Saturday, December 12, 2015

1 John 4: 7-12

As a child (though my feet and hands weren’t always coordinated) I loved attempting the challenging clapping-while-skipping steps that accompanied the school yard song “Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy.” According to the Urban Dictionary, among the 20 words related to this nonsensical rhyme are these: “Simple”. “Cinchy”. “Straightforward”. “Bob’s yer uncle”. Bob’s yer uncle? Yes, well, the rhyme and related words seem to suggest that the task being attempted is not only uncomplicated but also do-able.

It’s believed that St. John’s first letter, penned between 95 and 110 AD to Christians living in Ephesus, was a response to “docetism”, a teaching which maintained that Jesus did not come “in the flesh” but was only a spirit. The major themes of the letter are love and friendship with the Divine, both of which call believers into relationship with God expressed in community. Easy peasy, right?

While John’s logic may be straightforward, the living out of love is seldom cinchy or simple. Love is sometimes complicated – messy even, but what makes it do-able is the relationship we encounter in Christ. Our love is in response to the love shown us by the very One who did come “in the flesh”, sharing our human nature, living, loving, and dying as one of us, reconciling us to God – and to one another.

By the way, the phrase "Bob's your uncle" can be used interchangeably with "easy when you know how”. We’ve been shown how, by Jesus, who came to love the world back into wholeness.

Frances Drolet-Smith