The Limits of Love

Emmanuel Anglican –

A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children. – Jeremiah 31:15

Those words were written by the prophet Jeremiah to describe terrors unleashed on Israel. Those words were used by the Gospel-writer Matthew when he sought to describe the senseless slaughter of young Jewish boys. Those words are used this week to describe another–when will there be no "another!"–slaughter of young children, our children. They are our children for we reside in the same country. They are our children for they, like us, are human. And like Rachel, we also should weep for, we are a people who weep with those who weep.

Already the machine has been turned on once again. The machine of which I speak is the back-and-forth of our media and politicians. We all know this drill: one side shouts for gun reform and the other retorts with 2nd amendment rights. Yet we must reckon with two very clear realities: there is much evil within the human heart; there is much evil in our country. For I know of no other way to describe scenes like these, scenes where in the place of learning and that of young children, death is dealt at 30 rounds per minute.

I am not sure where to go from here. To offer platitudes is not helpful–it is in all likelihood more harmful–and it accomplishes nothing. To do nothing, to fail "to act in the midst of injustice", as Jemar Tisby says, "is itself an injustice." And the Church has long failed to act in a host of areas where she should have been the hands and feet of Jesus to the weary, the poor, the victim. Perhaps Christians need to reckon with the reality that love limits. It limits preference for ourselves at the expense of others. Love does not insist on its own way. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. It even endures what you might give up for the sake of another.

Grace & Peace,

– Matthew+