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In touch

Up-to-the-minute jumping-off points for sermons, linking the reading to the latest news and global issues

Love? Yes, but how?

Love God and love your neighbour as yourself, simple words with huge implications (Matthew 22:34-46).

 

Context

• The conflict in Israel/Palestine continues with the focus on what military action Israel will decide upon and the fate of the hostages taken. The UN has called for a ceasefire but this has sparked arguments about the context of the violence.
• A new report outlines the increase in children living in poverty in the UK.
• The BBC published research this week into the expected environmental impact of the proposed increase in European football matches next year.

 

Ideas for sermons or interactive talks

‘Love your neighbour as yourself’. Watching reports from the Holy Land over the past weeks make us all wonder how peace might be achieved. The recent attacks by Hamas are fuelled by a sense of injustice at the way Palestinians have been treated in recent years. The Israeli military are looking to recover their hostages and take revenge for those attacks. Both sides feel justified in their use of violence, and neither side looks like backing down any time soon. We all might have one side or another in this conflict we sympathise with more readily but our call as Christians is clear. We are to love our neighbours – to care for them as we would ourselves. People are hurting – and hurting one another. How can we love them? How can we pray and act in a way that would bring peace to this awful situation?

With by-elections in the past week and a general election approaching sometime in the next year, politicians are trading statistics and intentions. The report on child poverty by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation suggests that, whatever the background reasons for the current cost-of-living crisis, more and more children are being impacted by it. There is a strong current of popular opinion, fed by politicians and sections of the media, which seeks to apportion blame on the families that are struggling. As we are refocussed by Jesus on the ‘most important commandment’, it is useful to think about how we are loving our neighbours right now. That includes the neighbours who live next door, and the neighbours living around the churches we worship in. How are we showing love to these people? What do they need us to do?

‘Is the football on again? What is it this time?’ My other half says this to me roughly twice a month as football matches spread out from weekends across multiple weekday evenings. UEFA are expanding the number of matches happening as part of their inter-league competitions (Champions League, Europa League, Europa Conference League) in order to increase revenues for themselves and the competing clubs. However, the BBC has joined the dots, calculating how many extra flights and supporter journeys this will mean (about 2 billion airmiles across the 2024/2025 season). The people suffering most from the effects of climate change are always the poorest – those dependent on weather for crops, those living in areas more vulnerable to flooding or drought. UEFA has a ‘Director of Social & Environmental Sustainability’ but perhaps we are naive to expect businesses to do anything except chase the bottom line. If loving God goes hand-in-hand with the injunction to ‘Love our neighbour as ourselves’, we need to think about how our actions affect those we do not see. If we are passive consumers of anything: football, television, coffee, etc. (the potential list is endless) then the businesses selling to us will continue to make their own decisions. Let us be active in the way we use our economic power and vocal in challenging the decisions taken by those seeking to increase their bottom line at the expense of others.

 

Questions for discussion

• In what ways do you think you are currently ‘loving your neighbour’?
• Who do you think of when you hear the word ‘neighbour’? Who else might it include?
• What is the link between loving God and showing love to other people?
• What impact does your life have on other people, both positive and negative?

Steve Taylor is joint-vicar of St James Alperton, near Wembley. He shares the job with his wife, Ali, and shares his house with their two children, two cats and numerous fish.

 

 

Check-in

Connecting faith with everyday, real-life issues for young people

There are many things that theologians and people can debate when it comes to certain topics in the Bible, but one topic there can be no debate about is God’s call for us to love others. The word itself appears roughly 310 times in the Bible (depending on the version you read). If we truly love God then it follows we must truly love others too.

Right now we are witnessing a world dominated by hate and anger. The conflict between Israel and Palestine is horrific, inhumane, and quite frankly, heartbreaking. Now more than ever we need to demonstrate our calling to love others. Easy to say, but what does that look like from the comfort of relative safety?

I think the Bible can help us. Out of those 310 mentions, 106 are referring to ‘agape’ love. This is the kind of love that revolves round action. It is a sacrificial love – oozing with kindness, compassion and empathy.

What does love in action look like for you? How can you demonstrate it? Through prayer? By donating to charities that are trying to provide emergency aid? By speaking out to demand justice and peace? Whatever action you choose one thing is very clear; what the world needs now is love.

Lindsay Wright is a freelance writer and designer based in Lancashire.

 

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