![\"\"](\"http:\/\/thegatheringcincinnati.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/lily.jpg\" "\\"lily\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nClick here to listen to the Easter message or see below to read it.<\/p>\n\n
<\/p>\n
As millions of people the world over celebrate Easter today, most seem to forget that in the Easter story – on that first Easter morning – all was not good, happy and bright.\u00a0\u00a0 A tomb was visited.\u00a0 Death had to be confronted in all of its fearful ugliness.<\/p>\n
The followers of Jesus on that morning were scattered, disorganized and devastated.\u00a0 This man in whom they had invested their lives – this prophet of revolutionary change – had been humiliated and executed as a common criminal.\u00a0 Not only was the man dead, the movement he had started, in order to change human attitudes about life, compassion and the heart of the Divine, was also effectively dead.<\/p>\n
Over the ensuing years, as the teachings and life examples of Jesus were told and retold, his followers and those who admired him came to understand with increasing clarity the underlying message of this great prophet.\u00a0 Not only were his actual life and teachings interpreted and shared, but the ultimate meaning and purpose of his life were shaped and then condensed into one overall message.\u00a0 And a new religion was created as a result – one that would honor and perpetuate his teachings.<\/p>\n
The shock and sorrow of that first Easter morning were reinterpreted by his admirers into one of celebration and joy.\u00a0 Easter morning was changed to symbolize, and thus prove, the real message of Jesus – a man of history who actually did live and die.<\/p>\n
As humans, we are prone to think and ACT, in order to solve the problems of life.\u00a0 And our biggest<\/span> problem in life is the fear we have of our own demise.\u00a0 Of all the created beings, we alone know we will one day die.\u00a0 We are chained to this realization – it imprisons many of us in lives of fear, worry and an inability to really live and truly love.\u00a0 Humanity invented religion as a way to mitigate this fear – to offer solace and comfort.\u00a0 Religion tells us that if we believe and if we ACT<\/span><\/em> in a certain ways – as moral and good people – we will not die but be rewarded with eternal life.<\/p>\n Jesus taught something entirely different.\u00a0 We do not need to ACT<\/span><\/em> in certain ways.\u00a0 We do not need to DO certain things to earn Divine favor.\u00a0 We must simply BE.\u00a0 We must simply BE like the heart of all Truth and all purity.\u00a0 We must BE like the Divine.\u00a0 And our intuition, combined with messages from the Bible and most other world religions, tells us that the Divine – or God if you wish – is love.<\/p>\n If this is true, and I assert that it is, what does it mean to BE love?\u00a0 For most people, love is a matter of doing.\u00a0 It is an act of performance.\u00a0 It is a transaction.\u00a0 I will DO acts of love to show you that I care about you.\u00a0 But, I will only do those acts in return for similar acts of love which you DO for me – acts of praise, thanks, helping, giving or physical affection.<\/p>\n But the overall message of Jesus – and what Easter morning came to represent – is that DOING love is not real love.\u00a0 Doing acts of love often becomes perfunctory and obligatory.\u00a0 As time goes on, we can become resentful of our need to DO acts of love in order to earn the love of God or another person.\u00a0 Jesus condemned such an approach to love – those who prayed in public and on display and thought they were loving the Divine, or those who made a show of the money they gave and thought they were buying Divine love, or those who acted moral on the outside but were full of hate and anger on the inside.\u00a0 Such people are like dirty and cobweb filled tombs, he said.\u00a0 There is no substance to their supposed love.\u00a0 It is hypocritical and false.<\/p>\n Indeed, many of us fall into the same trap.\u00a0 We say we love another person or other people.\u00a0 We do acts of kindness for them.\u00a0 We lavish them with money or gifts.\u00a0 We judge them – and decide whether or not to love them – based on their ability to love us, thank us, be like us or do good things for us.\u00a0\u00a0 And when they disappoint, as all people do since we are not perfect creatures, we often fall out of love.\u00a0 We have been hurt.\u00a0 We have been cheated in the transaction of love.\u00a0 I have given love and gotten little or nothing in return, we tell ourselves.\u00a0 We equate love with DOING, which always falls short since we cannot do anything with perfection.\u00a0 And we equate religion with doing.\u00a0 As lovers or as religious people, we are like runners on an endless treadmill – never able to get off our perceived need to DO and ACT and perform, and thus earn love.<\/p>\n If you have listened to or followed our two month message series on finding spiritual truths from world religions, you will hear a familiar refrain in each message.\u00a0 Contentment for the Buddhist, which we discussed last month, is not about doing contented things like meditation or letting go.\u00a0 It is about achieving a state of BEING that is content and at peace.\u00a0 And the same is true for the devotional attitudes of Muslims – they ARE<\/span><\/em><\/strong> devoted instead of DOING acts of devotion like praying and fasting.