When We’re Running Low On Love

“Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him,

they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them.”

Thus opens the gospel selection in this Sunday’s lectionary reading.

Haven’t we all looked at someone else’s behavior or language or dress and thought of them as somehow defiled in comparison the traditions or values we believe to be good and right?

Just this week, Annie served a customer who made a snarky comment about what Jesus might think about her unconventional look. Annie thought it was kind of funny, but when she told me, I responded in my own heart with just as much snark about what Jesus would say concerning that lady’s stingy narrowmindedness.

Does hypocrisy ever end? According to Jesus, no, as long as we teach human precepts as divine doctrine, hypocrisy of heart cannot end. One human doctrine bumps up against another, judging, competing, contradicting.

Jesus does, however, offer us a path out of hypocrisy by telling us where the problem begins: in the human heart. We may not be accustomed to thinking of the danger in our own hearts, certainly not in these times when there seems to be such danger coming from outside our hearts. And yet, this is where Jesus tells us to begin with our obedience to God’s law of love: in our own human heart.

Questions that might help us think on these things this week:

*What are the signs that you might need to spend time in the loving presence of the Lord? Do you get judgmental, easily perturbed, overly self-critical, moody, despairing?

*To what thought or activity do your turn when you find yourself running low on love?

Click here to see all the readings for Sunday, August 29th, 2021:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=217

See you Sunday, Friends.

Love,

Jane