February 14-20

There’s a book written by Robert Fulghum entitled, All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten. (Go here to view an excerpt.) In it he makes explicit the lessons when we were 5 years old that still work as we grow older and gain more responsibility in our families, in our neighborhoods, in our communities, in our world.

 
Today’s Gospel is similar. The Sermon on the Plain as described by Luke invites us to consider our very relationship to God which has undeniable affects on how we relate to others.

 

Luke takes a series of “blessed” statements and lines them up to a series of “woe” statements. Essentially, he chronicles Jesus’ lesson: Blessed are you who have left room for God’s grace… all you who are poor, hungry, weeping, excluded… for God is in intimate relationship with you. Yet woe to you who have no room for God’s grace because you are rich, full, living large and held in high esteem for you are not dependent on God’s relationship, instruction, care, and mercy.

 

Our better examples of love are people who are in relationship with others and the world around them. They often times, even have deep connections to something greater… in our case, in the Triune God who is parent, child, and santifier.
 

Who are your examples of love? What do you learn from them?

 

How similar are they to Jesus and the example he set?

 

Have you made room in your life for a real relationship with God by putting yourself out there to be loved and still feeling poor, not satisfied, and rejected? This is a tough order.

 

Yet, we are called as people of faith to make room for God’s grace, God’s mercy, God’s way… we are called to make room for Love.

 

As we heard a few weeks ago, Love is patient, love is kind. (1 Corinthians 13:4)