"What's Love Got to Do With It?"
No, this is not a blog concerning the movie about the life of the rock diva Tina Turner and the subsequent abuse she suffered at the hands of her rock band member and husband, Ike Turner. The subject matter for this blog is motivated by that loathsome, (yes, loathsome for some of us more mature, never-has-been-married members of this society) holiday that always occurs every February, Valentine's Day. However, if you are a corporate stock holder of Hallmark, Wal-Mart, and every nursery that grows flowers year round, the "ka-ching" of the cash registers at this time of the year is indeed music to your ears.
The evangelical can find some interesting spiritual-historical perspectives on the origin of this holiday. One of the joys in this earthly ministry of mine is to teach first graders in our Sunday School for the Children's Ministry of our church. Every Sunday at 8 a.m., I have anywhere from 7-10 abounding little ones of this age group. We had our annual Valentine's Breakfast after we had our Bible story time this past Sunday. I used this valuable teaching time to tell them about one of the spiritual-historical perspectives on this holiday. According to one tradition, there was a priest in Rome, named Valentine who was incarcerated for his faith and subsequently martryed. Before he died he wrote a letter to the daughter of one of the jailer's and signed it with an affection of love. Another view is that a priest named Valentine helped many Christians escape prison and death during the Roman Empire's persecution of Christians. I am well aware that there are some of the Christian faith who hold a negative view of the holidays that are observed on the calendar. These well-intentioned believers advocate a "purist" view of the calendar. In other words, they avoid the celebration and mentioning of the holiday in order to portray a more spiritual message to the culture they engage. I am not quite sure what that message is, but nonetheless, they do insist that their abstaining from observance is a valid spiritual quest. Anyways... I observe because many of my first graders are engaged in the culture through interactions with their neighborhood kids. God commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves. I want my first graders to understand that we are to obey the whole counsel of God, not just the heart-pleasing exhortations. All evangelicals who were reared in the church heard the familiar, "... God is love" passage from the epistle of I John. My first grade class members know that as well. But what about this..."But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you." Luke 6:27-28
Sometimes, I wish that Jesus had not said that. But, He did. Oh, I pray for those who mistreat me... but those prayers are not in accordance with the Sovereign will of God. Lately, if you listen to some of the prayers of Evangelical leaders who are trying to make inroads on this culture, they sound like me when I'm praying for those who mistreat me. Wow! (and I didn't proclaim "AMEN!" either.)
So during this Valentines Holiday extravaganza, let's do something really radical like Jesus taught. Show and demonstrate love toward one or more of your enemies. That will really show what love's got to do with it!
The evangelical can find some interesting spiritual-historical perspectives on the origin of this holiday. One of the joys in this earthly ministry of mine is to teach first graders in our Sunday School for the Children's Ministry of our church. Every Sunday at 8 a.m., I have anywhere from 7-10 abounding little ones of this age group. We had our annual Valentine's Breakfast after we had our Bible story time this past Sunday. I used this valuable teaching time to tell them about one of the spiritual-historical perspectives on this holiday. According to one tradition, there was a priest in Rome, named Valentine who was incarcerated for his faith and subsequently martryed. Before he died he wrote a letter to the daughter of one of the jailer's and signed it with an affection of love. Another view is that a priest named Valentine helped many Christians escape prison and death during the Roman Empire's persecution of Christians. I am well aware that there are some of the Christian faith who hold a negative view of the holidays that are observed on the calendar. These well-intentioned believers advocate a "purist" view of the calendar. In other words, they avoid the celebration and mentioning of the holiday in order to portray a more spiritual message to the culture they engage. I am not quite sure what that message is, but nonetheless, they do insist that their abstaining from observance is a valid spiritual quest. Anyways... I observe because many of my first graders are engaged in the culture through interactions with their neighborhood kids. God commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves. I want my first graders to understand that we are to obey the whole counsel of God, not just the heart-pleasing exhortations. All evangelicals who were reared in the church heard the familiar, "... God is love" passage from the epistle of I John. My first grade class members know that as well. But what about this..."But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you." Luke 6:27-28
Sometimes, I wish that Jesus had not said that. But, He did. Oh, I pray for those who mistreat me... but those prayers are not in accordance with the Sovereign will of God. Lately, if you listen to some of the prayers of Evangelical leaders who are trying to make inroads on this culture, they sound like me when I'm praying for those who mistreat me. Wow! (and I didn't proclaim "AMEN!" either.)
So during this Valentines Holiday extravaganza, let's do something really radical like Jesus taught. Show and demonstrate love toward one or more of your enemies. That will really show what love's got to do with it!
posted by J.D. Rector at 1:55 PM
1 Comments:
"who needs a heart when a heart can be broken..."
JD - you're one wise dude. You edify.
Your Valentine -- I mean,
affectionately yours,
David
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