Sowing Love

John 21:15-19

Talking about love is kind of frustrating for me. As a word it is plagued with “semantic saturation.” It is used so often it can mean anything or nothing. It is how we describe the way we feel about our children. It is the profoundly complex and important committment, at the root of who God is to us.

It’s also the word we use to describe how we enjoy our favorite food.

One thing I personally hang on to is this idea that love is not a noun. It’s not a casual word (think of all of the dramatic television shows where so much drama surrounds whether or not a couple in the story says that they love one another for the first time). But when love is a verb and not a noun, we can re-encounter what it means for us to say it. We can reimagine the significance of love in our faith and in our relationships.

Love is a verb. And in the final moments Jesus spent with his disciples in the gospel of John, he made that clear to them. “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” And when Peter responded with “yes.” Jesus didn’t smile, or hug Peter, or nod. Jesus responded, “Feed my lambs.” “Tend my sheep.” “Feed my sheep.”

For Jesus, proof of the reality of love resulted in actions. Love is a verb!

What might the verbs for us be when we claim to be a people of love? If we say we love our neighbor, what verbs come next? Helping? Feeding? Sharing? Advocating? Supporting?

If we say we love God, what verbs come next? Singing? Praying? Studying scripture? Witnessing? Testifying? Prophecying?

Here’s what I know for certain: what we do and what we believe cannot be disconnected from each other. Who we are and what we do must be the same thing. When Jesus asks us if we love him, we have to have more to say for our love of Jesus than just “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.”

May the love we have for God come to life in the love we have for one another. May our love bear fruit and become self-evident in the verbs that result from that love.