Day 3 -- Extravagant, Exhorbatant, Overflowing Love

"Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. There they made him a supper; Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly ointment of pure nard and annointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was to betray him), said, 'Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?' This he said, not that he cared for the poor but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box he used to take what was put into it. Jesus said, 'Let her alone, let her keep it for the day of my burial. The poor you will always have with you, but you do not always have me." John 11 and 12 (RSV)

It was philosopher Rene Descartes who made the statement, "I think therefore I am." Though profound, the statement betrays a deeply isolationist and individualistic bent. In light of the God who creates our human community in the likeness of the God who is "community," I wonder if the key philosophical statement of human being shouldn't be, "I love therefore I am."

Warren's assertion today is that we actually love God by loving each other. I think he's nailed it. Obviously there's biblical support for this. Jesus' distillation of the commandments to "love God with the entirety of who you are," and "love your neighbor as yourself," are as Jesus puts it, "alike." Loving God and loving neighbor are acts that are fundamentally intertwined. The mystery of our communion with God and with each other is that we can't really do one without the other.

And at the end of the day, loving itself is not a fickle emotion -- a fleeting feeling. It's a choice. A decision to "add to the beauty" of another's life, even when the existance of the other looks utterly ugly. But in this way, in the extravagant, exhorbatant, overflowing ACT of love we choose to affirm God's most fundamental affirmation of his creation: that it's good. That it's beautiful, not because of anything it does, but simply because God made it and he said that it was good.

Sara Groves sings in her song "Add to the Beautfy":

It comes in loving community
It comes in helping a soul find its worth.

Redemption comes in strange places, small spaces,
calling out the best of who we are....

I want to add to the beauty
to tell a better story
shine in the light
that's burning up inside.

My prayer for you today is that you will "add to the beautfy" of the life you live with the quality of love you choose for those around you. My you find the extravagant love of Mary as you journey through this day...the Lord's day.

Pastor Nathan