The Supremacy of Love

by Julia Graves

From 1 Corinthians 13:

1 If I speak in the languages of humans and angels but have no love, I have become a reverberating gong or a clashing cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can understand all secrets and every form of knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains but have no love, I am nothing. 3 Even if I give away everything that I have and sacrifice myself,[a] but have no love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is always patient;

love is always kind;

love is never envious

or arrogant with pride.

Nor is she conceited,

5 and she is never rude;

she never thinks just of herself

or ever get annoyed.

She never is resentful;

6is never glad with sin,

but always glad to side with truth,

whene'er the truth should win.

7She bears up under everything,

believes the best in all,

there is no limit to her hope,

and she will never fall.

8 Love never fails. Now if there are prophecies, they will be done away with. If there are languages, they will cease. If there is knowledge, it will be done away with. 9 For what we know is incomplete and what we prophesy is incomplete. 10 But when what is complete comes, then what is incomplete will be done away with.

11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, thought like a child, and reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up my childish ways. 12 Now we see only an indistinct image in a mirror, but then we will be face to face. Now what I know is incomplete, but then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.

13 Right now three things remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love

(I Corinthians 13, International Standard Version)

This blog is dedicated to my beloved Ella who passed away June 18, 2009 at the tender age of 15 years 7 months young. She loved unconditionally and spent her life sharing this love with all she encountered. She will be greatly missed.

Trust

by Kyle Wiseley

I’ve been at this “religious stuff” for a very, very long time. It has been an enduring linchpin in my chain of consciousness from early childhood to the present. Thoughts and actions are continually assessed and evaluated in terms of both what I logically believe and intuitively feel about my moral responsibilities and my relation to the Divine. Over the decades I’ve wandered in and out and through many different expressions of religious practice: in-depth Bible study, meditation, theology, philosophy, and even study of the Urantia Book. (Wikipedia can help define that.) And at this particular point in my journey there are fewer “absolutes” in my belief system than at any time previously. In other words, along the way, I have found few, if any, real answers to life’s conundrums, but the questions keep getting ever more interesting.

About 25 years ago there was great interest in the concept of faith development that swept through the Christian Church. James Fowler, among other theological scholars, did copious research comparing the development of faith within the individual with individual psychological and personality development. I found the field fascinating and study of the findings greatly aided me in understanding why I thought, felt and believed as I had during various stages of my life.

Although I’ve tried to synthesize as much of this input as my poor old brain can handle, I’ve also come to increasingly realize the value of just living in trust in the goodness of the Creator, however I may logically perceive that concept at any given moment. Occasionally turning off the logic, the intellectual criticism and frenetic reasoning with which I find myself so continually obsessed, and simply bathing in the wonder of the Goodness that surrounds us as evidenced by the beauty of nature and the blessedness of human love, refreshes my spirit far more than any study, sermon or lecture can ever do. I have found that solitary, quiet time to just “be” is important to my spirit’s welfare. “Be still, and know that I am God” is a priceless piece of advice from our scripture.

We live in a frenetic world and try as we may (and it is our responsibility to try) we can never solve all the problems of life and in the end we are left with trust; or more poetically stated:

“Can we not find in these tumultuous days,

If not a cure for humankind's depravity

(That task may be too great)

At least the will to be compassionate to those

Who stand next to us,

In some small way to ease their suffering,

And for a little space bring peace into their lives?

For in the wings the Fates breathe their eternal plaint:

"Do you not know that at the last

Each must embrace the void, and trust?"*

*From “Triage at the End of Time” by the author.

Why Do We Still Have Wars?

by Ian Doescher

Little things are almost driving me to tears lately. I’m not sure what it is, maybe the change in seasons, maybe life is more serious somehow, maybe the heat, or maybe I’m just getting more sensitive as I get older. But I find myself getting just a little choked up fairly frequently these days. One thing that did it recently is a song by folk singer Tom Chapin. Tom writes songs for both children and adults, and his children’s albums have, of late, become favorites with my two sons. On his most recent album, “Some Assembly Required,” Tom has a song called “Questions” which imagines all sorts of questions that kids might ask. “Questions” includes the following lyrics:

How does an iPod play?

Who puts the stuff in stores?

When did your hair turn grey?

Why do we still have wars?

That last one just gets me, imagining a child -- my own child, perhaps -- wondering why wars still exist. If everyone knows that war is a bad idea, if nobody likes war, why do we still have it? I guess it’s particularly poignant because I just don’t have a good answer for it myself: I wish I knew the answer, too.

War is a big part of our biblical heritage -- read the book of Joshua, or 1 and 2 Kings, or Revelation, for instance, and you’ll know what I mean. War is all over the place, and we can’t say that God is consistently against it (or for it). In fact, God sometimes instigates it or commands it.

Why do we still have wars? I don’t know, but my near-tears end up turning to prayer as the only answer, as the only choice, as the only hope:

God of the sparrow, God of the lily, God of the cross, forgive our foolish ways.

We have not learned to be your people

We have not learned to love each other

We have not learned what shalom is

Instead...

We hate

We kill

We make war

Rock us gently with your shattering, merciful hand

Shock us with awful grace until we come to our senses

Knock us flat with the perfect hope we find in you

Until...

We learn

We live

We even,

someday,

even love

Inventing Sin

An inspiring poem from George Ella Lyon, titled “Inventing Sin”:

God signs to us

we cannot read

She shouts

we take cover

She shrugs

and trains leave

the tracks

Our schedules! we moan

Our loved ones! we moan

God is fed up

All the oceans she gave us

All the fields

All the acres of steep seedful forests

And we did what

Invented the Great Chain

of Being and

the chain saw

Invented sin

God sees us now

gorging ourselves &

starving our neighbors

starving ourselves &

storing our grain

& She says

I’ve had it

you cast your trash

upon the waters

it’s rolling in

you stuck your fine finger

into the mystery of life

to find death

& you did

you learned how to end

the world

in nothing flat

Now you come crying

to your mommy

Send us a miracle

Prove that you exist

Look at your hand, I say

Listen to your sacred heart

Do you have to haul the tide in

sweeten the berries on the vine

I set you down

a miracle among miracles

You want more

It’s your turn

You show me