“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:36-40 (NRSV).
What is the nature of love? Love cannot exist without truth, whether it is the expression of care for a neighbor, or the earnest kinship felt between friends, or two souls knitted into one in the marital state, or a soul laid naked and bare before the throne of God…love cannot exist without truth.
How can we love God fully without truth? How can we love our neighbor if we exchange the truth for lies? We are no better than liars, if we Christians won’t stand up and speak out against this pervasive….wrongness…that exists. This modern-day Babylon. This Sodom and Gomorrah. Where are our Daniels and Abrahams? Where are the righteous few who aren’t afraid to risk themselves to speak the truth, to stand against the current of evil, to cling fast to the truth, out of love of God? Are they all gone?
I speak, not counting myself amongst them. I am a hypocrite. I know that full well. If I won’t risk myself…to be the salt, the light, then what’s the point? What value am I bringing? These are some of the unanswered questions that I will be bringing with me to church today. Kyrie eleison.
Lauren Miller 