June 23, 2015

“I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.” 2 Corinthians 8:8-9

“One of the disconcerting facts about the spiritual life is that G*d takes you at your word. Sooner or later one is given a chance to prove his love. It was all very well to love G*d in His works, in the beauty of His creation…” Account of her conversion Dorothy Day (1897 – 1980) “For All The Saints”, volume II (p. 125)

It is one thing to say “I love G*d” — it is another to live your life in a manner that someone will say about you “They love G*d”. To prove that your love is genuine will come in the earnestness of your actions. And, as Dorothy Day so eloquently puts it, “G*d takes you at your word”. In other words, if you say you love G*d, then G*d expects that you live and you love in the manner G*d expects of all of us. And of course we will constantly fail — because we cannot meet the complete expectations of G*d — that is why we have Grace. But we cannot fall back on Grace time and time again and say “Well Jesus died for me so I don’t have to love every day.” That is not the kind of faith life we are all called to live. We need to keep Grace as the safety net that catches us when we go out into the world, into the unknown, into places we do not want to go, or to people we do not want to see and do loving things for them. We need to keep Grace as the safety net we need when we go out and work for peace, justice and to feed the hungry. We will not always do what we should, or to the length we should, but we need to continue to live in a manner where we prove the love we have for G*d. That sounds like works, but it isn’t — but it is work.

Pastor Dave