I Kings 21: 1-10; Luke 7:47-50

Power and love

How do we get love? It is a question that maybe we do not consciously think about but one that drives us through most of our lives.  How do we get love?  We try to get love by looking good. We try to get love by being cute, we try to get love by acting funny, we try to get love by being nice or being helpful.  We try to get love by being helpless or by misbehaving.  We try to get love by getting power or being close to power. We try to get love by having stuff.  Ultimately we are all craving to be fully, unconditionally loved.  Our lectionary texts today are about love, but also to a certain degree about power.  In I King Ahab is the King of Israel.  Ahab is not a good man. He wants Naboth’s vineyard so he can have it as a vegetable garden. Naboth says no and Jezebel. Ahab’s wife, sees to it that Naboth is stoned so Ahab can have his vegetable garden.  What a price for a vegetable garden!  Jezebel loved Ahab in her own way, but perhaps it depended on how much power he he had.  In Luke a woman comes to Jesus and anoints His feet with her tears.  To the Pharisee this discredits Jesus: “A prophet would know that this woman was a sinner.”  But Jesus disagrees. This woman is more in need of love than anyone else.

We have all heard a lot about Muhamad Ali.  I didn’t know much about what he did outside of boxing other than that he was a conscientious objector.  But I am learning love and power have a lot to do with it. As a boy Muhamad Ali felt powerless.  Someone had stolen his bike and he wanted to learn to box as a result of it.  As his boxing improved he started to feel his power and he started talking big.  And as a result he got so much adulation and love, although he had his many detractors.  But what seems to be the case is that he found out about love and that love for others is more powerful than anything else. That is where he really made his mark: he moved from love of power to the power of love.

So what about power and love when it comes to God?  Well, when we are younger we struggle with how God’s power works.  Why do things happen the way they do?  Well, as I matured, I still think God has power and God is loving, but I think of God’s everyday power more as the power of love.  God’s power does not work coercively so much, it seems to me.

Friends, in I Kings Jezebel loves Ahab for the power he has as the King although she does not seem to respect him. He is just a petulant, spoiled boy.  Her love appears to be very much conditional.  In Luke we see the opposite, we see Jesus loving the person who is most down and out, someone who is wetting His feet with her tears.  The Pharisee expects Jesus to show love to the upstanding citizens, not to the “sinner.” But what happens is that Jesus makes a point:”the one who is most in need of forgiveness is loved the most.”  Or rather:”the one who is down and out the most needs the most love; the one who is the weakest should get the most love.”

Liberation theologians, especially in Latin America, have always said that God has a preference for the poor.  Some interpreted that to say: God does not really love the rich. These seem to be black and white statements that don’t quite sit right.  But this passage sheds some light on that.  Those who are down and out get a special kind of love.  This would go for us too:” when we are at our lowest God loves us the most.  When it feels the whole world is against and everything goes wrong, God loves us the most.”

So, friends, you and I go through life sometimes “looking for love in all the wrong places.”  We wish for status, for fame, for beauty, for glamor, for money, for admiration.  What we are really doing is trying to convince the people that matter to us that we are lovable, that we are a keeper.  But then when we get to where we want to go, we’re still not completely satisfied.  Even becoming President won’t be enough, because you have to be a President people like and you have to get a second term and then you have to have a good legacy.  It never ends.  There is always something we have to do to earn people’s love. But Jesus says:” I love you, I love you now and if you fall on hard times, I’ll love you even more.  And if you’re begging for forgiveness with tears streaming down your face, I’ll love you even more. There’s a great comfort in that.

Friends, may we learn from this. May we be aware of “the things we do for love.” May we also be aware of whom we give our love to?  For let’s face it, love just comes more easily with certain people. May we learn to care for those who do not seem lovable, for those who are down and out.  May God help us.