McLove

Yesterday, while meeting for our Sunday service, the day's topic was love. The general gist of the conversation was that we love because God first loved us. Our service is conversation versus lecture...something that is easier to do when about  15 people attend weekly. The funny thing is that the 15 people are rarely ever the same besides a few regulars and old-times like me who have been coming for about all of four months. Heck, I should have a name plaque on one of the chairs to honor my long-standing attendance like the pews in Colonial America. The pastor and his wife and kids are usually there, plus the lead musician Matt Wheeler. Otherwise, the deck is varied. If the service grows, it will be interesting to see the pattern/paradigm expand. Not sure what that looks like.

Ah, church planting. I know the Pastor Ryan has lingering doubts about starting a missional community. Sometimes these doubts are more than lingering. They are lashing. Veritas, the community of authentic worshipers, has been a encouragement to me. Even though I am old school Presbyterian and Reformed to the core (I am probably the most Conservative person I know, and that is saying something here in Lancaster County), I also have a Liberal streak in practice. Thus, I needed to get out of the Calvinist freezer and into the fire. Veritas has done that. Here is where my liberality comes from....we are all sinners, both Christians and not, and we cannot lose our common humanity. As the old saying states, "The ground is even at the Cross." We all need grace, to be forgiven. God is the Great Liberal. Bestowing favor upon the undeserving and ungrateful. Danger arises, and it is perilous,when we think we don't need to be forgiven for true wrong. Jesus took the nails for real sin, not your truth or my truth. Nonsense. That is where I depart from the current fashionistas in morality. Lest we Conservative get smug and complacent, we must always see righteousness as imparted and not self-generated. The penalty of the Law is death and only Christ has been declared innocent and is alive.  

God's love, a love that triumphs over hate. Tough and tender. It has me thinking "what" is love? As I pondered our modern understanding of love, the slogan from McDonald's "I am lovin' it" came to mind. How McDonald's was able to get this statement trademarked is beyond me. I know some trademark law and an entity is not supposed to be able to get a trademark on anything generic, a word or statement in common usage and lexicon without  a specific, precise, and unique application to the product or service. Something whiffs of french fry oiliness here. Some palms were greased.

What better way to demonstrate the deconstruction of the word love than to attach it to fast food, much of it quite poor for the body's health? I know McDonald's gets bashed a lot and even unfairly. It  is a well run company that does offer healthy options. But there is no hiding the facts that most of its food is processed simple carbs, fat, and sugared up. Diabetes in a box and cup. If this is worth lovin', you are loving in all the wrong places. McDonald's may sue me, which could really put bierkergaard on the map. My 15 minutes of fame, that then turns cold like one of those aforementioned fries, falling into the car seat of anonymity. 

We all come to the word love wanting to served in the Drive Thru of Life. "Love me" we bark into the order audio/microphone box. We gobble it up ravenously. But, was it love what we got or just some inordinate offering run amok? Love could more be, "You have had enough Happy Meals, go mourn for awhile."  "Or, how about McBrussel Sprouts? Pony up to the table, pretend that they are McNuggets, and use the dipping sauces?"

We all want to be fed, but are we willing to provide that radical love that Jesus served up on the Cross? Be willing to lay aside our appetites to give people not necessarily what they want but what they need? Compassion arising from crucifixion, self-denial, being misunderstood. From the ungrateful and ungodly, both within our fast food faith and outside the doors? Ponder these ingredients anew...


1 COR 13:4 eLove is patient and fkind; love gdoes not envy or boast; it his not arrogant 5 or rude. It idoes not insist on its own way; it jis not irritable or resentful;2 6 it kdoes not rejoice at wrongdoing, but lrejoices with the truth. 7 mLove bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, eendures all things.