Notes from the Corner Office…
Dear Beloved Community,
Madeleine L’Engle, who some of you might know as the author of A Wrinkle in Time, was also an essayist, a poet, and an Episcopalian. Her poetry often explored and expressed her Christian faith. In a collection of her poetry and essays, Miracle on 10th Street: And Other
Christmas Writings, there is an essay entitled “Redeeming All Brokenness” in which she discusses John of the Cross. She writes, “Judgement: John of the Cross says that in the evening of life we shall be judged on love; not on our accomplishments, not on our successes and failures in the worldly sense, but solely on love.”
What an amazing concept and if you stop and think about it, how obvious. Remember what Presiding Bishop Michael Curry famously said, “If it isn’t about love, it isn’t about God.” Of course, if God is love, then how we love is the only thing that matters. Not who we love because we are called by Jesus to love our neighbor (everyone), but how we love.
“God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.” John 3:16. This is what we remember and celebrate on the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, otherwise known as Christmas. Imagine God, so in love with us that God wanted to reconcile us to God’s self. Imagine God, so in love with us, that God ached for us to turn back towards God and God’s love. Imagine God, so in love with us, that God took on our form, our existence, to teach us how to love each other and to love God. Imagine God, so in love with us that God was willing to suffer death on the cross, so that through the resurrection, we would be saved from sin and death. Imagine God, so in love with us, that God promised to return to the world to complete the remaking.
How we love is all that matters. How we love informs everything else we do in this life. How we love is what defines us as disciples and apostles of Jesus. As the folk hymn says, “They will know we are Christians by our love.” As the holiday shopping season, which often competes with the Season of Advent for our attention, compels us to think about getting those in our lives “the perfect gift,” perhaps the what of the gift doesn’t really matter as much as the why of the gift. The why of course being love.
In the peace and love of Christ,
Everett+
~image from gracebcdansville