<\/p>\n For Christianity, the one hallmark of that faith is what Jesus asked of his followers and, indeed, asked of all humanity.\u00a0 We must follow the DIVINE example and simply BE love personified.\u00a0 How can we BE love, and not just DO acts of love?\u00a0 We must love unconditionally – love which is given without any condition or strings attached.\u00a0 We must love as the DIVINE loves – without expectation of returned love, without rehearsal, without thought, without any standard of beauty, wealth or so-called morality.\u00a0 God loves the thief and the murderer as much as the saint.\u00a0 Indeed, we are called to love the unlovable.\u00a0 We must love the one who hurts us.\u00a0 We must love those on the margins – those who most so-called \u201cdecent\u201d people do not love: the criminals, the AIDS victims, the poor, the dirty, the addicts, the persons of a different race, religion or sexuality, the enemy, the person who can in no way DO anything of value for us.\u00a0 As Mother Theresa once said, \u201cUnconditional love does not measure, it just gives.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n The ultimate message of the historic Jesus and the ultimate message of Christianity – one that any person of any faith or non-faith can appreciate – is a message that tells us the Divine loves ALL people and ALL creation no<\/span>…….matter<\/span>…….what<\/span><\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 And, if we wish to be enlightened and like the Divine, then we must also love others no<\/span>\u2026..matter<\/span>\u2026.. what.<\/span><\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 We must strive to become people known by, and personified by, our total, complete and unconditional love.<\/p>\n Most of us have heard and know the story of the Prodigal Son – the parable used by Jesus to teach about unconditional or Divine love.\u00a0 In the story, the youngest son goes to his father and demands his inheritance right then – he wants it long before his father has died.\u00a0 Such an act would be humiliating to any parent – this boy cares more about money than his dad.\u00a0 But the father gives him the money anyway and the son lives true to his arrogant and impetuous attitudes.\u00a0 He departs the family home to live in Las Vegas!\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Not really.\u00a0 But he does go off to the big city and the money is soon wasted and spent on high living – on the so-called sins of sex, booze, drugs and rock and roll!\u00a0 And he predictably hits rock bottom – having to work and scavenge with pigs for his food \u2013 something no respectable Jew would ever do.\u00a0 Remembering that his dad was an easy mark the first time, the son rehearses a nice speech for his dad about repenting and asking for a job as a worker on the family farm.\u00a0 As the boy approaches the farm, the father sees him long before he is close.\u00a0 According to a tradition of the time, the father should have then smashed a clay pot at the boy\u2019s feet as a symbolic gesture to humiliate and forever reject him.\u00a0 The boy had dishonored his dad in the eyes of the community and then he had further brought dishonor by living as an immoral wastrel and fool.\u00a0 The audiences hearing Jesus teach this parable would have expected such an action by the dad.<\/p>\n Instead, the father confounds all normal expectations of justice and transactional love.\u00a0 He does not merely tolerate his son\u2019s return, he lavishly and joyously celebrates it!\u00a0 He is uninhibited in his happiness at the boy\u2019s return – he runs to the boy – something considered unseemly in that culture for men of his age to do.\u00a0 By running, he would have had to lift his robes – something also undignified and humiliating.\u00a0 He wraps the boy in a huge embrace, covers the boy\u2019s neck with kisses, puts an expensive robe on the boy\u2019s shoulders, gives him the family signet ring and orders that a fatted calf be roasted and a banquet be held to celebrate the boy\u2019s return.\u00a0 Such abundant and costly love was totally spontaneous, as the parable tells us.\u00a0 The father saw the boy a long way off and instantly runs to him – no thinking or planning involved.\u00a0 The boy had symbolically spit in his dad\u2019s face, humiliated the family name and then came crawling back \u2013 but he was extravagantly loved anyway.<\/p>\n Who among us has not hungered for such a loving response from a parent, spouse, lover, stranger or child – to have a person joyously, uncontrollably and excessively run to, hug and kiss us – especially after we have done something wrong or hurtful?\u00a0 Such forgiveness and such love is overwhelming and almost miraculous.<\/p>\n It is then and there, at the impact of his father\u2019s unbelievable love, that the boy changes – that his heart is transformed.\u00a0 In what would likely be a scene of crying and happiness all at once, the boy claims he is unworthy to be his father\u2019s son.\u00a0 Indeed, any person would be both challenged and changed by such love.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0What enemy, what bigot, what act of hatred and violence cannot be ultimately changed by love and forgiveness?\u00a0 As Jesus, Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. proved, the power of unconditional love is greater than any force on earth.