When Paul writes about love in 1 Corinthians 13 (from Sunday’s Lectionary), he is writing for the Christian community. But it is clear to me from elsewhere in the Bible (for instance the hard-won openness of the Christian community, and some of the writings of John about Jesus) that love is a much wider principle and central to the nature of God. But that is not the way the world works just now: it seems to me that we live in a time when hatred has proved advantageous to the careers of many people, especially the hatred of foreigners – no doubt it was ever thus.
Can love be tough enough to withstand the power of hatred – on social media, in political discourse, in pubs, on the roads? Can love reach further than family (where it may sometimes be no more than a word to mask abuse)? Can real love apply to the big world? Can the children of love – like passion for justice, and prayer – have an impact?
Maybe love can influence those tiny molecules of power given to us ordinary people; our purchasing decisions…. or our parts in every conversation in person or online.
It could be time to enter the culture war on the side of love (for everyone BTW).
It’s concerning to hear reports of antisemitic hate crimes at any time, but more so on Holocaust Memorial Day, a sombre reminder of what this can lead to.