In July 2013 I had the privilege of preaching
the story of the Good Samaritan. A lot of our members had heard the story many
times before so I opted to focus on what it would really mean to ‘Love the Lord Jesus with ALL our heart, with ALL our soul, with ALL our strength, and with ALL our mind’
(paraphrasing the lawyer’s response to Jesus’ question in Luke 10:27 that
preludes the story). I then gave short spaces for everyone to think on each of
these separately.
That, together with a brief reflection on
what that would then mean in terms of loving our neighbour as the Good
Samaritan did, were the main themes of my prepared talk.
Then, I woke up with a strong sense of
wondering how I could go further in helping us all to think through what loving
God ‘with every fibre of our being’, to use a more modern phrase, might be
like.
In an unexpected moment, the idea formed to
invite the congregation to carve out an hour or at least half an hour to write a love letter to Jesus, then put
it somewhere where it would emerge in due course and remind us of our feelings,
which, hopefully, at least for some, might have a touch of that sheer
extravagance, unguardedness and ‘over-the-top-ness’ that people who are deeply
in love with each other write.
I wonder how many will.
Even thinking about how to start such a
letter is a challenge… I must start to write my own!
(Two days later) One of our fellowship has eMailed me to tell me he is going to write a poem to Jesus instead of a love letter. That feels good - he'll be 'singing a new song to the Lord' (Psalm 33 v 3: Ps 96 v1: Ps 98 v1:Ps 149 v1: Isaiah 42 v 10.) Set me thinking of which of my poems might qualify as a love song. One is Stars and Planets Sing your Glory. PS I have also met my own challenge with a prose love letter.
(Two days later) One of our fellowship has eMailed me to tell me he is going to write a poem to Jesus instead of a love letter. That feels good - he'll be 'singing a new song to the Lord' (Psalm 33 v 3: Ps 96 v1: Ps 98 v1:Ps 149 v1: Isaiah 42 v 10.) Set me thinking of which of my poems might qualify as a love song. One is Stars and Planets Sing your Glory. PS I have also met my own challenge with a prose love letter.
