How Have You Been Loved?

Devotional Reflection, Friday, June 16, 2023

The Week of the Second Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 5)

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

Key phrases for reflection from today’s epistle reading:

13How have you been worse off than the other churches, except that I myself did not burden you? Forgive me this wrong! 14Here I am, ready to come to you this third time. And I will not be a burden, because I do not want what is yours but you; for children ought not to lay up for their parents, but parents for their children. 15I will most gladly spend and be spent for you. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?

. . . .

19Have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves before you? We are speaking in Christ before God. Everything we do, beloved, is for the sake of building you up.

(You will find the full text of today’s epistle reading at the end of this reflection.)

Daily Office Lectionary readings: (BCP, 970)

AM Psalm 69:1-23(24-30)31-38; PM Psalm 73

Ecclesiasticus 45:6-16; 2 Corinthians 12:11-21; Luke 19:41-48

Today we celebrate the Feast of Joseph Butler . (See below.)

David's Reflections

I did not begin to understand how deeply my parents loved me until Ben and Katie were born. I suspect those two incredible kids now grasp more fully the nature of my and their mother’s love for them with the arrival of their three children, Lyra, Jonas, and Will.

Paul's beloved Corinthians, in a similar way, could not grasp the nature of his love for them. His phrase, "I will not be a burden, because I do not want what is yours but you, for children ought not to lay up for their parents, but parents for their children.", reveals that parental tone in his love for them. A parent also can feel easily the emotional tone in his statement, "I will most gladly spend and be spent for you."

Paul's adversaries had turned his financial independence into a liability, accusing him of taking advantage of the Corinthians somehow by not accepting financial support from them. They also were saying that his practice revealed that he was not a true apostle, that he was reluctant to claim his rights for financial support as an apostle because in fact he was not one. (See 1 Corinthians 9.)

Note also this phrase, "Everything we do, beloved, is for the sake of building you up." Having served as a church planter, I now reread Paul's letters from that angle of vision. Corinth was a new church, very vulnerable to destructive influences. Like a parent with a wayward child, Paul could not control the church he had birthed. They were free to wander into destructive ways.

What he could do was remain vulnerable to them, which he does in passages like this one. He could remain vulnerable and open, he could persuade, he could chide. But, ultimately, he was left with prayer, compassion, and anxiety as his companions. Here he reframes his behavior for them. They had framed it in a negative way. He reframed it as parental love.

Watching people interweave into new community at All Souls, seeing their vision and energy grow, and sensing how tender and vulnerable the entire venture actually was, kept me filled with joy, hope, and anxiety for all. My understanding has deepened of Paul, this unique church planter, and the dilemmas with which he lived. Now that All Souls has their third priest and will celebrate their twentieth anniversary this year I feel deeply thankful and deeply proud, not unlike the feelings I have for Ben and Katie, now in their 40’s and making a difference with their lives.

Can you get in touch with the feelings of love shown you by parents, friends, clergy, and others who have made a difference in your life? In retrospect, can you reframe some of what you've framed negatively in a positive way? Have you shared with them your gratitude and your affirmations? They may well never know otherwise.

Collect of the Day, Proper 5 The Sunday closest to June 8

O God, from whom all good proceeds: Grant that by your inspiration we may think those things that are right, and by your merciful guiding may do them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Today we celebrate the Feast of Joseph Butler, bishop and theologian (died 16 June 1752 CE) http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/Joseph_Butler.htm

Collect of the Feast of Joseph Butler

O God, who raises up scholars for your church in every generation; we praise you for the wisdom and insight granted to your bishop and theologian Joseph Butler, and pray that your church may never be destitute of such gifts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

A Collect for Fridays

Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 97)

In the Order of Worship for Evening

Almighty, everlasting God, let our prayer in your sight be as incense, the lifting up of our hands as the evening sacrifice. Give us grace to behold you, present in your Word and Sacraments, and to recognize you in the lives of those around us. Stir up in us the flame of that love which burned in the heart of your Son as he bore his passion, and let it burn in us to eternal life and to the ages of ages. Amen. (BCP, 113)

A Collect for Mission

O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son 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, 280)

Daily Office Epistle, 2 Corinthians 12:11-21

11 I have been a fool! You forced me to it. Indeed you should have been the ones commending me, for I am not at all inferior to these super-apostles, even though I am nothing. 12The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, signs and wonders and mighty works. 13How have you been worse off than the other churches, except that I myself did not burden you? Forgive me this wrong! 14Here I am, ready to come to you this third time. And I will not be a burden, because I do not want what is yours but you; for children ought not to lay up for their parents, but parents for their children. 15I will most gladly spend and be spent for you. If I love you more, am I to be loved less? 16Let it be assumed that I did not burden you. Nevertheless (you say) since I was crafty, I took you in by deceit. 17Did I take advantage of you through any of those whom I sent to you? 18I urged Titus to go, and sent the brother with him. Titus did not take advantage of you, did he? Did we not conduct ourselves with the same spirit? Did we not take the same steps? 19Have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves before you? We are speaking in Christ before God. Everything we do, beloved, is for the sake of building you up. 20For I fear that when I come, I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish; I fear that there may perhaps be quarreling, jealousy, anger, selfishness, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder. 21I fear that when I come again, my God may humble me before you, and that I may have to mourn over many who previously sinned and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and licentiousness that they have

practiced.

Daily Prayer Offices in The Book of Common Prayer Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, Book of Common Prayer Noonday Prayer, p. 103, Book of Common Prayer Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p. 109, Book of Common Prayer Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer Compline (Night Prayer), Page 127, Book of Common Prayer Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer