Being loved beyond fear

Daily Office Devotional, Tuesday, April 20, 2021

The week of the third Sunday of Easter

The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.

Daily Office Lectionary Readings

AM Psalm 26, 28; PM Psalm 36, 39

Daniel 4:28-37; 1 John 4:7-21; Luke 4:31-37

Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, Book of Common Prayer

Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer

Compline (Night Prayer), Page 127, Book of Common Prayer

Daily Office Epistle, 1 John 4:7-21 (NRSV)

7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. 13By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. 15God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. 16So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.

17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. 18There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. 19We love because he first loved us. 20Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. 21The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

David's Reflections

F. T. Pulgrave wrote these lines that have been set to music as part of the hymn "O Thou not made with hands,"

Wherever the gentle heart finds courage from above,

Wher'er the heart forsook warms with the breath of love;

Where faith bids fear depart.

City of God thou art.

The poet caught the sense of this reading, especially verses 17-19, "17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. 18There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. 19We love because he first loved us."

I am stricken in this reading by God’s desire to reassure us that we are loved. The word "boldness" could be rendered "confidence." Imagine feeling confident about entering the final judgment or facing death and the nearer presence of God. Can we become more certain of being beloved by an invisible, intangible God, but love on which we are totally dependent for forgiveness and eternal life? That is especially challenging when our daily response to that love lacks so much in terms of our faithfulness and devotion.

One of the most tangible evidences of God's ongoing love comes to us through the love of others. That's especially true in the Christian community. There are moments and days when I am not particularly lovable, and yet from within my Christian community, people persist in loving and receiving me. In their love, God's love is coming toward me.

That's one reason loving one another in community becomes so crucial. If we consistently treat one another with disdain, apathy, neglect, or contempt, we infer that our own experience of God's love is lacking. And, that other person may lose confidence in the deepest places of God's love for them.

Something my late, dear friend and doctoral advisor in seminary, Malcolm, once wrote comes to mind: "It is easy to talk about love--or, for that matter, to write about it. But it is awfully difficult to do love. It is in the doing and not the talking that we show whether the richness of God's love has banished the poverty of our own selfish spirits."

[Malcolm O. Tolbert, Walking with the Lord: The Relevance of First John to the Contemporary Christian Life, (Nashville: Broadman, 1970), p. 78.]

Collect of the Day, the third Sunday of Easter

O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP, 224-225)

Collect for the Weekdays in Easter

Let your people, O Lord, rejoice for ever that they have been renewed in spirit; and let the joy of our adoption as your sons and daughters strengthen the hope of our glorious resurrection in Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

A Collect for Peace

O God, the author of peace and lover of concord, to know you is eternal life and to serve you is perfect freedom: Defend us, your humble servants, in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in your defense, may not fear the power of any adversaries; through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 99)

For the Departed

Almighty God, we remember before you today your faithful servant N.; and we pray that, having opened to him the gates of larger life, you will receive him more and more into your joyful service, that, with all who have faithfully served you in the past, he may share in the eternal victory of Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 253)

In the Evening

O Lord, support us all the day long, until the shadows lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then in thy mercy, grant us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last. Amen. (BCP, 833)

A Collect for Mission

O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth, and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you; bring the nations into your fold; pour out your Spirit upon all flesh; and hasten the coming of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.