By Revs. Don Dewey and Susan Gonzales Dewey, Co-Regional Ministers
In April 1965, two well-known songwriters released a song that soon became a hit titled: “What the World Needs Now." Reflecting on the state of our union these days and all the divisiveness going on in every sector of our society, the lyrics for this song seem especially poignant for us today. As we begin this month of February, the month where we celebrate love on Valentines Day, it seemed appropriate to share the words to this song:
What the world needs now is love, sweet love
It's the only thing that there's just too little of
What the world needs now is love, sweet love
No, not just for some but for everyone
Lord, we don't need another mountain
There are mountains and hillsides enough to climb
There are oceans and rivers enough to cross
Enough to last till the end of time
What the world needs now is love, sweet love
It's the only thing that there's just too little of
What the world needs now is love, sweet love
No, not just for some but for everyone
Lord, we don't need another meadow
There are cornfields and wheat fields enough to grow
There are sunbeams and moonbeams enough to shine
Oh listen, Lord, if you want to know
What the world needs now is love, sweet love
It's the only thing that there's just too little of
What the world needs now is love, sweet love
No, not just for some but for everyone
No, not just for some, oh, but just for everyone
I especially like that the song speaks of an inclusionary love, “No, not just for some but for everyone.” For me this resonates with what I believe was at the heart of the message of Jesus. Over and over again we read in our Gospels Jesus’ inclusionary love. Regardless of the political or religious barriers erected to keep some outside of God’s gracious unconditional love, Jesus shattered those barriers and welcomed those excluded, marginalized and despised into the circle of God’s love. No, Jesus’ love was not just for some but for everyone!
Today it seems there is a lot of hate and vitriol spewing out of both sides of the political and religious debate about what’s right and what’s wrong. Yes, we need to speak truth to power, yes we need to speak out against all forms of injustice and yes, we need to lift our voices on behalf of the voiceless but we need to do so with love that does not destroy or dehumanize the other no matter how much there actions or words are hurtful or harmful. Jesus’ love called us to love even our enemies.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whom we just honored and remembered once said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
As we continue making our way into 2018 it will be important for us as followers of Jesus to seek fervently to walk in his way. Remembering his command to love: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Of course we know, this is not the love that most will be thinking of on February 14th as we celebrate Valentines Day. It is probably not the love Hal David and Burt Bacharach had in mind in their song. Yet it is a love that includes everyone and one that calls us to be willing to challenge the forces that deny human dignity and basic human rights to any and all.
Again, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” I believe that the ultimate power in the universe is love and when we live into it faithfully as Jesus did, it is unstoppable. It is, as always, what the world needs now!
Together on the journey,
Don and Susan
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