Living in Love

Above:   The Traditional Site of the Feeding of the Five Thousand

Image Source = Library of Congress

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For the Fourth Sunday in Lent, Year 1, according to the U.S. Presbyterian lectionary of 1966-1970

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Prepare our hearts, O Lord, to accept thy Word.

Silence us in any voice but thine own, that hearing, we may also obey thy will;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

—The Book of Common Worship–Provisional Services (1966), 121

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Isaiah 51:4-6

1 John 3:7-14

John 6:1-14

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Indeed, it is better to keep quiet and be, than to make fluent professions and not be.  No doubt it is a fine thing to instruct others, but only if the speaker practices what he preaches.

–Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians 15, translated by Maxwell Staniforth and Andrew Louth

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1 John 3 features prominently the exhortation to live uprightly, in a manner defined by love for God and one’s fellow human beings.  That should be noncontroversial, right?  Not surprisingly, obeying the Golden Rule is frequently politically unpopular, socially unacceptable, and sometimes even illegal.

Do not be surprised, brothers, if the world hates you.

–1 John 3:13, The New Jerusalem Bible (1985)

So, then, why not lose hope?  Why not conform to the politics of hatred–racism, xenophobia, nativism, and all other phobias directed at human beings?  Why walk in love if it may lead to trouble?

Why not walk in love?  If one is to suffer, why not suffer for the sake of righteousness?  God, with whom there are leftovers, even when, according to human standards, that should be impossible, is with us when we are faithful.

May we practice living in love for God and our fellow human beings.  May we preach it, too.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

NOVEMBER 12, 2018 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT JOSAPHAT, ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF POLOTSK, AND MARTYR

THE FEAST OF SAINT FRANCES XAVIER CABRINI, FOUNDRESS OF THE MISSIONARY SISTERS OF THE SACRED HEART

THE FEAST OF RAY PALMER, U.S. CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM ARTHUR DUNKERLEY, BRITISH NOVELIST, AND HYMN WRITER

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