Love?

Today I am writing about Love.

Or at least, I’m trying to write about Love.

Because the 4th Sunday of Advent is Love Sunday.

And I’m supposed to be writing the Candle Lighting reflection on Love.

But where is Love?

This week alone - 

14 Bombs were sent

11 Jews were shot dead in their Synagogue

2 Blacks were shot dead while grocery shopping

Sometimes it seems like all there is, is Hate.

I know different.

I know Love is real

I believe there are more loving people than hating people.

But Hate is loud and clamorous, red-faced with anger.

It grabs our attention with clashing cymbals and clanging gongs,

with screams and breaking glass

Hate excludes and rejects, pushing away anyone who is different

And Love sobs quietly in the corner,

weeping and grieving.

And then gets up, and goes out to where the pain is greatest.

Wordlessly embracing the bereaved, the injured, the forlorn.

Welcoming the outcast and the other,

encouraging the weak, seeking the lost.

Where is Love?

Love is where ever it is needed.

It is in Pittsburgh, PA and Jeffersontown, KY.

And Washington, DC and New York, NY.

In inner cities and suburbs 

in gated communities and homeless encampments

On mountain tops and valleys and shorelines,

in farmlands and deserts.

Where ever there are people.

Love is there.

To heal the hate, to soothe the anger.

Where ever caring happens.

Love is there.