Theology of Love

The other day I came home like every other work night in the wee hours of the morning. I had a little time to kill because I had to wake my wife up for work shortly after getting home.
So I did what I normally do during idle times; I mindlessly scrolled through Facebook (a bad habit I admit). After a while, I came across this picture:

 The wonderful thing about pictures is that they don't have to be described. They speak for themselves and they give us at times something to really think about. As I reflected on this comic, I began to think about how God surprises me. The times in which God challenges my thoughts about God, and at times challenges my theology.

When I was an undergraduate student I took a couple of theology classes. I loved theology then and I still love it now. The problem is when you study theology you realize how there is more than one theology. You begin to realize that theology is derived from the experiences of those who wrote that theology. Theology is just as messy as life itself.

I'll never forget the comment my theology professor made that theology, saying it would be easier if the Bible were written as a systematic theology, but it's not.

To me this opens us up to wonderful possibilities in understanding our lives in God. It allows us to continually be challenged and changed by God. It allows God to speak into our lives.

We as Christians join with the biblical characters in messiness of life. In the messiness of trying to figure out what God wants and desires from us. 

Life is far too messy to fit into a systematic theology. That's why God doesn't relate to us in that way. God relates to us in a much more personal and loving way.

 The Spirit of God is breathed onto all people. 

I work as a Janitor at a fitness center. One of the things that I notice on a daily basis is people's idiosyncrasies. For example there is one lady, probably somewhere just above retirement age who still in 2012 uses a discman and she uses it to listen to techno music. She likes to do these goofy dances in front of the mirrors that line the wall. And all I could think about was how I was glad I wasn't her and how I was so much better than her.

Then God began to speak.

"I love her. I love her just as much as you think that I love you."

"I should love her too, God."

"You got it."

The problem with so much of theology is that it attempts to set boundaries. 

A teacher of the law comes to Jesus and asks him, "What should I do to inherit eternal life?" In other words what must he do to be a part of the working of God in the world and God's new world order. 

Jesus asks him, "How do you understand the law? How do you read it?" 

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and the second is to love your neighbor as yourself."

"You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live."

The teacher wants to further justify himself and asks, "And who is my neighbor?"

Jesus tells him the story of the The Good Samaritan.

Then Jesus asks, "Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among robbers?"

"The one who showed him mercy."

"You go, and do likewise."

This is more than a feel good story about a man who actually stopped to help someone. The Jews and the Samaritans hated each other. It was a violent type of hatred. In 128 B.C.E. the Jewish High Priest destroyed the Samaritan Sanctuary. Then around 6 B.C.E. the Samaritan threw bones into the Temple during Passover as well as killing pilgrims who were traveling from Galilee to Jerusalem.  

And Jesus essentially says to the teacher of the law, "that group of people you hate, those are your neighbors and you must love them."

This story attempts to draw a line around the chosen and the not chosen. Jews and Samaritans. Tutsi's and Hutu's. Serbs and Croats. Protestant and Catholic. Americans and Iraqis. The saved and unsaved. Orthodoxy and Heresy. Me and the dancing lady at the gym.

Them and us. 

If you're theology is not challenging you to love everybody, then you're theology needs to change. 

When we begin to believe that God hates the people we hate, or sends someone to hell because they don't believe like we do, or if we look at some lady at the gym and think she's a weirdo and think we're better than them, our theology becomes a shackle around our ankle. 

God still speaks. God challenges us. God wants us to throw off the shackle that keeps us from drawing closer to God.

The times when God most clearly speaks to me is when God is challenging me to better love those around me. It's to love those who I don't like. Those who are not like me. 

It's never easy, but in those moments I feel the closest to the heart of God. True theology teaches us to love as God has loved us.