Great Gifts, Great Responsibilities

Great Gifts, Great Responsibilities

John 15:26-27[1]

I’ve mentioned before that I have a reason for the things I say every week in worship. I’m sure most of you are aware that I begin every sermon with the prayer, “Holy Spirit, breath of the living God, renew us all, along with your whole creation.” What you may not know is the reason why I do that. There are a couple of them. First, that kind of prayer is called a “bidding prayer.” I’m asking God to be among us, to help me speak words that will be helpful to you, and to use those words to inspire us all to find new ways of following Christ in our daily lives. I recognize that I’m just a man, and that the only way anything I say can make a difference in your life is for God to use my words by his Spirit working in your heart.

That’s the practical reason. As you may suspect, there is also a theological reason for my prayer. You may have noticed that I frame every sermon with a reference to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I open my sermon with a prayer asking the Spirit to continue to carry out his work of renewing all things among us. I humbly conclude my sermons “in the name of Jesus the Christ our Savior and Lord.” Again, that’s a kind of prayer, that the risen Christ who lives among us would take my fallible words and use them to speak his word to you all. Finally, I conclude my sermon with a prayer asking God the Father to continue bringing his kingdom of peace, justice, and freedom in our lives and through us into the lives of others.

On this Pentecost Sunday, I want to focus on the part about the Holy Spirit. We celebrate Pentecost to remember that, just as the Spirit of God breathed life into God’s human creatures in the beginning, it was on the day of Pentecost that the Spirit of God breathed life into the early church, enabling them to do amazing things, and to bear witness to all that Jesus had done for them and meant to them. It was an amazing transformation, because before that day, we find the first Christians typically gathered behind locked doors out of fear of being caught and arrested. But when the Spirit came upon them, they seemed to lose their fear and became bold witnesses to Jesus Christ.

This is precisely what Jesus says the Spirit would do for the disciples according to John’s Gospel. In our lesson for today, Jesus promises that the Spirit would bear witness to him, and that would enable them to bear witness as well. Our lesson from the Good News Translation puts it this way: “The Helper will come—the Spirit, who reveals the truth about God and who comes from the Father. I will send him to you from the Father, and he will speak about me. And you, too, will speak about me” (Jn. 15:26-27). The Spirit comes to enable Jesus’ disciples to carry on the work the Father had sent him to do.

That follows a pattern in John’s Gospel. Jesus said that he was only doing and saying what God had sent him to do and say. In that same way, Jesus sent the Spirit “from the Father” to his disciples to help them  understand of all that Jesus had done and taught. And the Spirit would in turn send them to continue the work Jesus began. That’s the pattern: Jesus did the work God sent him to do, and they were sent to do the same work (Jn. 14:12). Just as Jesus taught what God had given him to teach, so the Spirit would continue to teach them. And in turn they would teach others (Jn. 16:13). And the whole point is to continue the work of sharing the good news of God’s love for all people in Jesus Christ.[2]

In some ways, this is about our task. We’re called to follow Jesus, and following Jesus means being sent into the world to share God’s love. But in some ways, it’s about who God is. The fact that God sent his son Jesus Christ into the world as a demonstration of his love for us makes it clear that God’s very being from all eternity was one of love reaching out.[3] We see it in creation. We see it in God’s dealings with Abraham and his family. We see it in the life of Jesus. And we see that same essential love in the sending of the Spirit to us. The Spirit not only teaches us, but also enables us to continue the work of sharing God’s love.[4]

As I’ve mentioned before, President John F. Kennedy was known for something he said right before he officially took office: “For of those to whom much is given, much is required.”[5] Of course the original form of this was spoken by Jesus: “From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required” (Lk. 12:48). It’s a statement that Jesus made about the importance of faithfully carrying out our calling. I like the way the Contemporary English Version puts it: “If God has been generous with you, he will expect you to serve him well. But if he has been more than generous, he will expect you to serve him even better.” I like The Message translation even more: “Great gifts mean great responsibilities; greater gifts, greater responsibilities!”

