Why Am I Doing that?!?

 

If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere.

 

Paul continues with the extreme examples of what our ego demands and decrees we do to be seen as amazing.  Yesterday, he said you could make a mountain jump, but without love, the action is empty.  You could walk on water, but if that is led/fed/fueled by a desire to be famous, then it is your ego that grows, not our capacity to love.  Today, he says, even if you give all your money away to the poor ~ which means you would be poor.  Even if you die, gulp ~ that got dark real quick ~, but if this is done for you to be revered, then we are stuck and stymied in the human realm.  We see all around us examples of Paul’s words.  We see billionaires wanting more money and giving away very little.  We see people hurting and harming others just for the sake of having the most clicks on social media, and our society is regressing.  We see a world where love can be curated with an AI-generated bot online, because human love is messy and hurtful and will ask our whole lives.  Today, where do you see human beings trying to feed their egos and not the common good?  Love is not sentimental or soft; love is more powerful than fame, fortune, and followers, but the gospel according to the World doesn’t preach that truth. 

 

Rewind and reflect on your past year. When did you do something out of love for another?  Maybe anonymously?   Maybe you opened your heart as wide as you could, prayed that would be enough, and by the grace of God, it was.  Not by my will, not by my planning, not because I had a fantastic strategic plan where my matrix was established and I hustled to get ahead.  In times of conflict, Paul is inviting us to be awake and aware of God’s movement in our lives.  We are invited to ask the hard and holy question: why am I doing what I am doing?  I pray that question stirs and swirls in your soul.  I pray you take that question with you today, let it interrupt you inconveniently, especially at a meeting or when responding to someone who pushes your buttons.  Let the question, why am I doing what I am doing, let that question interrupt you the way the Wise One’s question disrupted people thousands of years ago.   And may that question clear out the chaos and clutter of life for God to enter into that manger-shaped place you prepared and rediscovered at Christmas just a few weeks ago. Amen.