LWSA Convention

Lutheran Women of South Australia
Forty Sixth Convention, May 3rd, 2012
St. Peter’s Lutheran, Loxton

Afternoon Devotion

Text: John 13:12-17

Love has form and it has focus. Christianity is incarnational in its essence. In the person of Jesus the infinite God became contained in human flesh and blood. “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.” (Colossians 2:9) Christ is not a motionless idol to be venerated but the vivacious exemplar of servitude.

Socrates said, “Know thyself.” The narcissist says, “Love thyself.” Such self-absorption is the bane of our times. It is fatal and self-defeating. The beloved no longer requires a lover, but only a mirror for self-reflection. Christ is THE LOVER, the selfless, sacrificial servant par excellence. He reflects only the will of the Father.

No one can remain in their own spiritual nativity. Faith either forges forward in fits and starts, struggling, pressing on, clawing forward; or it atrophies, withers, and dies. In Christ faith finds its focus and the power to love.

To the one who believes, love is already flooding like water over the dam into the parched low-lying areas of our neighbour’s lives. To the one who doesn’t, no amount of pushing will move the tide of love upstream. In its chemical composition water is one-third oxygen. But it has no airspace. It cannot be compressed. So too the law cannot force the hand of love. But heat will turn water into steam and then it will quickly fill the empty space. So too, the believer, when warmed by the Spirit’s glow moves to fill the cold and empty world around.

How do we love as Christ loved? Consider His own words. “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” (Luke 11:13)

The Holy Spirit will lead us to Christ. And there let us remain until the shadows lengthen and the sun sets on this mortal life. Let us remain in Christ not in motionless apathy, or fear of venture, but in dynamic self-giving; learning and believing that the more we are surrendered for our neighbour, the greater our glory in Christ. Let us love with the forfeiture of the bottomless compassion of the Saviour. When His crucified body was pierced there issued from His side a flow of water and blood; and thus every Christian font was filled and every communion chalice supplied. The well of His mercy will not run dry. We will be lifted by the rising Jordan, the baptismal flood that will buoy us in the ark of the church that anchors in the glassy sea of the heavenly Jerusalem. Amen.