Darned Love
Look at that emphasis in the Bible on Love, two
thousand years ago! Palestina was a rough place and time!
Love?! Where did that come from?! You would not think people would
even know what that was! Love!
Every discussion of the Bible should promptly
return to that core message, because that is the radical message, the unique
message. Everything else is filler and marketing to make the unpalatable
Love less obvious. Throw in the usual us vs. them, some blood and
battles, a bunch of rules and regulations, some guarantees of a judgment day
when we (the good guys of course) will finally win and get our tickets to
eternal paradise, and you've got the ingredients for yet one more religion
suitable for wielding condemnation, retribution, and persecution. But
then there is that darned Love. Unique, and usually uniquely ignored, in
words two thousand years old abides this curious and irritating admonition to
change our innermost being, our external actions, and the world.
Theologians will dissect verses and elaborate on
eschatologies, while one single differentiating point, one overtly seditious
word and its corollaries, distinguish the core message of this messenger from
the jostling crowd of scriptures, teachings, and texts vying for our readily
malleable belief.
Love. Sacrificial, selfless Love.
One sermon. One command. One theology. Leaving you one
Choice.
