Trinitarian Love

Some scientifically-minded atheists believe matter and energy just happened, that forming complex molecules just happened, and that these molecules just happened to form human life eventually. We are nothing but matter and energy and accident.

Some Deists believe that there was a Mind behind the universe. That there was some kind of Intelligence behind the physical constants that make matter possible, and the properties of atoms that make life possible. They believe that Something kick-started the universe.

Christians believe the ultimate reality is not only powerful but personal.

John once wrote the startling words:

"God is love".*

Not just that God is loving. Not just that God feels love.

But that God's very nature is love.

As early Christian theologians pondered Jesus' command to baptise in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, they developed a startling idea... that God is three persons living in an eternal relationship of love.

Human beings - those created in the image of God - have this thing about love too.

You can provide every physical need of human beings... but without love, a normal human soul will wither. Humans yearn for love like oxygen; they despair without it. They kill themselves believing they lack or don't deserve it.

Just as God is a community of love, human beings are designed to live in a community of love. This is what we long for, and this is what brings us alive.

We often find a sense of place and belonging by being part of a family; part of a tribe; part of a tradition. We value the stories of our family, because they help to tell us who we are and whose we are.

The Christian story is about an expansive family. It proceeds from the Father, Son and Spirit who invite us into a great big family of love. We are invited to see other humans as loved ones of this God too; brothers and sisters of immense worth.

The early Christian communities embraced Jews and Gentiles, adults and children, the weak, the widows, the poor, the rich, the slaves, the free... any and every social class was welcome to join a new kind of loving family.

In the stumbling and imperfect story of the church from then until now, the idea of the value of every human being has kept reforming the church and society for good. Every human being matters, because God loves every human being.

God IS love. It's the claim that has changed the world.

* I John 4:8

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kylie Orr Blog - Part One

I've been participating this week in one of the Age online blogs. Kylie Orr wrote an article questioning whether specific religion should be taught in public schools . As one might anticipate, the twin emotive topics of the education of our children plus religion lead to an explosion on the comments thread. For the most part, respondents were civil and a robust and healthy dialogue broke forth into cyberspace. I have found myself feeling quite sympathetic to many of the “anti CRE camp”, in that (in NSW at least) there appears to be no accredited curriculum and it seems that anyone of any faith can teach children anything for half an hour a week. It seems to me if you’re going to teach about religion in schools I’d prefer it not done at all than that it be done badly. That is not meant to be critical of the many CRE volunteers doing wonderful creative teaching, but because I was made aware there are horror stories out there emerging from an unregulated system. However, I’d like to m
Read more

The Moral Minefield

Exodus 21: 22 "When there's a fight and in the fight a pregnant woman is hit so that she miscarries but is not otherwise hurt, the one responsible has to pay whatever the husband demands in compensation.” (The Message) I must confess I’m one of those odd Christians who reads the Old Testament. Actually, I’m one of those really odd Christians who likes to read through the bible. All of it (except maybe for some of those genealogies... that’s a bit of a stretch. I don’t think skimming over those bits should be regarded as cheating). I have been reminded of this passage over the past couple of days as debate has raged over the U.S. election on Alan Hirsch’s blog, a fascinating glimpse into the passionate and divisive world of American politics. I’ve been reminded of this passage because it is the closest thing to an abortion in the biblical record. (ripping babies out of the wombs of mothers would cause the death of mothers in a world without surgery or antibiotics, so I don’t th
Read more