On a recent trip out of Missoula heading east on the interstate I noticed a semi-truck and trailer.  On the back of the trailer there were the usual things.  The brand name of the company who made the trailer, the toll free phone number to call regarding the drivers’ courteousness or lack thereof.  Then there was something that caught my attention.  In plan black letters not more than 3” tall were the words, “God is love”.  It was not a bumper sticker.  Just the simple profound truth spelled out in easy to read letters – God is love.

Yes, I said to myself along with an inner smile.  God is love! 

This week I was visiting at St. Patrick Hospital.  Each week day they have a quote in the elevator and stair tower for people to read.  This week’s quote was from Hamilton Wright Mabie, “Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.”  Christmas is the season we are reminded that God is love.

This year there has been intentional focus on the issue and very real problem of bullying in schools.  Articles have been written, programs aired, assemblies held and special programs designed to help teachers, parents and young people appropriately deal with bullying.  This is a good thing.  Unfortunately, bullying is not a new problem and it will need ongoing vigilance tomorrow and well into the future.

The summer before I was going to start 6th grade, my family moved across town.  I was in a new neighborhood and was going to be going to a new school.  One day I was sent to the store to get some milk and bread and a few other grocery items.  The store was down the street some six or seven blocks across a major intersection with a stop light.  As I was coming back from the store and at the stop light waiting to cross three boys came walking up to me and one of them asked me for my money.  I said I didn’t have any money I spent it at the store buying the stuff I had in the bag.  He said again give me your money.  I said I didn’t have any. 

I did have some change, but that was promised to me for running the errand.  The boy called me a liar, he was right, but I didn’t want to give him my money.  Before I saw it coming his fist hit my jaw.  At that point I had three choices.  Fight which was not a good choice I was outnumbered.  Flight – I could run but I had the bag of groceries which would have slowed me down and for which I had the responsibility to bring home, so I couldn’t drop them and run.  Or I could give up the money I had in my pocket hoping they would then leave me alone.  I chose a fourth option instead.  An option I had not known was available to me at the time.  I just stood there looking at them.  They finally just walked away.  I turned and walked home very quickly hoping they wouldn’t follow me.

A month later school started. Guess who was my new classmate?  I lived in fear that he and his friends would recognize me and try to collect again.  They never did and months later I found out that the boy who hit me was in trouble often and was gone from the school.  Toward the end of the school year he came back, but he seemed different and stayed out of trouble.  The rumor around the school was his parents separated and his father went to prison.  God only knows all that must have been going on in his life that summer we first met on the street corner.

Why this story?  First, it is a reminder that bullying is a real problem at schools, in work places, on social media sites, and in homes.  Bullying has been around a very long time and takes many forms.  Every generation needs to do what it can to educate and work against it.  The second reason I mention bullying is that it also happens in faith traditions.  In particular, the idea that God is some kind of cosmic divine bully.  People may not use that phrase, but their thoughts, statements and assumptions lean that way.  The belief is that God is this being that at will causes an earthquake here or a hurricane there or stir up a tornado to bring death and destruction to innocent unsuspecting people just to remind them who really is in control.  God sends disease and cancer to certain people because of their sins.  God causes relationship breakups, job losses and financial meltdowns.  God and his followers are racist and discriminate against anyone who is different and outside the mainstream.

This may sound extreme, but it is how some people feel about God.   I want to say NO!  God is love!  People counter with have you read the Old Testament?  There is so much violence and destruction in it and God is making it or letting it happen.  The New Testament has a loving Jesus, but then God causes him to suffer and die a horrible death on a cross.  What kind of God does that to his own?  And what about all the wars and suffering and death that have happen in the name of God throughout history?  God is not love. 

I want to say, NO!  Not because I am in denial.  People do horrific things using God’s name, but that doesn’t mean God approves. People can always read and interpret the bible, historical events and acts of God in a particular way that leads them to think and believe that God is other than loving.  Again, I want to say NO!  God is love.  Without going into great detail and putting into context much of scripture, historical events and the science behind “Acts of God” I do want to say as simple and clearly as the words on the back of that semi-truck trailer – God is love!

God has provided us this place, this planet we call earth to live on and care for.  This incredibly diverse, complex, beautiful place has everything we need to live and thrive.  God is love.  God from the testimony of the scriptures rescued a group of people called the Hebrews who were abused, tortured and enslaved by another group of people called the Egyptians.  God delivered them out of that horrible condition.  God fed, guided and provided them a new place to live because God is love.  God has given us prophets throughout history to act as loving parents to give people warnings and words of guidance to keep us out of trouble and to call us back from our destructive ways because God is love.

God came to us in a very personal, humble and human way as a baby born in Bethlehem.  Not to terrify us, but to show that God is love.  In the teachings of the adult Jesus, God was teaching people how to think anew about things that had been misunderstood for too long.  In the miracles of Jesus, God was saying I care about how people feel and I desire people to be well and whole.  In the death and resurrection of Jesus God was saying no to the power of fear, hatred, violence, sin and death and yes to forgiveness, hope and new life.  Why, because God is love.

Christmas and Easter and everything thing else and everything in between and everything that will be is because God is love.  Mary was honored to bear and give birth to the God of love in the Christ child Jesus.  We are honored to bear and give birth to the truth that God is love by loving others.  And even when we fail to love or believe that God is love it does not change the reality that God has always been and always will be love.

A Christmas poem by Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)
Love came down at Christmas
Love all lovely, love divine
Star and angels gave the sign
Worship we the Godhead,
Love incarnate, Love divine,
Worship we our Jesus
What shall be our token
Love be yours and mine;
Love to God and neighbor
Love for prayer and gift and sign.

As a prayer and gift and sign that God is love you are welcome to take with you a Christmas gift. In baskets in the back is a band or key chain with the words God Is Love.  This is a gift from a donor and a church who knows God is love.  Keep the gift for yourself or share the gift with someone.
God Is Love!   Amen.     

Pastor Chris Flohr