Valentines Day

In the 1980’s the band Foreigner had a number one hit record called “I want to know what love is.” Today on Saint Valentines Day and preparing to enter the season of Lent on Wednesday, we are going to try and answer Foreigner’s question. 

On Valentines Day we remember love being all around us. There are all sorts of traditions and fun stuff in history about this day. Ladies - how about this. This weird thing was published in 1849. “On Valentines Day, take two bay leaves, sprinkle them with rose water and place them on your pillow in the evening. When you go to bed, put on a clean night gown turned inside out and lying down say softly: “ good Valentine, be kind to me, in dreams let me my true love see. “ then go to sleep as soon as you can in expectation of seeing your future husband in a dream! Weren’t Victorians a bit wacky?

We remember today love isn’t a word or just an emotion but something transformative. We don’t know much about St Valentine. One common story about him is that in one point of his life, as the former Bishop of Terni, Narnia and Amelia, he was arrested for trying to convert people to Christianity. The story is told that St. Valentine was imprisoned for marrying Christian couples and aiding Christians being persecuted by the emperor Claudius in Rome. Claudius became enraged and sentenced Valentine to death, commanding him to renounce his faith or be beaten with clubs and beheaded.

St. Valentine refused to renounce his faith and Christianity and was executed outside the Flaminian Gate on February 14.  While imprisoned he healed the jailer's blind daughter. On the day of his execution, he left the girl a note signed, "Your Valentine."

I want to know what love is. Well here’s three suggestions. 

1. Love is all around us. There’s another pop song. I think by Wet wet wet. I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes. Today will see flowers and gifts and kindness and extravagant gestures, love is alive in Otley!

Imagine your loved ones face when you hand over a pork pie today! But love isn’t for a day it is for eternity. In the gospel reading for this Sunday, the Sunday before Lent. Jesus takes his closest friends up the mountain of transfiguration. They see the glory of God as Jesus dazzles in white before them. A voice describes him as Gods beloved. They are changed because they have encountered divine indescribable love that cannot ever be defeated right in front of them. So the bible teaches us that many waters cannot quench love, the bible teaches us that love never fails, the bible teaches us that perfect love casts out all fear, the bible teaches us that God is love. That’s how it is. We need no matter what life is bringing us at the moment to rest in that assurance. God doesn’t give us chocolates or roses to convince us, he gives of himself. We will discover as we journey through Lent what love is prepared to do. 

2. Love is something to do. The first epistle of John makes that clear. If we say we love God but hate our brother and sister we are lying about what we profess. People need to know that they are loved just as they are, and that we mean it. 

What is Christian love? It is genuine and it reaches out - it doesn’t wait for us to ask for it, it embraces us where we are. It is large enough to encompass all the worlds hurts and small enough to meet our every need. It is beyond price, it isn’t bought at a garage as an oh no I forgot. John says God’s love is perfected in us. If we are a community of love, whatever community we belong to this morning, that love brings responsibilities. 

3. Then finally, love is transformative. I was reading a quote found last year in a handwritten note written by Dr Martin Luther King, it went up for auction at a price of 42,000 dollars. 

His words reminded me that Christ like love is radical. King wrote the note after someone asked him what he believed was the meaning of love.  The note reads, "Love is the greatest force in the universe. It is the heartbeat of the moral cosmos. He who loves is a participant in the being of God." There’s an old hymn which talks about losing the love of self and finding the love of God. Love changes everything - how many words of pop songs are hidden in this blog post? Jesus we will discover at the end of our Lenten journey will show us what love is: love gives of itself, it is sacrificial, forgiving, costly, it always has the last word. To be dazzled by its greatness and to be in its presence changes us and the world. 

Today we celebrate love, real love, the love of those around us, the love that puts itself out for us, the love of God in Jesus. We remember that God so loved that he gave, and that generosity is ours to have and share and our being the people of faith in this time is to worship him and to share him whose nature and whose name is love.