Daily Office Readings for Thursday of the 2nd Week of Easter: Year 2
Morning, Psalm 18:1 to 20; Evening, Psalm 18: 21 to 50;
Exodus 16:10-22; 1st Peter 2:11 to 25; John 15:12 to 27
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15: 12)
I really like this “John” rendition of the love commandment better than the ones in the Synoptic Gospel accounts where it is said, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” The presupposition is that you love yourself. I have met people who do not love themselves. How then can they be expected to love others?
I am not trying to promote narcissism here but a great many people need to know that they are loved by God, and to suggest that God can’t act in them is not saying they are not good enough, but that God, in all God’s unlimited ability, they feel that God is not able to act in them. Balderdash! God can, and will, use any person to do God’s will. We are definitely commanded to love ourselves as part of the commandment to love. But just in case we don’t get it, St. John records our Lord Jesus as saying love “one another” (which includes yourself), as I have loved you. Jesus says, “As I have loved you.” And remember, Jesus loved you all the way to the cross. Every human being is so worthy, and so loved. Thank you Lord Jesus.
Today our Anglican Communion remembers George Augustus Selwyn, Bishop and missionary (1878). He was a fine example of extending love to others different than himself. The article also shows God working good through “clerical errors.”
This can be found at http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/GA_Selwyn.htm
Let us pray:
O Lord God, who showed us how to love one another through Your time with us in our Lord Jesus Christ, please help us to tear down whatever hinders our affection for one another, be it language, culture, nationality, color of skin or whatever. Continue teaching us even now, through one another, to love one another, as You love us. Amen.
Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Palestine, and our schools including St. Augustine in Raleigh, North Carolina.
As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and serve, and to teach others to love and serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John
onewhoponders 