Oh-oh, what’s love got to do, got to do with it?
What’s love but a second-hand emotion?
What’s love got to do, got to do with it?
Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken? (From “What’s love got to do with it?” Written by Graham Lyle and Terry Britten and recorded by Tina Turner)

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (1John 4:18)

The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12: 29-31)

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! This day is one of the oddest celebrations we have in our calendar.  Don’t get me wrong, I love any excuse to tell people I love them and eat chocolate, but in terms of Christian Saints Days, this one is a little sketchy.  After all, there are 3 potential St. Valentines, 4 if you include the female Valentina.  Likely, we are celebrating the Roman St. Valentine, who was martyred on February 14 in 269 CE.  But then, if you think about this, we are eating chocolate in honour of a guy being put to death in the name of his faith?  There are a ton of legends that abound about this Valentine; my favourite being that he performed secret Christian weddings for Roman soldiers so that they could escape conscription.  This annoyed the powers that be because apparently the Roman military was looking a little sparse and they needed to shore up their numbers. 

Not exactly a celebration of romantic love, eh!  Arranged marriages to escape conscription.  Valentine was pushing against the Empire by a simple act civil disobedience.  Ultimately, it did lead to him being put to death. 

These days as I’m recovering from my surgery, I have spent a lot of time watching TV.  In the morning, I usually spend time watching the news on CBC.  I probably have more awareness of current events than I have for decades.  I’m a pretty informed person, but I have more time right now to listen to political analysts than I ever have.   Its really dismaying.  I’m hearing and understanding that the core message of the Gospel has strayed so far that Christianity is being used to exert control, to oppress people, to deport our neighbours and to try and destroy whole countries and cultures.  As much as Valentines Day has descended into a decadent celebration represented by chocolate and flowers, from the recognition of the martyrdom of a Roman Priest that was spawned by an act of disobedience against Empire, we have turned the Gospel of Jesus the Christ into something that is self-serving and intended to further the power and oppression of ‘the least of these’; those that we have commanded to love. 

I know that I’m ’preaching to the choir’ here.  I know that you all take Jesus and what we have been commanded to be as followers of Jesus, seriously.  I know that you all understand that the love that we are called to not only is more than chocolate and flowers, but also calls us to live a life that requires us to push against the systematic oppression and persecution particularly for those that are needing extra care and support.  I know that you all believe that we need to live a life that is different from power, excess, and materialism, and in fact, pushes hard against these and pushes hard against a society that not only doesn’t care for a neighbour, but, in fact doesn’t even care for us. 

All of us. 

All of us are one step from being one of ‘the least of these’.  All of us are one step away from being the oppressed. 

And the only thing that is we have as Followers of Jesus to swim against this tide of oppression?  Its Love. 

Not the chocolates and flowers kind of love, as wonderful as it is; but the kind of love that says that this kind of rhetoric; the rhetoric that says things like women have no control over their healthcare decisions, or that immigrants are not welcome or worthy of care, or that (the most recent) that we should bring back the death penalty….

Is wrong.

Not only is wrong, but is absolutely contrary to what we stand for. 

And so we won’t. 

We won’t stand for it. 

What’s love got to do with it?  Well, for us Christians, frankly, everything.  Everything is about love.  A love that spurs us to  love our neighbours.  A love that casts out fear instead of perpetuating fear.  A love that is not only the greatest commandment but has become the only commandment. 

Stand with me my friends.  Stand with me with the Love that we have been commanded to.  Go ahead and binge on your chocolate today if you want to, but bear in mind that the rest of year we are called to something far bigger than that; we are called to lives that will push back against a society that would reduce our greatest commandment to a day that is not only trivial, but silly and offensive.  We are called to Love.  To a perfect Love. 

Blessings today, and of course, remember you are Loved.

~Rev. Lynne