Neighbor Love

“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” These words from Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem are usually read as a romantic expression of love, a Valentine’s Day pronouncement of the sentimental heart to the lover’s beloved.
But what if we read them as a question and response to Christ’s eternal call to love our neighbor with the fervor of people who are so passionately loved first by God?
 
Love, though often sentimentalized by our society, is actually more attitude and action than feeling, at least in the way Christ call us to love our neighbors, God and self. And it’s grounded in the love that God gives to us every moment of every day.
 

•      God’s love is a deep passionate desire for the well-being of all of creation, including each and every human being and the entire human race. It is also the deep sadness and even anger God has when we don’t share this desire for the well-being of our neighbor and act to destroy rather than build up.

 

•      God’s love is a rich friendship with all of creation, including humanity, that wants to walk through life together with us, supporting, encouraging and raising us up to new life in an intertwined relationship of beloved companions on the journey.

 

•     God’s love is the willingness to lose the self for the sake of all of creation, to give up God’s own rights and privileges, wants and self-centered goals as Jesus did so that the whole creation and all the creatures in it (including humans) may live in wholeness, harmony, and fullness of life.

 
This is the love that we are called and commanded to try and share with our neighbors, despite the obstacles of finitude and our bondage to sin. The love commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves both empowers and demands we seek the well-being of everyone else, even to the point of denying one’s self to live in holy friendship with all of God’s creation.
 
Now this love is justice; but this love goes way beyond justice.
 

•       This love, as described by the apostle Paul, is patient, kind, rejoices in truth, bears, believes, hopes, endures all things, and never ends. (1 Cor 13)

 

•       This love holds to what is good, hates evil, offers mutual affection, outdoes each other in honoring the other, rejoices in hope, is patient in suffering, perseveres in prayer, contributes to the needs of others, extends hospitality to strangers, blesses persecutors, lives in harmony with one another, associates with the lowly, lives as peaceably as possible with all, feeds hungry enemies, overcomes evil with good, and does no wrong to a neighbor. (Rom 12 &13)

 

•       This love is filled with joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-management, and bear one another’s burdens. (Gal 6)

 

•       This love involves humility, speaking truth, saying only what is useful for building up, forgiving others, and tries to maintain unity in the bond of peace. (Eph)

 

•       This love means laying down our lives for one another in truth and action, not just words. (1Jn3)

 

•       As we can see, the love we are called to give one another is not just a feeling; it is attitude and action, verbs not just nouns, an embedded way of life that infiltrates everything we are and do.

 
Will we fail at this perfect love? Yes. Thank God for grace-filled forgiveness that empowers us to try again and again.
 
And who are we called to love with this love? Our neighbors. All of our neighbors.
 

•       Our neighbors who are black, who are indigenous, who are Asian, who are Latinix, who are white, who are any and every ethnic group and race that we humans have divided ourselves into.

 

•       Who are we called to love with God’s love? Our neighbors who are Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Independent, liberal, conservative, small government, big government, blue, red or some other socio-political shade.

 

•       Who are we called to love with God’s love? Our neighbors who are male, female, transgender, gay, lesbian, bisexual, straight, queer, intersex.

 

•       Our neighbors who are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, indigenous spiritual, Sikh, and Buddhist.

 

•       Our neighbors who are elderly, middle aged, young and child.

 

•       Our neighbors who are differently-abled and those neighbors who are struggling with illness in mind, body, heart and spirit.

 

•       Who are we called to love? All of these plus everyone I didn’t name as well as everyone and thing that does not fit into these human constructed identities, including all of creation – the animals, the plants, the land, water, and air. (Blessed Earth Day!)

 
And how do we love these? Let me count the ways…which are too many to name here.
 
But one easy way, right now in this moment, is to get vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus. This action shows love not only for yourself but also for your neighbor as we work together to stop this thing in its tracks, develop communal immunity, and come closer to fully loving each other.
 
I know from experience that getting vaccinated can involve a sacrifice – I got my second dose on Monday and it wiped me out to barely functional on Tuesday as the vaccine activated my body to empower itself to face the virus head on. But I’ve recovered – the miracle of the human body and the science that can support it never ceases to amaze me! Thanks be to God!
 
Getting vaccinated is one of the clearest ways we can express our love for neighbor and ourselves right now. So please get vaccinated. In this, you will truly be blessed and offer God’s blessings to your neighbors!
 
Bishop Laurie