PostScript: Extravagant love
The life of a Christian community mirrors God’s love for human beings (Galatians 2.20; Luke 7.38)
This week's news
Sunday 16 June marks the end of National Carers Week, an acknowledgement, at least, of those who give up their own lives to attend to the needs of others, and especially young people who are carers.
June 16 is also Father’s Day. How successful are we in meeting the needs of fathers in our congregations and supporting the spiritual lives of boys in church? Grove Books offer a volume on the specific needs of boys.
Complementing Mumsnet we could seek out Dad.info.
One dad created a time lapse video of his son from 0 to 2.
The whole of South Africa is concerned for Nelson Mandela, being treated for a serious lung infection. An entire nation has gathered to pray for the one who is referred to as the father of democracy in South Africa.
How hard it is to let go of people whose lives have shaped our own.
For a second week police and protestors have faced each other in Istanbul’s Taksim Square.
Reflection
God, like a good father, watches over us and over all humanity, like the man who made the tame lapse video, delighting in the achievements of his children. How successful are we in the church at mirroring this kind of love to one another and to outsiders?
As we look at the people we worship with week by week – have we been missing things about other people that need a ‘thank you’, a ‘how are you’ or a sign of the value that we place on them? Are there people who are invisible in our church? Can we find ways to show appreciation to them and others who serve the community unnoticed.
God’s love for us is like that of the woman with the perfume – extravagant to the point of foolishness. Whose feet should we be anointing – who needs to see this kind of extravagant love shown to them? Sheila Cassidy speaks movingly of the care shown to the dying in hospices and elsewhere. She writes:
‘We, too, pour out the precious ointment of our time, our skill and our love over those who are dying and who therefore in human terms are of no further economic worth.’ (Good Friday People, DLT, 1991, p.53). She quotes from a poem by Sydney Carter about the care of a dying man. In the poem (‘Mother Teresa’) he talks about the ‘levity of love’ – the seemingly crazy extravagance that pours itself out for others. He writes:
‘Over this dead loss to society
you pour your precious ointment,
call the bluff and laugh
at the fat and clock-faced gravity
of our economy.
You wash the feet that will not walk tomorrow…’
Can we love this much? Let us call for the power of the Holy Spirit to remake us in God’s image and fill us with this kind of selfless love. (It’s probably also the best approach to evangelism!)
Prayer
God of love,
your attention is caught by the least and the lost.
You notice the sparrows,
value the widow’s mite;
you count the hairs on our head.
You made us and you call your creation ‘good’.
A little lower than the angels –
we are shaped by your hand.
Your voice calls us to you
And because we are precious in your eyes,
you weep over our sin
and long for our return.
Standing at the window of the universe,
you wait endlessly for the prodigal’s homecoming.
In Jesus we see the extent to which love will go:
love that makes itself fragile and vulnerable;
love that speaks truth and seeks peace;
love that pours itself out
Until there is nothing left.
We are loved on the pathway to the cross:
hands that shaped stars in love and uphold the universe
are pierced by the nails.
We are loved in the valley of dry bones,
in the place of death. And
we are loved in the new day in the garden –
when our names are spoken
and we are remade.
You love us through the mighty rushing wind and tongues of fire,
and in in the quiet still spaces of our hearts,
you whisper our name and call us home.
For the love we know, we give thanks.
For the love we have yet to discover, we praise you.
For love without end, we rejoice.
Amen.
Questions
- Who are the people in society today that we should ‘pour our ointment over’? To whom we should offer love, time, care, skills, attention?
- What are we worth? Are some people worth more than others in society? What about the poor? The homeless? The unemployed? The dying? The sick? The carers? Is our worth connected to what we earn?
- Should we provide support groups for carers in our church?
Action
In the light of National Carer’s Week should we be speaking out for the needs of carers? Read about political change.
Should we consider offering better support to parents in general and dads in particular in our church? What could this look like?
Young People
What would Jesus do? Is the church bothered about the same people as Jesus? (In the Gospel reading, the woman’s hospitality was seen as more valuable than that of the rich man).
‘I love you to the moon and back.’ The gospel tells us how much God loves us and how we should love one another. Guess how much I love you? by Sam McBratney is the story of little nut brown hare finding out how much s/he is loved.
How far are we prepared to go in loving others?
Diane Craven is a freelance education consultant and a Reader in the Church of England. She is currently completing a PhD in Theology and Education at King's College London.
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