God is Love

Several years ago, struggling to figure out what I believed and where and how I fit in, I began a thought experiment.  I had been taught that Jesus was the Savior for many worlds, so I asked myself, “What would the gospel look like if we peeled away the events and people of our world?”  

The results included a pretty bizarre Mormon sci-fi story and a one words answer to my question:

Love.  

Everything emerges from and leads to love.  That is the gospel, plain and simple.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."  John 3:16 

"He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep." John 21:16

"A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."  John 13:34-35

"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."   1 Corinthians 13:13

"Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."  Matthew 22:36-40

I never really understood what it was to love God.  I’ve had hints at it, and I’ve certainly heard many lessons and talks about it, but I didn’t really feel that love.  I didn’t know what to do about that commandment, but I thought I knew how to love my neighbor, so my focus shifted from beating myself up for all the ways I failed, and I began to focus on putting more love into the world.  And my life improved.

But I still didn’t know how to love God.  Sure, I knew about “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me,” but was that really loving God, or merely serving God?  There is a difference.

A couple of years ago, I found a quote from Moltmann about how theology is to love God with your mind.  (I wrote about it here.)  That clicked for me and certainly moved me closer, but I’m still not sure that I was really feeling love for God. I felt appreciation, fascination, and awe, but not love. Perhaps because I still didn’t know what love was.

This song has been in my playlist for quite awhile. At first, I found the combination of these two tunes jarring. I love both songs, but putting them together made me think of them in new ways. I wrestled with this for awhile and then just decided to like the song even if I couldn’t figure it out.

“Nearer My God to Thee” has several deep connections for me.  Although I’ve struggled with church many times, almost always I’ve felt this pull towards spirituality.  I was one of those who wanted more, who hungered and thirsted.  I wanted to know God and I wanted to love God.  There was even a point that I longed for the spiritually focused life of a nun, but since I didn’t want to covert to Catholicism (and didn’t know of any other options at the time), that desire never came to be.

"Still all my songs shall be nearer my God to Thee."  

Out of my stony griefs Bethel I’ll raise

My father died a couple of months ago.  My decision to sign the membership book at my UU church had been hard for him, but we both were committed to loving each other no matter what.  While death is never easy, and I would never claim that it happens for a reason, I do believe that it can open the door to transformation.  And Dad’s death has certainly done that for me.

"When I give my heart it will be completely

Or I’ll never give my heart
And the moment I can feel that you feel that way too
Is when I fall in love with you."

I couldn’t love a god that only loved me if I was doing all the right things or quickly repenting if I messed up. I needed a god that loved me, all of me, unconditionally, completely, and always.  And when I felt that, I finally found what it means to love God.

God is the source of all love, but it wasn’t just God’s love I felt in those weeks after Dad’s death.  It was all of the many communities holding and sustaining us with their love.  I can’t tell you with any certainty who or what God is, but I know that in those situations where we hold others in love or are held in that love, we are one with each other and with God.

A few weeks ago our opening hymn was “What Wondrous Love.”  The new words that the UU’s sing are by Connie Campbell Hart.

"What wondrous love is this, O my soul?

What wondrous love is this, that brings my heart such bliss,

and takes away the pain of my soul, of my soul,

and takes away the pain of my soul. 

When I was sinking down, sinking down,

When I was sinking down, beneath my sorrows ground,

friends to me gathered round, O my soul, O my soul,

friends to me gathered round, O my soul.

To love and to all friends, I will sing.

To love and to all friends, who pain and sorrow mend,

with thanks unto the end, I will sing, I will sing,

with thanks unto the end, I will sing."

Because of my work schedule, it was the first week at a UU service since Dad died. These were the words we sang.  Well, they sang.  I fought back tears.  Truth tears.  This is the gospel, my friends, in whatever place you find it.

God is Love. Wondrous Love.