The god I love is Love

August 1st, 2006

The god I serve is Love. I may follow Jesus’ radical agenda for the well-being of humanity, but I do not serve Jesus as a god. I serve the god that Jesus served.

Jesus taught that all commandments are to be subordinated to this one:

Love one another!

It is my duty to my god to love radically and without exception. No amount of wealth or possessions or power will please my god. No excuses for violence and war will satisfy him. Poverty and starvation witness against humanity in his eyes. He waits for abundance, kindness, and peace on earth.

You’ll notice that I say “my” god, and not “God.” Heck, I don’t claim to know the one and only true Divine Being. That Being is too big for me to know, and I believe that he will always remain a mystery to us puny humans. I only claim to hear the voice of a god whose name is Love.

I think there are many gods, and we can guess which god a person follows by looking at the fruits of his or her actions. Does a person generate great wealth for himself? Perhaps he is following the god Mammon. Does a person sacrifice herself for others? Perhaps she is following the god Jesus. Of course, there are plenty of American Christians who will support the plunder of our earthly home and eagerly await its destruction who also claim to follow Jesus as a god. Go figure! I am often confused by the gods of other people.

I believe that many of the gods are good. I’m not against your god. I just love my god, and I sing to him, “Who is like you among the gods, oh Love?”

There is no real separation between religion, politics, society, economics, education, and all the other institutions of human life and culture. Although they are all cast as fragmented shards in the marketplace society, life is a whole, all of a piece. If I follow Love as my god, then I love in my politics and I love in my economics and in my sex life and in raising my kids. I do the dishes with love and I do my gorcery shopping with love.

I sure do love my god. His ways are ways of pleasantness and peace. They lead away from apocalypse and home to Eden. Love is a fine choice of god for a humanity on the edge of disaster. Why not choose Love?