Longing and Active Love

There is a lot to squeeze into this week’s theme. Firstly, we are marking in a small way the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple; a principle feast in the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Anglican Churches. It falls on this Wednesday, 2 February, 40 days after Christmas, and marks the end of the Christmas season. It remembers Jesus being presented at the Temple as the law required of a first son, and we hear the response of Simeon (The Song of Simeon or Nunc Dimittis) and Anna.  It is more commonly known as "Candlemas” when the candles for the new year are blessed, and the used stubs were distributed to the faithful for use in the home.

This week we are using the readings for Epiphany 4. And we read them going into RED with omicron having breached the border and joining our summer. I read them with a sense of dreadful anticipation and uncertainty about what the next few weeks might hold for us, and with a sense of longing to be free of this virus.

Longing is weaved all through these readings. We join the Psalmist in longing for God to rescue us from all that besets us. In Jeremiah we hear God longing for a prophet to speak the truth about the present realities facing Judah so that the people might let go of their false hope and all that separated them from God might be removed. Jeremiah longs to be freed from that call.

The people of Nazareth long for Jesus the prophet to place them first, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour to them by bringing good news to their poor, proclaiming release to their captives, recovery of sight to their blind and letting their oppressed go free. And Jesus longs for them to let go of this longing and to see the Spirit at work in him expanding their focus of compassionate love. Paul longs that the young church in Corinth might base their communal life of God’s hospitable generous active love. Love is the pattern of God’s actions. Paul’s love is not a feeling, but a verb. It is lived! This love is also weaved through these readings. And we are invited to base our lives: our thoughts, actions, beliefs, everything, on this love.

  • What do we long for in this time? 
  • How do we experience God’s compassionate and active love? 
  • How are we invited to live love, for ourselves and for others?

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