For the Love of God

We were blessed today by Fr. Dunbar's sermon on love. Skillfully avoiding the issues of slavery in the second part of today's reading from Luke's Gospel, Fr. Dunbar helped us to focus on God's love. He raised the interesting take on how do we love God by quoting Andrew Lloyd Webber's song of Mary Magdalene "I Don't Know How to Love Him." I think Bobby's answer was to keep working at it even if you have to go through the motions, you will eventually get it. I think it was Kathleen Norris who referred to her experience with the monastic action of daily reading or chanting of the psalms as being difficult to get initially, but with practice becoming an integral part of her spiritual development. I think part of being human is this longing for the divine but our humanity keeps us from "getting it." I thought Fr. Dunbar did an excellent job keeping his sermon concise and focused. I would have liked a mention of prayer and meditation as a practice to experience God's love, but the comments from the congregation ("marvelous"... "great"... "wonderful"...) say that I shouldn't add to the finished work.