God's Choice: Love

Thursday, February 26, 2009 -- Week of Last Epiphany, Year One
Lent

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 948)
Psalms 37:1-18 (morning) 37:19-42 (evening)
Deuteronomy 7:6-11
Titus 1:1-16
John 1:29-34

One of the themes that runs through scripture is that God chooses to love us. God loves us because God chooses to do so. We are not particularly lovable or impressive. Nevertheless, God chooses to give God's love and life to us.

It sounds like a love story. There are lots of love stories that include a moment of realization, when one person recognizes that the other really does love them. The beloved responds with ecstatic joy, returning that love and promising to live faithfully out of the exquisite energy that is unique between lovers. We want to live up to the hopes of our lover. We want to be loved; we want to return love; we want to live in love. That's a simple description of the Holy Trinity. God enraptures humanity into the divine love that moves the cosmos.

Why did you fall in love with me? the beloved asks. The writer of Deuteronomy tells Israel, "It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you -- for you were the fewest of all peoples. It was because the Lord loved you..."

Love is its own excuse and its own end. Love is the means to its own end. God promises "steadfast love," "covenant loyalty" to us, because God loves us. God invites us to live in the same Spirit. To love God, to love our neighbors, to love ourselves.

In the sacrament of marriage, a couple promises to be faithful to one another. Faithfulness is the appropriate response between lovers.

To be faithful to God would be to love God and to love what God loves. God loves us. God loves what God creates: the earth, its creatures and people. When you look into the mirror, you see God's beloved. Rejoice. Beam with the joy of the beloved. Each person you see today is someone that God loves. Look upon the beloved. How fortunate and significant that person is. That one is the beloved of God. (Shh. Sometimes it almost seems like a secret. Look at so-and-so. Guess what. They've got a lover. I know who is in love with them.)

In a way, religion is nothing more than expansions on a theme. God loves us. God invites us into love. Therefore, be in love.

Lowell
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About Morning Reflections
Morning Reflections is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life

We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.