DAILY READING
REFLECTION
Our Cross-like Love
by Dan Kidd
Over the past week and a half, I’ve had the privilege of taking a “boys trip” with my two sons to the mountains of East Tennessee. We stayed at my parents’ home and had such a great time together, embarking on all sorts of adventures. One of the things I enjoyed most about the trip was witnessing my parents lovingly attend to their grandsons. It was precious watching my dad hold and feed our 10-month-old, or to see my mom chatting with our 4-year-old about which were there favorite animals at the zoo. I watched two retired adults give away over a week of their leisurely golden years to be with two rather excited, often needy, young boys—even participating in mundane routines like bedtimes and breakfasts. I was reminded (yet again) how blessed I am to have the parents, and the community of friends, I have—who so selflessly love me and my family in a myriad of costly ways.
It is instances like that where I see God’s Kingdom, here and now, so plainly. While I am certain my parents adored the time they had with their grandkids, there were definitely moments where they took on tasks that they’d have preferred not to. What’s remarkable is how frequently this happens within our church community, for the love of friends and strangers alike. Week in and week out hundreds of people in our UALC community give up their time and resources, and make all kinds of sacrifices for the care, help, and service of others. And they do so with joy in their hearts and smiles on their faces. I bet if you took only a few moments to think on it, you could recall a time not so long ago when someone in our church community joyfully and sacrificially served you, and an instance where you were able to care for someone else. What an incredible gift we’ve been given—that we can be the church for one another!
This is just how Jesus intended it. But, I think you’d agree, this doesn’t necessarily come naturally. After all, we have plenty of our own needs and concerns to attend to. Sacrificing our own time, resources, and energy is costly and disruptive. It requires more from us than we’re required to give. And that gets to the heart of today’s passage. In his letter to the church in Corinth (a rather messy sinful lot), Paul lays out a long teaching on the radical nature of Christian, cross-like, love. For Paul, Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection is the primary revelation of the nature of God and God’s intentions for us. God, in the person of Jesus, became not only human, but a servant to those in need, even dying to be reconciled with the very people who executed him. It is because of Jesus’ finished work on the cross that we can be a part of a blessed, beloved community that is so filled with his love for us that it spills out in our love for one another. Not merely in our affections for each other, but in our sacrificial actions for each other.
Because of Christ, we are saved into a present reality where we don’t simply ask “what is required of me?” or “what am I allowed to do?” but “what is loving and beneficial for my neighbor?” We have been saved out of selfishness and into Kingdom selflessness that God has always intended, and that he demonstrated in his own life and death. We serve sacrificially because we embrace that gift of mutual love for one another, and thus we live for one another precisely as we were created to.
PRAYER
Lord, thank you for reminding us of your love for us, and how that is demonstrated within your Church. Lead us to draw from your deep well so that we might carry your love to one another. Thank you for the ways your Spirit guides and transforms us into the ways of love and grace. Truly, it is because you’ve first loved us that we can now love each other.
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