ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE

The Beatles were not the first ones to tell us that the one and only way to live in this world in the way we, deep in our hearts, know we should live, is simply to love: love everyone and everything. The Old Testament’s basic law, the one from which all the other laws flow, is to love God above all else and love our neighbor as we love ourselves. All else consists in explaining footnotes.

“All you need is love.” So sang the Beatles. So says Presiding Bishop Michael Curry. He has one sermon he preaches everywhere every time. Every sermon boils down to those five words of the Beatles. So simple and yet so very profound. When we think about it, the message is not difficult to unpack. It’s a proverbial piece of cake, if you will, and one that always tastes good and has no calories.

And lest we forget or conveniently overlook, that, too, was Jesus’ one and only message in everything he said and in everything he did. Even when he was taking to task those who needed to be taken, he did so out of love, love for them and love of them, just as we did when we reprimanded our children when they misbehaved. We did so because we loved them and we took no pleasure in having to do so.

Think about his parables. The father forgave his prodigal son because he loved him even as the son thought he deserved no forgiveness. The Samaritan helped a man, who had he not been half-dead, would have refused his help because the Samaritan was a hated enemy. He helped out of love. The shepherd went after the sheep that was lost because all of God’s creatures are important and need to be cared for especially when they aren’t being especially careful themselves.

Yes, all we need is love. And, yes, that is not always easy, as we know. It is often difficult and sometimes seems impossible. How do we love someone who deliberately harms us? How do we love those who don’t want our love? Well, we just do. What’s the alternative? To hate? To do unto them what they have done unto us? Where does that get us? Well, it has gotten us to where we are in this world today. It’s not a pretty picture nor an encouraging one.

These are very troubling times, to be sure, when we seem to be so divided politically, when, in fact, we are. We need to step back and reflect on how we are responding to those who disagree with us, with those who may even despise us for what we think or believe or support. We can’t do anything about that. All we can do is speak and act in love and, as they say, let the chips fall where they may. We can do no more.

Everything Jesus said and did was out of love.  That’s what Christmas is all about. So should it be with us. Yes, indeed, all we need is love. That is what is necessary. But it is up to us who follow Jesus to act on that necessity and not simply sing or talk about it.