We live in a time when there is so much talk about privilege and rights. Many of us think primarily about what is “due” to us by right, and we set about seeking to claim that. But Jesus was one who set aside his privileges and rights to serve others. Just as he was sent to carry out God’s work in this world, so also all of us have been sent. More than that we’ve been given great gifts. And the greatest gift is the Spirit, who leads us and empowers us to use our gifts in the service of others.

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[1] © 2024 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm, PhD on 5/19/2024 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, 1.1, 455: “The Holy Spirit is the authorization [sic] to speak about Christ; He is the equipment of the prophet and apostle; He is the summons to the Church to minister the Word.”

[3] Jürgen Moltmann, The Church in the Power of the Spirit, 56 “A Christian doctrine of the Trinity which is bound to the history of Christ and the history of the Spirit must conceive the Trinity as the Trinity of the sending and seeking love of God which is open from its very origin. The triune God is the God who is open to man, open to the world and open to time.”

[4] Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out: Three Movements in the Spiritual Life, 125: “In Jesus Christ, God has entered our lives in the most intimate way, so that we could enter into his life through the Spirit. … By giving us his Spirit, his breath, he became closer to us than we are to ourselves. … Praying in the Spirit of Jesus Christ, therefore, means participating in the intimate life of God himself. … We receive a new breath, a new freedom, a new life. This new life is the divine life of God himself.”

[5] John F. Kennedy, “Address to a Joint Convention of the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,” January 9, 1961. Accessed at https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-speeches/massachusetts-general-court-19610109 .

Real People

 Real People

1 John 5:6-13[1]

We live in a world where it’s getting increasingly more difficult to live as “real” people. By that, I mean taking the risk of being vulnerable enough to show others your true self. Hopefully we all have family and friends with whom we can share who we really are and do so with the confidence that they will love and support us. The sad truth is that’s not the case for everyone. But outside that circle of family and friends, most of us keep our “guard” up. We don’t really show most people our true selves. Instead, we hide behind the “appearance” that our lives are all “put together” and everything is “just fine.” But when we do so, we also make it more difficult to build relationships. And it’s through relationships that we share the “hope that is within us.”

Of course, there’s wisdom in not telling everything about yourself to everyone you meet. And when you run into a stranger in public and they ask “How are you?” it’s perfectly acceptable to answer “Just fine, thank you.” But the problem is that we get used to hiding behind the effort to keep up appearances that everything is “just fine.” So when we have an opportunity to share who we truly are or what we’re really dealing with in life, even with a trusted family member or friend, we may instead stay hidden behind that wall. And when we do so, we miss out on the opportunity to give them a chance to show just how much they truly do love and support us, just as we are, no matter what we may be dealing with in life.

At the same time, that’s a problem for us as followers of Jesus Christ. The only way we can share our faith with others is by taking the risk of being vulnerable enough to reveal who we really are and what we’re actually dealing with in life. Of course, part of the problem is that many of the people we meet are doing the same thing as we are. They’re hiding behind their own efforts to “keep up appearances.” And when we take the risk of sharing who we really are with them, it may make them feel awkward. We live in a world where it’s difficult to live as “real” people. But if we’re going to live as witnesses to the new life in Christ, we’re going to have to find a way to take that risk.

I think our lesson from 1 John addresses this issue. As I mentioned last week, the community of believers to whom the Elder John was writing was going through something very much like a “church split.” The point of disagreement was over how to understand the idea that Jesus was both fully God and fully human. Some insisted that he was so fully God that he couldn’t possibly “die” on the cross. After all, how can God “die”? But the author of 1 John knew that affirming Jesus’ very real death as a part of his full humanity was essential to the good news. So he insisted that part of the testimony to Jesus as the Son of God was his very real death on the cross.

In our lesson for today, the Elder says that “those who believe in the Son of God have this testimony in their own heart” (1 Jn. 5:10, NLT). There’s some debate about what it means to have the “testimony” to Jesus “in your heart”, but I think it means that when someone’s faith in Jesus is real you can see the new life that is in them. It’s obvious by who they are and how they live.  You can’t miss it. They “have the witness in their own hearts.” The most effective way we as believers in Jesus have of drawing others to faith in him is demonstrating this “witness” we have by living as “real people.” We have to show others who we truly are.

