Learning New Loves

Learning New Loves--September 25, 2018

“…Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news’.” [Mark 1:14b-15]

A big part of loving someone else is learning to care about the things that they care about… even if only because they care about it.  You might not know a shortstop from a shooting guard or a pitcher from a place-kicker, but if you’ve got a child in your life playing Little League, you learn… and fast.  You might not usually care at all about economics and trade policy, but if someone you love is worried their farm will go under because their wheat and soybeans aren't selling at the right price this year, all of a sudden, you start to pay attention.  You might have no idea at all what a corporate account or an occupational therapist or an insurance adjuster actually does, but if one such person becomes your friend, you come to learn the details of their job simply because you care about what is going on in their world.

That’s just how it is—with the relationships that matter most in life, your primary allegiance is to the person, and the things they care about come along for the ride, whether you had any previous interest in them before or not.  To put it simply, to love someone—to really and genuinely love someone in something more than the shallow way we usually use that word—is to let their passions, cares, and interests matter to you, even if  just because they matter to the one whom you love.  You come to strive for the things they strive for, to cheer them on when they get the things they are excited about, to be glad to stand back in the wings when they get to be in the limelight, and to find joy in the things that give them joy.  Like I say, there’s a certain allegiance you pledge to a person when you love them, in whatever kind of relationship you dare to love them.  And that allegiance means that you will dare to let their concerns re-order your priorities, so that over time they become your very own, too.  A lot of dads never figured they would care a lick about jazz-dancing until their daughters started taking lessons.  A lot of spouses never imagined they would care about fighting cancer until the diagnosis in their own family.  I never imagined I would find myself rooting for specific pigs and sheep and horses at the fair, until families in our congregations invited me to cheer alongside them for their animals each summer.  But that’s love—it makes us pledge allegiance to a whole list of priorities and passions.  Allegiance to a person means learning new loves.

Well, if these are the commitments we make by loving children, family, and dear friends, can we expect anything less from loving Jesus?  If having a niece or a nephew on the local basketball team or marching band means you start showing up at games and concerts, well, should it surprise us that Jesus calls us to let our priorities and loves be aligned with his?  After all, loving someone means learning to care about what they care about, right?

But maybe we haven’t asked the question that way before when it comes to us and Jesus.  Maybe we aren't used to asking “What matters to Jesus?” so much as we are just used to assuming Jesus' job is to miraculously get me the things I want on my personal wish list. So it stands to reason that we haven’t asked the follow-up question, “How will my allegiances and cares be changed by loving Jesus?”

That’s an important question to ask, because we often make assumptions about what Jesus cares about without really asking him, or digging deeper into his story to find out.  But here as Mark gives us the first public words of Jesus, we are about to find out.  Jesus cares about the Kingdom, or Reign, of God.  The Yahweh Administration, if you like.  Jesus has come to announce that God’s rule over all things is being established, and that we are invited to be a part of it.  And being a part of God’s reign over all creation means pledging our allegiance to God, and learning to care about the things God cares about.  That’s the way Jesus talks about it:  “The Kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe the good news.”  This repentance business is not a religious formula—some magic prayer you have to say first to “get in” to God’s club.  It is the conscious surrender of our old priorities and loves and allegiances to God’s.  It is a turning from one old set of things-to-care-about, and letting the One whom we love re-order them.  Perhaps we haven’t cared much about justice and mercy—to be honest, many of us find ourselves quite occupied with just keeping bills paid and getting a good night’s sleep, and not paying attention too much to the news because it will keep us up at night if we do.  Ah, but because God cares about justice and mercy, we will, too.  Perhaps we haven’t cared much about the needs of the hungry and the reconciliation of enemies—but because our Lord Jesus is passionate about giving away food and forgiveness to those who need them, we are going to have to learn to care about those, too.  That’s what it means to “repent and believe the good news” that the Reign of God is at our fingertips—because that’s what it means to really love Jesus.  Let us dare in this new day to love Jesus by learning to care about what he cares about, and whom he cares about.  

Let us allow Jesus to teach us new loves--as wide and as deep and as blessedly reckless as his.

Lord Jesus, help our love for you to grow by re-ordering the things we care about and spend our lives on.