<\/p>\n But soon the older son of the father shares the views of most religions and most people \u2013 that the father\u2019s lavish love is unjust.\u00a0 It is not fair that the father should show such love to a son who has been so bad.\u00a0 It is not fair that he, the oldest son, has not been similarly rewarded for all he has DONE morally and correctly to earn the love of the dad.\u00a0 The father reminds him that he has always had his love and that his actions have not impacted that love, just as the younger son\u2019s actions did not impact his love.\u00a0 The father loves his boys without any judgment. \u00a0\u00a0For his children, the father is the very embodiment of love.\u00a0 It is a part of his very being.<\/p>\n This is the breathtaking vision of love that Jesus and genuine Christianity offer us.\u00a0 When we consciously ponder such love and understand its implications, we are dumbfounded.\u00a0 We are like the oldest son in the parable \u2013 protesting that such love is not natural.\u00a0 Indeed, it is not.\u00a0 Such love is a miracle, it is super-<\/span><\/em><\/strong>natural, it defines the one GREAT force in our universe.\u00a0 It is the real message of Jesus and of this holiday, this Easter we celebrate.<\/p>\n For myself, I have hungered for so long to experience the kind of love the father shows in the parable of the Prodigal Son.\u00a0 I have yearned not just to have things DONE for me by my dad – acts by him which have always been generous and kind.\u00a0 I have hungered, instead, to be embraced and accepted and truly loved for the man who I am – not the man my dad wishes I could be.\u00a0 I cherish the one time my dad told me he loved me – when he put his hand on my shoulder and said so.\u00a0 That moment is seared in my memory.\u00a0 But, oh!!!!\u00a0 To be hugged and kissed and made to feel as if I am an honored, loved and respected man in his eyes – that is the stuff of my dreams.<\/p>\n And I have resolved to, as much as possible, be such love for my daughters.\u00a0 I have determined to never end a conversation or phone call with them, no matter how trivial, without saying \u201cI love you.\u201d\u00a0 I have determined, no matter how reluctant they might be if we are in public, to deeply hug them and kiss them.\u00a0 I am not a perfect dad and my actions are not perfect towards them.\u00a0 I have fallen short many times.\u00a0\u00a0 But my love for them is true and unconditional.\u00a0 They can never do anything that will destroy my love for them.\u00a0 I saw their little heads emerge into the world for the first time, I hugged and carried and cried and worried for them.\u00a0 I still do.\u00a0 I would die for them.\u00a0\u00a0 They are the solace I have for not having been courageous at an early age and come out as a gay man.\u00a0 Had I done so, I would likely not have them.\u00a0 They are my window into the supernatural world of total and unconditional love.\u00a0 With them, I understand it and am so very grateful to experience it.<\/p>\n But Jesus\u2019 teachings about unconditional love are not limited to parental love.\u00a0 He called us to BE such love for all people and all creatures.\u00a0 He called us to BE that love for our enemies, our partners and spouses, our friends, and our fellow humans who suffer and live at the margins of life.\u00a0 In his teachings, he called us to BE gentle, to BE forgiving, to BE kind, to BE compassionate, to incorporate into our very nature – into the definition of who we are as a people – a way of living that is like the Divine.\u00a0 Much like a flower cannot cease to be a flower, or God cannot cease to be God, a loving person cannot stop BEING love.\u00a0 He or she simply IS love.\u00a0 That kind of love is spontaneous.\u00a0 It is unthinking.\u00a0 It is free and lavish.\u00a0 It is blind to flaws, failures, and hurts.\u00a0 Imagine the kind of relationships we could have and the world we might create if every person loved in such a manner?<\/p>\n It is a standard Christian clich\u00e9 – one employed by Christian Pastors many times in their messages – to say that on the cross Jesus\u2019 arms were spread wide as a symbolic gesture of total love for humanity and the total love we must also have.\u00a0 But clich\u00e9 or not, it is an effective image.\u00a0 It is one much like the running embrace of the father to his prodigal boy – arms spread wide and open.\u00a0 On Easter, we are reminded of this spiritual truth from Christianity – that love should be pure and unlimited; that without thinking, we are called to continue becoming<\/span><\/em> people who love without condition.\u00a0 We are to go out into our families and neighborhoods and simply BE the face of the Divine – a force of super-natural, miraculous, and unconditional love for all – a power so great that it will change you……. and change the world.<\/p>\n I wish you all much peace, joy and love this Easter day.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Message 91, Finding Spiritual Truths from World Religions: Christian Unconditional Love, Easter Sunday, 4-8-12 \u00a9 Doug Slagle, Pastor at the Gathering UCC, All Rights Reserved Click here to listen to the Easter message or see below to read it. As millions of people the world over celebrate Easter today, most seem to forget that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1551\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}