The “Short” (and Long) of Love

Some years ago, an unassuming cleric set the world record for the shortest sermon when he walked to his pulpit, looked at his congregation, and said just one word: “LOVE.” Then he sat down. End of sermon.

I often muse over how few in my congregation probably wouldn’t complain if I started preaching shorter sermons because they would beat everyone to lunch. But at the same time, I don’t know that they would avoid getting their toes stepped on in the process, homiletically speaking at least, because it doesn’t take a lot of words to get our attention if the words hit us where we hurt.

“Love” is one of those words that does just that. It either hits us at the point of need or it hits us at the point of behavior. In terms of our need, one of the deepest yearnings every one of us has is to be loved by others; our souls crave for someone else to see us as significant. Plenty of studies have been done that suggest that when people are deprived of love, they don’t end up as very good people.

But the word love can also hit us at the point of behavior. By that, I mean some people are not very lovely, and I don’t just mean physically speaking. Some people have souls that are pretty ugly, and it’s easier to keep our distance from them, even though we doing so is not very lovely in itself.

Of course, the Bible messes up that last line of thinking. Its teachings on love – especially the part about loving one’s neighbor – direct us precisely to the places and the people we’d rather avoid. Just when we think we have our “love lines” drawn precisely, we come across a parable like the Good Samaritan or a Jonah story like God’s call to go to the people of Nineveh, and we have to get on our knees and beg forgiveness for the ugliness that’s in all of us. The Bible conveys a God who actually expects us to love everybody.

We know how to do this. Most of us grew up exchanging Valentines back in elementary school with the whole class, not just the people we wanted to.

So, as you did then, you know what you must do now. You must love. There, I said it. For those of you who need some elaboration, such a challenge means treating others like you’d want to be treated. It means wishing the best for them and working for the best for them. It means holding your nose and your heart in order to be used of God in meeting another’s need. The loving action comes first; only then does the emotion follow.

I remember a line from an old James Taylor song: “Love is just a word I’ve heard when things are being said.” Love is “just” a word? Not so when the word is uttered by people who truly love God, for then it becomes nothing less than a sermon unto itself and a clarion call to what those who heed it will discover is a better way of life.