From Pastor Eric’s Study – February 2025

February makes me think of St. Valentine and his feast day that commemorates love and the faithfulness of a Saint who is hard to pin down. The stories speak of an imprisoned priest healing the blindness of his jailer’s daughter, causing the jailer and his household to convert to Christianity. There are stories of Valentine marrying people behind the government’s back in order to keep them out of military service. He becomes a saint associated with love who ultimately refuses to denounce his faith, ultimately leading to his being martyred on February 14th.

Love and faithfulness are at the heart of our story, but when we encounter it with Jesus, it is more the stuff that will end up getting you martyred than getting a valentine’s card from a friend. Jesus challenges his followers to love their neighbors and even challenges us to love our enemies. Isn’t it interesting that the challenge isn’t to like them, or to love only our friends? The challenge is to offer a love that sees in others the belovedness of God. I recently listened to a TED Talk that talked about how powerful empathy can be to help people understand that we share more in common than all that we assume may separate us. There is this reminder that when we love like Jesus, we find that others always carry within them that sacred spark of God's love.

Sometimes it’s incredibly challenging to honor that spark or to love it into a light bright enough to shine through the barriers we may create. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. often preached about the task of loving. In an oft shared sermon he preached:

…I’m so happy [Jesus] didn’t say, “Like your enemies,” because it’s kind of difficult to like some people. Like is sentimental; like is an affectionate sort of thing. And you can’t like anybody who’s bombing your home and threatening your children. It’s hard to like a senator who’s spending all of his time in Washington standing against all of the legislation that will make for better relationships and that will make for brotherhood. It’s difficult to like them. But Jesus says, “Love them,” and love is greater than like. Love is understanding, redemptive, creative goodwill for all men. And so Jesus was expressing something very creative when he said, “Love your enemies. Bless them that curse you. Pray for them that despitefully use you.”

It's easy to speak of love. It’s much more challenging to live it as Jesus did. The rewards of choosing love change our hearts and have the power to change the world. Oh, you might be criticized for living that vision, most of God's faithful have been… you might get rather frustrated that it seems like nothing is changing… and yet, empathy, loving our neighbors and even our enemies harnesses the very power of God.