ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
September 25, 2022
I often remind people how the word in the Bible, “Believe,” is not necessarily something you do with your head, but with your heart. There are those who would suggest a better way of translating the original Greek of the New Testament would be Belove. According to Mark’s Gospel, some of the first words Jesus spoke as he began his new ministry were a sort of summary of what was happening. He said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” The Good News is God’s immeasurable, unconditional and relentless love for the world. Is that really going to change you if you believe it as you believe in gravity or Newton’s Third Law of Motion? It changes you when you belove the idea and the Source of the idea. Christianity has made belief into a questionnaire with right answers. You must believe certain things about Jesus, and then you have proper belief. But I have met some people who may not regard as true some things about Jesus that I would, but their love for Jesus is contagious and is present in how they love others. We can disagree on a whole host of things, assuming love is present. In John’s Gospel, Jesus spells it out even more directly when he says, “People will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” He did not say anything about a list of doctrinal ideas one must memorize, but about a love so real and so amazing that a person cannot do anything but fall in love.
Today, let me fall in love with you all over again, O Jesus of the past, present and future. I am overcome by the power and beauty of your love extended to me and to all the world. Today, I belove you and seek to follow your example. Amen.
