Jesus has just spoken about the way to handle disagreements and conflicts – he instructs his disciples – be direct in addressing conflict but be direct with love. Peter gets up the nerve to ask the next obvious question – “Master, I understand that relationships are important but – exactly how many times do I have to forgive someone who hurts me?” Peter is willing to buy into this whole forgiveness stuff but he wants to place some sort of reasonable limit on things.  Yet, knowing that Jesus always manages to push out the envelope, Peter quickly adds – “Seven – is it seven times?” Peter is just about ready

All you need is love! Long before the Beatles made their hit song there was the greatest of all commandments – the commandment to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. All you need is love – this is how Jesus summed up all the commandments – this is what Paul affirms as he writes to the Romans. Just as God loves us we are to love one another.Sounds pretty straightforward but the truth of the matter is – love is hard to do. Love asks us to be vulnerable, trusting enough to risk exposing our inner self. Love asks us to forgive – to look beyond our wounds and hurts. Love asks us to be hospitable – accepting even when we disagree. If love is to be the essence of the church community then we had better have ways of handling disputes and disagreement when they arise. In other words – we need to learn how to practice love.

No problem – right? Churches are supposed to be places that perfectly model love and deal with conflict so that we can learn and