Love is a command (At this point we contrast).

I’m going to start with today’s lectionary, which is a complete contrast to the hateful events of this day.

1 John 4:7-21

⁷Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. ¹⁰In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. ¹²No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

¹³By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. ¹⁵God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. ¹⁶So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. ¹⁷Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. ¹⁸There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. ¹⁹We love because he first loved us. ²⁰Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. ²¹The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

Now, there is some data coming through about the Boston bombing, It may be a Saudi (one report in drudge, not confirmed yet) but it will take some time to sort that out. regardless, hate happens. The comment below is a lot smaller, but indicates another evil, and another consequence of institutionalized hate.

Let me explain what USUALLY happens.

The female will attack, using her hands or whatever, and will generally sprain her wrist or hurt her hand striking you. She will immediately shift to weapons, generally larger than she can handle safely, often hurting herself worse in the process.
You will step outside and calmly phone the police, they will arrive.
The cops will ignore you, and then put you in handcuffs the moment your wife explains how you ‘hurt her wrist’, going so far as to ignore any visible bruises or bleeding wounds you may possess.
When you arrive at the police station, they will keep you overnight, and then book you in the morning, explaining that that bleeding rent in your forehead was received while you were resisting arrest.
You will go to jail until your lawyer can get you out or you can post bail.
When you return to your house, you will discover you are suddenly in violation of a restraining order you didn’t know existed.
Meanwhile, your wuvvy duvvy has sold everything you own to a pawn shop, and cleaned out your bank account.
after a night or two sleeping in the back seat of your car, you get fired for being a wife-beater and sex offender. If you are lucky, you own your car, and will not lose it until the police come and politely explain that it’s your wife’s property now, usually while you are on the ground getting jolted repeatedly by a sadistic bastard with a taser.
back to jail, no bond, for violating a restraining order, harassment, assault, and resisting arrest (apparently twitching while you are being shocked is ‘resisting arrest’ in this country.)
You go to court, and your wife never shows up. you wind up spending two months in jail for contempt of court and resisting arrest, and your lawyer presents you with a bill for pleading guilty on your behalf (without informing or asking you) that you can never hope to repay, having lost your job.
Your wife shows up, having wasted all the money, and begs you to come back and take care of her. If you say no, she takes all the rest of your money, saddles you with lifetime debt and child support, and gets your drivers license and passport taken away. If you say yes, you are together for 3 months, have one unsatisfying grudge fuck, and then she hurts herself trying to throw your computer at you because you were too busy working at your new, lower-paying, shitty long hours job to do the dishes while she’s out bowling with her angry lesbian divorcee support group. Wash, rinse repea

There is very little we can do, today, to prevent terrorism or the destructive tactics used in modern divorce. We can pray for the victims. We can advocate for better laws (which probably means less laws). But I can do nothing to help the people in Boston today but pray: I’m 16 000 km away.

But we can love each other. we do not have return hate with hate. We can model another way of living within the church. And if we do this, we cut the ground from under the feet of the haters. If we do not, we lose all our power and authority.

So today, in the horror of these events, and dealing with the pain we are left with in this age of feminism, we have to have the courage to love. Not because it is safe, for it is not. But because that is what we are commanded to do.