Some of us may be feeling like that’s just not something we can do, and certainly not on our own. We may think we’re not worthy, or we’re not capable, or perhaps we’re just not comfortable putting ourselves out there as witnesses to faith in Jesus Christ. I understand and resonate with that feeling. Bearing witness to faith in Jesus Christ is a big task, and it’s one that none of us can do on our own. But it’s not meant to be a “do-it-yourself” project. We can only bear witness to our faith as Jesus Christ himself enables us to do so through the power of the Holy Spirit. We’re called to share our faith by sharing our lives with others. If our sharing actually leads them to faith, that “miracle” happens because of what Jesus Christ is doing through us by the power of the Spirit.[2] It’s not something we can do on our own. For me, that’s a relief, because it means I don’t have to do on my own.

Of course, the hard truth is that it’s difficult for all of us to be truly genuine all the time. Many are afraid to let others see too much of themselves. Being “real” people can mean letting others in on our flaws and weaknesses and failures. Truth be told, most of us have some sort of dirty laundry, and we’re not eager to let everyone see it. Of course there’s room for some discretion here. We don’t have to share everything we’ve ever done that we regret in order to be basically genuine people. We don’t have to put every mistake we’ve ever made on public display to bear witness to the new life we have through our faith in Jesus Christ. Even though we’re all flawed and fallible people, we can still be “real.”

Part of the power of the “Twelve-Step” movement is that it creates an environment of confidentiality that makes it a place where people feel more comfortable letting others see who they really are. One of the sayings in Twelve-step meetings is “Who you see here, what is said here, when you leave here, let it stay here.” That promise of “safety” makes it possible for participants to share their “experience, strength, and hope” by taking the risk of being vulnerable enough to show others their true self.

I think the challenge for us as believers in Jesus is to do the same thing. Sharing our faith is not something that comes easily. But it’s something we’re called to do. And we can share our faith, even when we feel inadequate or unworthy. We do so by taking the risk of being “real” people. I think the most effective way to draw others to faith in Jesus Christ is to be people of whom Jesus can say, “my life is on display in them” (Jn 17:10, The Message). That means showing the new life we have through faith in Jesus by living as “real” people. We do that by sharing our lives with others. That’s all we’re called to do: to share our lives with others. And we leave the results to Jesus Christ, who is the Savior of us all!

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[1] © 2024 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 5/12/2024 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Cf. Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, 4.3.2: 609: “The Christian is called to be the accompanying and confirming sign of the living Word of God. It thus follows that he must indicate and attest this Word in the act of his whole existence. … And if the Christian has the power to make perceptible the self-witness of Christ as its echo in the world, this power is Christ’s and not his human power. To the Christian and his fellow-men it is always a miracle when his witness has this power.”

Complete Victory

Complete Victory

1 John 5:1-6[1]

When I was growing up, the only games we had to play were the ones where there were winners and losers. The whole reason why you played the game was to win! Of course, what happens when you approach a game from that point of view is that it’s easy to lose sight of the simple pleasure of playing the game. In more recent times, we’ve seen the rise of “cooperative” games. In those games, the “opponent” is a situation or adversary that is literally “in the cards.” All the players cooperate, because they only win together or lose together. Either they win or the game wins. Some might ask “what’s the point?” The answer is the fun you have working together to “beat” the game!

When it comes to Christians talking about the “victory” they experience through their faith in Jesus Christ, I’m afraid it can sound like “winners” and “losers.” When we claim to be the “winners,” it follows then that those who are not among “us” are the “losers.” And, in fact, there is a whole strain of Christian history and theology that very much sounds like the “good news” is that “we’re in” and “you’re out.” It’s called Christian triumphalism. You can hear it in some hymns written around the turn of the 20^th century. That’s one reason why I never choose them for worship. There’s just something about singing a hymn that sounds like singing “we’re number one” that, at least in my opinion, just doesn’t fit in the worship of Jesus Christ.

