Lenten Devotion

Remember the Maundy Thursday Service at 7:00 P.M.

 

Pastor Ken

 

April 1, 2010

Commanding Love

Excerpt from John 13:1-17, 31b-35

"I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another"

Reflection by William C. Green

Jesus does not command feelings. He commands duty, first to God, then to others.

It's often hard to love what needs doing, like pay attention to those we disagree with, or forgive someone as we have so often been forgiven, or love "enemies" in our own midst or beyond, as Jesus admonished.

But the commandment to love is not a commandment to condone or agree; it's a duty to respect. I can't find help and hope apart from respecting a world bigger than my own feelings. The church is meant to be a model and an entry into that larger world, one made up of people we have to be with, not people we choose to be with. Jesus commands us to pass on the love and respect we have already received. Without this, any personal difference or grievance is magnified and distorted, and we're lost in ourselves with no way out.

This is the day in Holy Week when we remember the first communion, the Last Supper. Here was love beyond personal feeling, not thrown by the betrayal of a close follower and impending death. This is God's love for us. Not even the disciples understood it. But they were changed by it, and given the duty to pass it on. They did so, however imperfectly. And so can we.

Prayer

Gracious God, may I not make a god of my own feelings, and pass on the deeper love you make mine. Amen.