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Author: Linda Kowatch
This past summer a couple of small groups read the book Love Is the Way: Holding on to Hope in Troubling Times by Bishop Michael Curry, presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. The book is filled with love. Bishop Curry is skilled in sharing stories of his journey and the love that was modelled for him throughout his life. And through each of those stories, there was love. Love in good times, love in hard times. Love your enemy, love your friends. Love in everyday life, love in politics. Love as the question, love as the answer. Love in disappointment, love in rejoicing.
As I read this book, I realized that Bishop Curry was teaching us again the same message that Jesus taught: Love is the way. Whether it be through the stories of oppression of his enslaved ancestors, or when he was called to be a protector of water at Standing Rock or when he realized he was wrong in his way of living out the gospel message or when he stood in the gap for his LGBTQ+ siblings at the gathering of bishops of the Episcopal church or … the list goes one … but the message was always clear: Love.
This love Bishop Curry writes about is that same love that Jesus taught when he was asked by the religious leaders, “What is the greatest commandment?” Jesus replied, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Love, true agape love is what Jesus taught and Bishop Curry reinforces. It is a love that looks outward. It is a love that impacts every area of our lives. It is a love that looks for the well-being of all people, including ourselves. Love is the way. Can love really make a difference in the world? Bishop Curry explains it this way when asked this question by a journalist, “Sounds nice, but isn’t a world built on love utopian, maybe even a little Pollyannaish?” Bishop Curry said, “Ok, let me do a Dr. Phil on you. How is the way of the world working for you right now? Who’s the Pollyanna here?”
Maybe Bishop Curry is right. Maybe he understands the gospel message that Jesus taught and lived. Is it possible that when God created us, God was providing for us the way to live. Love is the way.
Gracious and Loving God, thank you for loving us. Thank you for sending Jesus to teach and model for us the way of love. Thank you that Bishop Curry has provided a modern-day epistle that Love is the Way. May we go out and have love as our guiding value and principal so that all your children know that love. Amen.