I think anyone might be excused for adopting that way of thinking based on our lesson from 1 John for today. It promises that “we win the victory over the world by means of our faith” (1 Jn 5:4, NLT). And it insists that “Only the person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God” can “defeat the world” (1 Jn 5:5). Here, the “world” refers to those who reject Jesus Christ as the Son of God. In that context, it was talking about some who had been part of the Christian community, but who had broken away over disagreements about how to understand Jesus as both fully human and fully divine. It wouldn’t be the last time the church would divide over a point of theology, and inevitably both sides paint the other one as in the wrong and even as enemies to the cause of Christ. That’s what we see unfortunately in 1 John. The animosity between the two groups was so intense that he could call the “others” “antichrists”(1 Jn 2:22)! That’s pretty strong language!

We can’t fully step back into that setting and understand what it was that motivated 1 John to use such harsh language. But I have a hard time seeing it as an expression of the enduring Word of God. I would say that it reflected much more a very specific situation in that day and time. Elsewhere in the NT, that kind of animosity between groups of Christians is not only discouraged, it’s positively rebuked! Even in other NT writings attributed to John, the “world” isn’t always the “enemy.” Remember, John 3:16 tells us that God sent his son precisely because he loved the “world”! This points us in a different direction in our attitude toward those who are “other.”

As I mentioned, the problem I have with the mindset about the “victory” of Christian faith that leaves out the people who have not (yet) come to faith is that it can lead us to look down on them as “less than.” I don’t believe that God is in the business of some grand “Zero-sum game,” especially one in which there are only a “chosen few” who “win” and the vast majority of the “others” “lose.” It was God’s love for the whole world of humanity that led to Jesus’ victory over sin and death at the cross and in the resurrection. That’s the language the NT uses for Jesus’ death and resurrection, although it describes that “victory” with different words.[2] Our affirmation of faith for today says it this way: “Jesus’ resurrection won the victory over all powers that deform and destroy human life.”[3]

We experience that victory not in that we “win” and others “lose,” but in that we already share in the victory of God’s grace over all that diminishes or harms anyone in any way. Even when we make the definition of who gets to participate in Jesus’ Easter victory over sin and death as broad as possible, it still leaves some “winners” and some “losers.” But the NT understanding of Christ’s victory is that it’s over “all things,” which is shorthand for the whole of creation. That includes not only the whole world and everything and everyone in it, but the cosmos and “all the heavens”! One of the leading theologians of the ancient church claimed that even the “inventor of evil” would eventually be restored by God’s grace![4] Talk about a complete victory!

More than that, because it’s not our victory, but Jesus’ victory, we cannot truly experience it unless we do so in the humility that acknowledges that we “win” only as we experience God’s love for us and share that love with all those who are “other.” The victory is not over the “others” who may not share our faith now, or who may live very different lifestyles. The victory is over the powers that oppress all people. And our faith in the victory Jesus won for us all through his death and resurrection enables us to confidently relate to all who are “other” with God’s love.[5]

Even after this careful framing of our “victory” in Jesus, there remains one more consideration. Talk about this kind of victory may seem hollow in a world in which there is still so much suffering taking place. Again, our affirmation of faith acknowledges that in the present day, “The world appears to be dominated by people and systems that do not acknowledge his rule.” One analogy that could be used is the invasion of Normandy on D-Day on June 6, 1944 and the final victory in Europe in the Second World War. Many would say that the invasion of Normandy on D-Day was the crucial victory that spelled the defeat of the Nazi war machine. The war still raged on for almost another year, and many more lives were lost. But after D-Day, the final victory in Europe was perhaps inevitable. Jesus’ victory over the powers of evil, sin, and death in this world is like that. It was the decisive event that made the final victory inevitable.

Most of us have experienced some kind of harm or loss in this life. We may have experience harm at the hands of those who don’t yet follow Jesus. Or perhaps even at the hands of those who follow Jesus, but don’t yet do so perfectly. Many of us have experienced loss in that our lives just didn’t turn out the way we had hoped. Those wounds can haunt us, sometimes for a whole lifetime. But the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that in his death and resurrection, he has decisively defeated all the powers in this world that can harm us. We may still be vulnerable to them in this life, but there will come a day when our victory will be complete, when we stand before Jesus and all our wounds are made whole. That’s a wonderful hope. But perhaps even more importantly, there will come a day when Christ’s victory over all of creation will be made finally complete for all creation, when all the heavens and and everything and everyone on earth are united under one Lord, and we all share together in that victory as confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil 2:11)! That sounds like a complete victory to me!

