Cross = Love

This week I read a quote from David Haas - the composer of many church hymns, which read:

"Our vocation is always to be a witness of God's love."

Amen I say to that, Amen indeed! It is a reminder that we are loved and our living calls us to authentic living, honest living and it calls us to love in our every day in little ways not just in the grand moments. It calls us to know that we are God's and because of this love is always ours. Always.

This past week we celebrated the Exultation of the Cross. This is a beautiful reminder that love is our way and is indeed how we are called to live and witness.

"We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you, 

because by your cross you have redeemed the world."

The cross and resurrection of Jesus is the the truth that love is rooted in and the way in which we are to love is made obvious and evident in our Savior Jesus Christ. His love took him to the cross - abandoned, rejected, emptied and yet it was so full of love. We look to the Him, the One who gave his all and who loved to the end. We look to the One who chose love over revenge and who made love the authentic way of living. We look to the One who laid every piece of love down on that cross as he had done his whole life, so that in turn we would know that we are loved and he shows us how we are to love.

Yes in our world love is battered, broken, abused, beaten, profaned and even destroyed. We do it to ourselves and we allow others to do it to themselves and to us. Our world is so desperately seeking love and filling it with false loves. At times we fail to grasp the power of love. We fail to see that love is patient, kind, courageous, and calls us to be a witness. May the reminder that we were first loved by God and that the cross is a sign of this love encourage us to claim love and let it be the way we witness to the world. Let it be the way we enter into our vocation each day.

The love of Christ compels us,
it pushes us forward,
it says we have life,
it claims our holiness,
it is our hope,
it is always ours,
it can never be taken away,
so let us love, for God is love
and we are held always in this love.
Amen.