Hello,
My friends.
This is Mark Gladman,
Also known as Brother Frederick James,
Your friendly neighborhood monk in dogs.
Welcome to day four.
Of how deep is your love,
As we contemplate the theme of love in the letter of 1 John.
As we begin today,
As always,
I invite you to find a comfortable place to sit.
Allow yourself to become present to the moment.
Notice your breathing and just receive each breath as a gift.
Perhaps as you breathe in,
Just pray,
Here I am.
And as you breathe out,
Pray,
Here you are.
Here I am.
Here you are.
So over these last few days,
John has been widening our vision.
We've seen that God is the source of life.
We've discovered that love is light.
And the way that we come to see reality more clearly.
And yesterday we reflected on how love becomes the evidence that we're participating in the life of God.
So today,
John asks us to consider something that every human being eventually faces.
What actually lasts.
And so listen to these words from 1 John chapter 2,
Verses 12 to 17.
I am writing to you,
Little children,
Because your sins are forgiven on account of God's name.
I am writing to you,
Fathers,
Because you know God who is from the beginning.
I am writing to you young people because you have conquered the evil ones.
I write to you children because you know the father.
I write to you fathers because you know God.
Who is from the beginning.
I write to you young people because you are strong.
The Word of God abides in you and you have overcome the evil one.
Do not love the world or the things in the world.
The love of God is not in those who love the world.
For all that is in the world.
The desire of the flesh,
The desire of the eyes,
The pride and riches.
Comes not from God,
But from the world.
And the world and its desire are passing away,
But those who do the will of God live forever.
Now at first these words can sound confusing.
John says things like.
.
.
Don't love the world.
But doesn't the Bible tell us that God so loved the world?
Surely John's not contradicting the Gospels.
Well,
The key is understanding what John means by the world.
He isn't talking about rivers and forests and sunsets and oceans,
He's speaking about a way of living.
A way of seeing.
A system that's built on fear,
Comparison,
Competition and the endless need to possess.
The world that's organized around the ego rather than one that's organized around love.
And John says something astonishing.
He says,
That world.
Is passing away.
Think about that.
For a moment.
Everything built upon fear eventually collapses.
Everything that's built upon greed eventually disappoints.
Everything that's built upon status.
Will eventually fade,
Everything built upon the need to be admired.
Eventually leaves us empty and look deep down I think we know this.
How many things have we longed for?
Convinced ourselves that if only I had that,
I'd finally be content,
You know,
The new job,
The house,
The recognition.
The success,
The approval,
A different season of life,
And maybe for a while we feel satisfied,
Until another desire quietly appears.
The human heart is truly remarkable at convincing itself that fulfillment is always just one more achievement away.
But John wants to interrupt that illusion and he says,
This is passing away.
And it's not because those things are wrong or evil,
But because they really can't carry the weight of our deepest longing.
You know the old story of trying to build a house on sand?
The house looks impressive,
Might even stand a while,
But eventually the shifting ground gives way.
But love?
Is bedrock.
Love is what remains when everything else is stripped away.
And that's why Paul writes in another letter that faith,
Hope and love remain,
But the greatest of these.
.
.
Is love.
So far from being just another virtue among many,
Love is the very life of God.
And because God's life is eternal,
Love is eternal too.
And one of the beautiful things about growing older.
Is that many of the illusions begin to lose their grip.
Things that once seemed so important gradually become less urgent.
We realize that the moments we treasure aren't really the big flashy impressive ones.
They're the conversation,
They're the shared meal,
They're the laughter.
They're the holding.
The hand in the hospital room,
Sitting quietly beside a friend,
Watching the morning light spill across the kitchen table.
Love quietly reveals what really has always mattered.
And maybe this is why Jesus talked about treasure all the time.
Because Jesus knew and wanted us to know.
That whatever we treasure will begin to shape our hearts.
And if we treasure what can't last.
.
.
Our heart to become anxious.
Always protecting and accumulating and fearing loss,
But if our treasure He's love.
And our hearts begin to rest.
Because love can't.
Be taken away.
And once again,
The mystics of old understood this deeply.
They spoke about detachment,
Which can sound like a cold word.
As though we need to stop caring about people or positions,
But that's not what it meant.
Detachment.
It doesn't speak of loving something less.
It's about loving more freely.
Because detachment means enjoying the gifts of life without asking them to become God.
We receive them with gratitude,
Hold them.
With open hands.
So we can allow them to come but we can also allow them to go.
Because underneath every gift is the giver.
And underneath every beautiful experience is the love.
From which it came,
And that changes how we live profoundly.
Because we don't walk around clinging to everything so tightly,
We become grateful instead of possessive.
Don't get distracted as much.
We're present more.
We're generous rather than being fearful and we start to notice that life itself is always arriving as a gift.
And then John finished by saying,
Those who do the will of God live forever.
What is the will of God?
Jesus answered that question repeatedly.
And what did he say?
Love God.
Love your neighbour.
Love one another.
From Might and My Love.
Maybe gods will for us then.
Isn't a list of tasks,
But rather an invitation to participate in the eternal flow of divine love.
Because whenever we love,
We're already touching eternity.
Every act of compassion,
Every forgiveness offered,
Every kindness given,
Every moment of genuine presence And these aren't small things,
They're glimpses of God's kingdom.
They're the moments that participate.
In what never passes away.
And so today John invites us to ask ourselves the question,
What am I building my life on?
The shifting sands of fear,
Or the solid ground of love.
And so now once again,
Just allow yourself to be still.
And let this teaching today sink deep.
Imagine yourself standing on a beach,
The tide slowly coming in,
Each wave washes away footprints in the sand.
Everything temporary slowly disappears.
And now imagine stepping from the sand onto solid rock.
Feel its strength beneath your feet.
Its steadiness,
Its permanence.
And gently pray as you breathe,
Teach me to build my life on love.
Teach me to build my life on love.
And then ask yourself.
What am I clinging to that today I might place into God's hands?
Just rest with the question.
The answer will come.
When it's ready.
And so we pray.
God of eternal love,
Thank you for every good gift that you have placed in our lives.
Teach us to receive them with gratitude without making them the foundation of our lives.
When we're tempted to build upon success,
Approval,
Possessions or fear.
Draw us back to what endures.
That hope has become people.
Who live lightly.
Who love deeply and who trust completely.
May our lives be rooted in the love that never fades,
The life that never ends and the presence that never leaves us.
May we discover that in the end,
Love is the only thing we ever truly keep.
And may grace,
Peace and love go with us and remain with us today and always.
Amen.
Until tomorrow,
My friend.
Peace be with you.
