Morning Devotion for the Season after Pentecost
July 15, 2022
Invitatory
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.
Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: Come let us adore him.
Reading: Romans 12:9-21
Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ No, ‘if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Meditation - Winnie Smith
In romantic movies, there is usually a great build-up to the inevitable “I love you” between the two protagonists. There may be other happenings along the way, and surely after those magical three words, there will be a fight or a big event that leads to questions about the relationship. But the first big movement of most of these films (and trust me, I’ve seen more than I should admit) is toward the “I love you.”
In today’s reading from Romans, Paul does something different. He leads with love. He doesn’t try to convince readers of the importance of love first, doesn’t build up a definition of it; he just lays it out there. Rather than instructing the Christian communities to whom he writes to order their lives toward love, he moves outward from love. If we begin with genuine love, Paul teaches, then our other behaviors will necessarily be different. We will be guided by that transformative power of love.
This reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans probably sounds familiar. It echoes 1 Corinthians 13 - often read at weddings. That chapter does a great job describing love in detail, and it’s worth rereading if you haven’t heard it in a while. In Romans 12, Paul uses love as a jumping off point for human behavior. If love is your baseline, if it’s the vantage point from which you see the world, then you will “bless those who persecute you,” and “live peaceably with all.” If you love first, then you won’t seek an eye for an eye, but will rather “take thought for what is noble in the sight of all.” Romans tells us that we are only to love, and to leave vengeance for God.
So far, straightforward. But then we come to this: “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” Sounds pretty un-loving to me. This is a reference to an almost identical verse from Proverbs 25, and is thought to be a metaphor for causing shame in the face of kindness. If we repay cruelty with kindness, we begin to force the cruel actors to rethink their actions.
Beginning with “I love you” is difficult. When someone cuts me off in traffic, love is not my first reaction. When I see injustice or cruelty, something closer to hate bubbles up inside me. The choice to love takes effort, but it is the way God calls us to live.
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
