfortunately I can’t remember the source), “love is more important than doctrine.”

Reflecting on this statement, I believe that it captured the essence of the Christian message, at least the message of Jesus Christ.  When he was asked what is the greatest commandment, his reply was all about love:

you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” ³¹The second is this, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.’ (Mark 12:30-31)

So, if that is the Great Commandment, why do Christians pay more attention to doctrine than the commandment of our Lord and saviour?  On reflection I think that it is because doctrine is easier to get our heads around and actually follow than it is for us to actually love God and consequently to love our neighbours.  Make no mistake about it, this idea (commandment) of Jesus is truly radical.  Richard Rohr noted this recently in one of his daily meditations:

Of the many radical things said and done by Jesus, his unflinching emphasis on love was the most radical of all. Love was the greatest commandment . . . his prime directive—love for God, for self, for neighbor, for stranger, for alien, for outsider, for outcast, and even for enemy, as he himself modeled. The new commandment of love [John 13:34] meant that neither beliefs nor words, neither taboos, systems, structures nor the labels that enshrined them mattered most. Love decentered everything else; love relativized everything else; love took priority over everything else—everything. (Richard Rohr January 3, 2019)

I noted above that it is easier to follow doctrine than to love.  I do believe that is true; it may be easier but has certainly led to a great deal of trouble in the Christian church(es) in the past two thousand years.  That is probably true of most, if not all, religions―but not being a religious scholar, I can’t state that as a fact.  In modern times the Anglican church certainly has spent a lot of time and energy on points of doctrine.  The most recent one is the doctrine of marriage and should be marriage canon be amended to include/permit marriage of same-sex couples.  This issue is important to many people, including me.  So, the reality is that even though love is more important; indeed, the most important thing, we are not going to avoid arguments, and worse, over doctrine.

The best approach, if not the way out of this quandary was put forward by the Primate (head) of the Anglican Church of Canada, Fred Hiltz in a sermon he preached on the proposed changes to the marriage canon of our church, stated that the way forward in what seems like an impossible divide was to disagree in love.  This, I believe, captures the essence of the idea that love is stronger than doctrine.  The most important thing is to continue in loving relationships even when you disagree on things that matter deeply to you.  If we can understand that staying in a living relationship is more important than agreeing on doctrine, we will be following the Great Commandment of Jesus. 

This, of course, is not easy, but who ever said following Jesus Christ would be easy?  I know, I know, some of you are probably going to quote Jesus back at me, “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”  I have struggled with that one over the years and still am trying to resolve that with my struggle to follow him.  However, I do know in my heart that love is more important than doctrine.

Blessings on you journey.