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[1] © 2024 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 5/5/2024 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Cf. Colossians 2:15; Ephesians 2:21-22; 1 Peter 3:22; Revelation 5:12-13; 11:15.

[3] “A Declaration of Faith” Presbyterian Church in the United States, 117th General Assembly, 1977; reissued by Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 1991 §4(5).

[4] Gregory of Nyssa, Catechetical Orations, 26; cf. J. Quasten, Patrology, III:289-90. 

[5] Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics 4.2:825. He says, “It is love alone that counts, love alone that triumphs, and love alone that endures.” Cf. also ibid., 832-35.

Original Blessing

 Original Blessing

1 John 4:7-21[1]

One of the things that we in the church are “known” for is our emphasis on “sin.” Many would call it an “obsession.” You simply don’t find the word “sin” used much in our culture outside the church. So it’s no wonder that the church has come to be associated so closely with “sin.” And that’s not necessarily a good thing. People who have no church background tend to view our emphasis on “sin” with a kind of puzzled curiosity. They know that we “confess” our “sins.” But the whole concept just doesn’t compute. It’s almost as if they wonder why, with all the challenges that life in this world brings, anyone would choose to add to that burden by heaping guilt on themselves with all this talk about “sin”!

One of the great challenges throughout the ages for thinkers of all varieties is how to explain human nature. It’s obvious that we have great potential for good. And many people maximize their potential for good in so many ways. But at the same time we also all have potential to cause harm. It’s this combination of our inherent goodness with our inherent capacity to misuse our potential in ways that harm others that creates the mystery of sin.[2] Sadly, we tend to want to simplify that mystery. We either blame it all on the “devil,” or we blame it on human irresponsibility, or some combination of the two. But the mystery remains: people can be both incredibly good, kind, and loving, and also incredibly selfish, mean, and cruel.[3]

One of the ideas that the church has used to explain this mystery is “original sin.” In the Bible, the stories about the origins of sin emphasize that sin includes everyone, and it always has, but that’s not what we were created for.[4] But the church’s teaching has been very different. Due to a mistranslation of the book of Romans in the Latin Vulgate, the idea arose that Adam’s sin was literally handed down to each generation through the physical nature of human sexuality. Although that idea could not be more contrary to biblical teaching, it has persisted to this day. To this day, thousands of people take vows of celibacy as priests, monks, and nuns, in the notion that they are devoting themselves to a “more spiritual” life. Despite the Bible’s teaching that our creation in God’s image is something “very good,” including our sexuality, these notions of “sin,” and particularly “original sin,” continue to make people believe that being fully human is something “bad.”

While the Bible clearly emphasizes that we’ve all fallen short of our potential for goodness, that whole way of thinking couldn’t be more contrary to biblical teaching. I think we see this to some extent in our lesson from 1 John for today. To be sure, the Elder John is dealing with internal divisions in his community, where Christians are turning against one another. And he sees this as something that contradicts God’s love. But I think if we only look at that part of our passage, we may miss out on something more fundamental that could help us with all of that wrong-headed thinking about our being sinful creatures by design. I think we miss out on what I would call the “original blessing”: God’s essential nature as loving, and the gift of that love to the whole human family from the beginning.[5]

We see this reflected in our lesson for today in various ways. The Scripture says that “love comes from God” (1 Jn 4:7). I think we can read that statement to include all love. The reason why “love comes from God” is because “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8, 16). That’s the most fundamental statement about who God is in the whole Bible. More than that, we see God’s love reflected in Jesus: “God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only son” (1 Jn 4:9) to “give up his life for us (1 Jn 3:16). That love defines who God is, always has and always will. And one of reasons why God sent his son was so that we all would share in that “original blessing” of love. The whole purpose for God giving us his love in the first place is so that we would reflect it in the way we show love in our lives. Notice that the Scripture says, “Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God” (1 Jn 4:7) Anyone who loves! While I do believe that statement is meant to be interpreted as broadly as possible, I would say that we shouldn’t read this to mean that anyone who shows love in any way is a follower of Christ. But I would say that it means that any time anyone shows love in any way they are reflecting God’s love, because God’s love is the source for all love. So it is that Scripture can say, “God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them” (1 Jn 4:16). Not only is God’s essential nature defined by love, but God’s love defines and shapes our love. And the point of it all is that our love is to reflect that “original blessing”: “if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us” (4:12). God blessed us with his love in the beginning so that we would love others.[6]

