Read: John 3:1-17

Jesus, speaking to Nicodemus in John 3:10 asks, “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things?” As a lifelong educator, I can relate to Nicodemus’ quandary. So many times, while teaching something I thought I understood thoroughly, I would gain insight from a student’s question or a student’s need to have something explained in another way. So, it seems to me, must be our experience of agape. Our understanding is continually evolving through study and our experience with others.

C.S. Lewis, in his treatise “The Four Loves,” identified unconditional love as agape, a selfless love either between human beings or between humans and God. He states, “To love at all is to be vulnerable.” Writing in Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer, he tells us, “We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere incognito.” And finally, in Mere Christianity, Lewis advises, “Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him.”

In community, we have many opportunities to practice and try out agape. We worship together, sing together, share our stories, pray for one another, and reach out with food for the sick. We study together, welcome newcomers, and visit shut-ins. We act out our mission statement, “We believe that God is healing and restoring the world, and that we are recipients of and participants in that healing and restoration.” The key is that we do these things together – in community.

Hymn 577 provides a lovely summary -“God is Love and Where True Love is, God Himself is there.” (Click here for it.)

God, we thank you for loving us and for helping us love you and one another. We thank you for a supportive community in which to grow and practice agape. Amen.
-Cathey Frederick