Admitting Impediments

Throughout the first 7 months of COVID, Sir Patrick Stewart, the famed actor, shared personal readings of Shakespearean sonnets each day.  He started casually - sharing a single video in mid-March of 2020 reciting Sonnet 116, my personal favorite and apparently one he loves as well.  The response of those uplifted by watching it during the early days of quarantine and isolation prompted him to record another the following day, and continue with a sonnet a day until he'd read all 154 of them by October 2020.

Why does Sonnet 116 resonate with so many people?  Love is a universal topic, and we recognize in Shakespeare's words an ideal we both long for and aspire to.  It is, in truth, a description of what biblical love should be.  The type of love God gives freely but also demands we give others is exactly what this sonnet describes:

"Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds, or bends with the remover to remove."

It doesn't change based on the actions of the other, or put conditions on itself based on the love of the other.

"O no, it is an ever fixed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken."

It doesn't waver, even in the midst of difficulty or conflict. 

"It is the star to every wandering bark, whose worth's unknown although his height be taken."

It is steady, stable, so much so that it can be depended on as a guidepost for the lost, an invaluable beacon to return to.

"Love's not Time's fool; though rosy lips and cheeks within his bending sickle's compass come."

It isn't based on temporary or superficial qualities in the one being loved.

"Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, but bears it out even to the edge of doom."

It is committed to the long haul; it's not going anywhere, come what may.

Each of these statements about love from Sonnet 116 are reiterated time and again in the Bible.  There is no greater call on humanity from God than to love:

"If I speak in the languages of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship, but do not have love, I gain nothing.  Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails.  But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away." 1 Corinthians 13:1-8

It bears repeating - There is no greater call on humanity from God than to love.  For all the religious folks out in the world arguing theology, debating semantics, throwing scholarly articles at those they disagree with ... God says all that will cease, will be stilled, will pass away, and what will remain is the one thing that never fails - love.  Our every discussion, movement, and action must start and end with love or it is nothing.

I can't help but see how far off track Christians have gotten.  There are so many clanging cymbals and resounding gongs in the world right now.  So many trying to speak insight and wisdom but failing spectacularly because they haven't based any of it in love.  Sacrificing for ministries, giving time and energy, but not genuine biblical love.  How often have I heard a Christian claim harmful words as merely "tough love" ... yet that's not what we're called to.  Our love should be protecting, trusting, hoping - and that includes protecting our LGBTQ+ siblings, trusting our fellow humans of other races and backgrounds and cultures, hoping in the futures of those struggling with addiction, and so much more.

When I look at what we people of faith put out into the world as our example of love, I know we're falling short.  Luckily, God's love for us isn't the conditional kind ours so often is.  God's perfect love rises above our failings.  But how long will we receive this love while refusing it to those around us?  How long will we collectively continue to invest in prophecy and knowledge and ministry and work and even faith, without investing whole-heartedly in the only thing that matters?

Love may be the highest ideal people seek.  Our poets write of it, our musicians sing of it, our lives often revolve around the pursuit of it.  Let faith and sonnet-style love become so inextricably linked in our spiritual lives that they can't be separated.  Because of the two, God is clear: "The greatest of these is love". (1 Corinthians 13:13)