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Morning Devotion for the Season of Epiphany

February 13, 2023

Invitatory

Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

The Lord has shown forth his glory: Come let us adore him.

Reading - John 15:12-15

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.

Meditation - Winnie Smith

I rarely say “I love you.” I love things. I’m fine saying that I love a restaurant, I love an activity, I love a TV show. I feel love for many people, but to me that word carries such weight in the context of human relationships; I save it for when I really mean it.

In the Rite II Eucharist, we regularly use the word love. In the Confession, we admit that we have not loved God with our whole heart and have not loved our neighbors as ourselves (yes, that language does sound quite a bit like today’s text from John’s Gospel.) We hear about God’s infinite love for us in the words of the Eucharistic prayer. In the post-Communion prayer, we ask God to give us the strength and courage to “love and serve” God. Finally, when we receive a blessing at the end of the service, it may include the phrase “keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God.” In worship we are constantly claiming to love God and others, yet I don’t know that that really registers with us.

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and “I love you” can be seen everywhere right now. It may sound cynical, but I think it’s a real shame that we have so cheapened the meaning of the word love that we barely understand it now. Love is not simple or easy; it is an active choice, and it requires us to at times put aside frustration and disappointment to see a bigger picture in which good outweighs bad. The two great commandments given to us are to love God and love our neighbor. Simple words, but unbelievably difficult directives. In a way, these commandments were laid out to us as impossible tasks; as goals that God knows we will never achieve. Just listen to what Jesus says: “this is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” If that is the standard of loving as God loves, then I would venture a guess that almost no one will ever succeed. To love as God loves is to literally lay down one’s life for another, and I don’t think we’re up to the task. So rather than looking at the great commandments as realistic goals, I look at them as one looks at the horizon: always in front of me, things I can always move towards but will never catch. If I really live that way, then I am always acting more loving, am always reaching to be a bit more Christ-like, knowing all the while that I can never love as God loves, I will never lay down my life the way Jesus did. And that’s okay. Because while I can’t be sure about everyone else, I am sure that God loves me anyway.

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.