Found By Love
This
is a big Sunday. Passion Sunday, which leads into the last two weeks of Lent.
It is also St. Patricks Day, where we celebrate one of the great Celtic (maybe)
saints (did you all have green breakfast?) It is also the 153rd
anniversary of the beginning of the New Zealand Land Wars, with fighting
breaking out in Waitara on this day in 1860.
Last
week we listened as Jesus told the story about two lost sons. The younger one
was found by his father’s love and in response repented of all that had
separated him from his family and had led him to forget who he was, a beloved
son. The story finished with the older son still locked into a world of duty
and obedience, resisting his father’s love for all he was worth. He too had
forgotten who he was and was unable to see or hear his father. Until he was
found by love there would be no change.
Today
we hear from Paul, a man found by love. His response was to let go, throw away
even his understanding of whose he was, who he was, and what was his to
do. “Without throwing away his own religion Paul,
nevertheless, throws away a theology which had made him important and given him
great status. In its place he embraces Christ and Christ's way. But this is
more than just a change of values. It is also a deeply spiritual and personal
change which affects Paul at the heart of his being and changes his future
forever.”[1]
Love found him in his encounter with the risen Christ. Paul is seen by many
today as a legalistic hardliner. In his day that was the last thing anyone
accused him of. Christian Jews in particular disputed
Paul's legitimacy and objected to his attitude to scripture. We might see these
as the older son, still trying to earn God’s love, still struggling to know who
they truly were through obedience. “They demanded that scripture and its commands be seen as infallible and
saw Paul as watering down God's word in the interests of winning people to his
way. It was cheap evangelism, selling the gospel short. Paul, for his part, saw
such fundamentalism as one of the very things which stood in the way of true
faith and from which people needed to be liberated.”[2]
In
the gospel we meet Mary, also found by love. She knew who she was, God’s
beloved. In that love she broke every rule about how men and women interact,
and how guests are treated. Her response to Jesus is one of sheer love.
As
we approach Holy Week and Easter, this is a time to ask whose are we, who are
we, and what is ours to do? May we make space to be found by Love, to be reminded
that we are beloved, to ask do I live in response to being found by love, or
struggle to earn that love? May we embrace a new way of living, as Paul and
Mary did, that lets that love live through us.
As
we celebrate the election of Pope Francis 1 with our Roman Catholic brothers
and sisters, let us remember the words of Saint Francis, another found by love,
who lived love with every breath, “Preach the Gospel at all times, use words
when necessary.”
[1]
William Loader, First Thoughts on Year B Epistle Passages from the Lectionary, http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/CEpLent5.htm. (viewed 13th March 2013)
[2]
Ibid.
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