Sometimes disparate elements come together to form a whole! At Marianne Borg’s recent Second Saturday gathering, there was a discussion that God’s love for us is unconditional, not transactional. That is, God loves us without expecting anything in return, and we should carry the same love into the world. The next day, Rev. Marlayna talked of finding new ways of displaying God’s love out in the community as well as within the church walls.

The Bible records many examples of God’s people trying to gain God’s favor by gifts, even bribes, from burnt offerings to slavish devotion to the Law and the Prophets, and sometimes even violence, in efforts to gain God’s favor. Jesus urged his followers to move away from this transactional model to one of love for everyone in imitation of God’s unconditional love. At the end of the Gospel of John, he makes clear to Peter that the way to show love for Jesus is to “Feed my sheep,” Today, most of us reject the image of God as an old man with a white beard up in the sky, but we sometimes revert to old transactional ways of praying and acting in time of distress: “I’ll do this, God, if only You will grant me what I want.” Even our prayers of thanksgiving sometimes verge on the transactional: “God granted our prayers because we prayed so hard.”

Don’t get me wrong: I believe prayer works. However, I think it’s our unified efforts and energy, combined with trust in God’s care that make the difference in this world. Perhaps our prayer should be: “God, support our united efforts to make positive differences in this world and in people’s lives.” Can you think of ways we as a congregation can model God’s unconditional love?

Lyn Pickhover, Pray-er