Like Praying for Rain--August 24, 2020

 

Like Praying for Rain--August 24, 2020

"And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you."  [1 Thessalonians 3:12]

Remember the wise words of the theologians in the old hair band Boston:  "It's more than a feeling."  Love, that is.  Genuine love--the kind worth praying for, like Paul does here--isn't reducible to a surge of endorphins in the brain, or a feeling of butterflies in your stomach when someone walks into the room.  Genuine love is more than feelings, more than momentary glances, more than a good time on the weekend.  Love, despite what so many other power-ballads and hair-bands would have us believe, is always more than a feeling. At least, any kind of love that has staying power has to be more than just a feeling. Boston was at least right in that regard.

But... then what is the kind of love worth praying for?  What does Paul mean when he prays that these dear friends of his would abound in love for one another--and for "all"?

That's really what's poking at me this morning--what do we think Paul is asking for when he prays that the Lord would increase the love of the Thessalonians Christians for each other and for the wider world? Well, surely it's not about romance--that's obvious. Paul doesn't have much use for all the pretending and preening and posturing that goes along with romance. And of course, he's talking to a whole congregation, and not to just a doe-eyed couple. But Paul is also not going to settle with mushy sentimentalism with the whole group, either. He's not praying that they would all simply feel all warm and fuzzy toward each other. Paul doesn't seem particularly interested in having the Thessalonians get butterflies in their stomachs whenever one of their fellow church members walks into the room, and he's not praying that they start pining for him while he is away. It's about more than emotion--it's about showing up for each other. It's about something with staying power. 

Praying for someone else to have a more intense feelings, more passionate emotions, and then calling that love is a little like looking at your parched field and praying for a single severe thunderstorm to come and water your failing crops. A single intense microburst of rain, like the kind that has been teasing our county over the last month without a really good soak, can actually do more harm that good, washing away dry soil, cutting channels, and then still leaving the ground thirsty. What you really need is a long, steady rainy season, even if any single shower is never that intense. That's more like what Paul is praying for. He's praying for rain, enough rain to keep God's plantings green and thriving, rather than a single deluge that might overwhelm the roots and wash away the good soil. 

For Christians to keep praying like Paul does--that God would keep us increasing and abounding in love--is to keep looking out at the field and praying for rain. We are not so much interested in a single burst of intense emotion in church, or even that people walk away from our Sunday services having had a warm feeling. We are looking to the heavens for the kind of sustained rainy season that will keep us growing, even if the growth is slow and almost imperceptible to the observing eye. 

When we ask what we Christians have to offer the world, the answer always has to be more than a feeling. What we hold out to the world--and what we have first received from God, truth be told--is a long, steady, increasingly growing love that shows itself in our willingness to give ourselves away and to show up for others. We have lost something if all we have to say is "Come to my church--it will make you feel good." We have so much more to offer, because we continue to be watered by the sustained showers of a God whose love does not blow through town and then dissipate like a sudden storm. 

Today, let us keep praying for rain... and let us be examples for each other of the love that acts for and stands with others for the long haul. 

Dear Lord, let us never settle for love as a mere feeling--let us be caught up in your sustained, and sustaining presence, so that our love will grow and overflow, even day by day, even little by little.