You may have noticed that I don’t talk a whole lot about sin. I don’t care to heap burdens of guilt on people and browbeat them into breaking down and admitting they’re sinners in need of salvation. I think the world does more than enough of that. I much prefer to focus on God’s mercy, God’s grace, God’s love that never fails. That’s an intentional choice on my part. As I’ve said before, where you start out with your theology makes all the difference in where you wind up. If you start with the message that all people are “sinners” by nature because we’ve all been infected with the “curse” of “original sin,” that’s inevitably going to lead to a response of guilt, shame, and fear toward God. The focus on “original sin” leads to the very “fear of punishment” that our lesson warns against (1 Jn 4:18). We’ve had far too much of that already. By contrast, the Scripture teaches us that when we truly understand and experience God’s “perfect love” for us, it “expels all fear.” Think of it, what do we really have to fear if God is love and God has given this love to us all?

I much prefer to emphasize God’s “original blessing.” It was God’s love that motivated him in the first place to create all things and us as his human partners. It was God’s love that kept him coming back to a wayward people he had chosen to share his love with the world. It was God’s love that Jesus lived out though his mercy and compassion, and in giving his life for us all. And it’s God’s love that is the “original blessing” we can all claim as the true purpose for which we were created. That’s why I prefer to focus on God’s love as the “original blessing” that we’re all learning to live into. For some of us it may take a lifetime to fully embrace the good news: God loves us all, unconditionally, undeniably, and irrevocably! And whenever we show love to anyone, brother or sister, parent or child, friend, neighbor, or stranger—and I would even say to any of God’s creatures as well—we’re participating in God’s “original blessing”: the love that the Bible tells us God bestowed on the whole human family before anything was created!

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[1] © 2024 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 4/28/2024 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] In part, of course, the “mystery” of sin goes beyond that which is human. There is a cosmic dimension to it that is also a mystery in the context of God’s “very good” creation.

[3] Cf. Hendrikus Berkhof, Christian Faith, 192-215. After a thorough analysis, he concludes: “Sin is still as mysterious as before: a senseless and mortally dangerous rebellion against the purpose of God.”

[4] Cf. Berkhof, Christian Faith, ?

[5] I realize that I am taking this passage in a direction that is likely very different from the theology of 1 John. In I John, love for one another is a mark of a true believer. He is arguing against those he would consider “false believers” or “antichrists” because they have broken the bonds of love in the community. And yet, I would insist that, despite the conflict in the Johannine community and it’s influence on the theology of the Johannine writings to the effect that he sees the “world” as a threat, 1 John can still recognize that Jesus Christ died for the whole world (1 Jn 2:2). While the rhetoric against “outsiders” is harsh in 1 John, when taken in consideration with the Johannine writings as a whole, it must be acknowledged that the term “world” is complex in this context. I would also argue that while the intent of 1 John is influenced by the situation of conflict, the theology of God’s love transcends that particular setting. Even if 1 John cannot recognize the full expression of the theology of God’s love to the whole human family through their creation in God’s image, it is a point that theologians have recognized in 1 John (cf. e.g. Gregory of Nyssa, De hominis opificio, 5.2; cf. On the Making of Man in P. Schaff,  H. Wace, & H. A. Wilson, Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers series 2, vol. 5: Gregory of Nyssa: Dogmatic Treatises, 391).

[5] Cf. Jürgen Moltmann, The Spirit of Life: A Universal Affirmation, 250: “For Christian experience, the spirituality of the love of God is to be found in the vitality of true human love.” He applies the same approach to friendship with the “wholly other” God and friendship with the “other” whoever that may be (ibid., 259). He applies this line of thinking to human love in general, asking (ibid., 260), “In experiencing human love, are we not supposed to think of the experience of God? And in experiencing God, are we not supposed to think of the experience of love?”