open to God...

How are we best open

to God's love

and power to transform

our lives?

Are we most open

when we extend a welcome to all people?

Or does our openness to God's Word

more readily lead us to a life of obedience?

Is faith not both?

Does an open welcome

to all people into the church

exclude the spiritual discipline

of obedience?

Can obedience

also be a calling

to openly welcome?

We say...

God is like

a mother who will not forsake

her nursing child,

like a father who runs to welcome

the prodigal home...

Unending nurture.

Unconditional welcome.

I give thanks that God

is like a mother who nurtures

and a father who welcomes.

I also give thanks that

my mother and father

love me without condition.

Of course,

through the years

I have obeyed my parents.

I have listened to their words,

respected their opinions,

and sought their forgiveness

when I was not so wise or compassionate.

And at this juncture

in my relationship

with my parents

I have come

to an understanding...

Obedience is

a bi-product of

unconditional love...

a bi-product of

my parents open

invitation to fully live

into my gifts,

and personality...

into the life God has

breathed into me.

I am blessed

to have parents who

have exhibited God's

love....

parents who have

nurtured and welcomed.

Because I have

been fully loved

and nurtured...

I respond

with

thanksgiving,

joy,

gratitude,

compassion

and yes...

obedience.

All these

responses are a

result of God's

unconditional love.

Faith does not begin and end

with obedience.

Faith begins and ends with

love.

We love

because God

first loved us.

I John 4: 19

I give you a new commandment,

that you love one another.

Just as I have loved you,

you also should love

one another.

By this

everyone will know

that you are my disciples,

if you have love for one another.

John 13: 34-35

Yes,

indeed it is a

challenge these

days to feel the love

in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Amidst

eye rolling

and venomous words

seeping out of smiling mouths....

it is difficult to

discern the love

God longs for us to

receive, offer and to celebrate.

Love

is the foundation

of faith...

God's love

made alive in Christ...

and sustained by the Holy Spirit.

God showed us the way

first by loving us.

I believe

we are called

first and foremost

to love.