A reflection for the Daily Lectionary Readings for May 19. Please see the Daily page for tools to help you make daily prayer and scripture a pat of your rhythm.
(Psalm 99; Numbers 16:41-50; 1 Peter 4:7-11)
In the portion of Peter’s first letter in today’s readings, we encounter a phase that in the church of my childhood was used to coerce people into ignoring sins by claiming that was ‘love’. You are most likely familiar with it: “love covers a multitude of sins”. And taken by itself, yes, I can see how it can be misunderstood. The sentence (remember that scripture didn’t have verse and chapter markings until the early 13th century and that most of the New Testament are letters written to a particular group of people about specific situations and that punctuation didn’t exist in Ancient Greek) in the NRSVUE translation says “Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8).
“Multitude” does mean a large number of something but mostly the greek word referred to people, the whole gathering or assembly of people. So if love covers the multitude of sins, Love doesn’t sweep sins under the rug but enables us as a whole group of people to learn and grow together so we do not repeatedly sin in the same ways.
Just before this Peter writes, “The end of all things is near; therefore be serious and discipline yourselves for the sake of your prayers” (1 Peter 4:7). The focus is on the collective behavior of the assembly. We are all to exercise self-control, curb our own passions, and think of ourselves modestly (yes, all of this in implied in the one Greek word the NRSVUE renders as ‘be serious and discipline yourselves) because this is how we live in Love.
When we chose to live Love we don’t seek to intentionally harm others and when we do – we are human after all and conflict and harm are inevitable even if we don’t do it intentionally – we take responsibility to set things right and to learn and grow so that we don’t make the same mistake again. To ignore harm is to ignore the dignity of both sides. The one who caused the harm isn’t given the opportunity to grow and the one who is harmed isn’t offered justice. The correction and restitution are done balancing both mercy and grace. The consequences do not outweigh the harm and the one harmed is cared for.
If I am learning to live love as Jesus did and you are learning the same, we will deal with our sins in a healthy and productive way that glorifies God and builds up the Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven.
Keep Lovin’ louder than the hate, Y’all!
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