When the Old Becomes New

Preparing for the Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany: Two Days before Sunday (Year A)

Scripture

Psalter: Psalm 119:1-8

Old Testament: Leviticus 26:34-46

Epistle: 1 John 2:7-17

___

Prayer

O God, you spoke your word and revealed your good news in Jesus, the Christ. Fill all creation with that word again, so that by proclaiming your joyful promises to all nations and singing of your glorious hope to all peoples, we may become one living body, your incarnate presence on the earth. Amen.

___

Reflection

Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word that you have heard. et I am writing you a new commandment that is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining (1 John 2:7-8).

Have you ever seen or heard something familiar for the very first time? Perhaps it was a painting that you have looked at many times or rereading a poem you can recite from memory or a conversation in which you began to see long time friend in a different light? If we are attentive, there are times when the familiar, the old takes on a new perspective.

The writer of 1 John wants his readers to see the old commandment to love one another in a new light. For centuries, the admonition to love God and neighbor was central to Israel’s way of life that was to be embodied in the law of Moses, the Torah. The command to love God harkens back to Moses (Deuteronomy 6:1-5), and love for neighbor was commanded way back in the book of Leviticus, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (19:18). Jesus places these two commands as the hooks on which the Jewish Scriptures hang (Matthew 22:37-40), and John states near the end of his letter that love for God and neighbor are intrinsically connected. “Those 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” (1 John 4:20).

So, the command to love is old, but in what way is it new? Quite simply and profoundly Jesus is the one who makes it new. Jesus embodies in his life and work how we are to love God and neighbor.

We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another (1 John 3:16).

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In 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. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another (1 John 4:7-11).

The love that we are to have is so committed to the other that it may well lead to our cross. Jesus love for us is cruciform. Our love is to be cruciform as well; and it does no good to say, “Well, Jesus was the Son of God, I am not. I can’t love like that.” The New Testament seems to think otherwise.

I am certainly not suggesting that such love for others is easy; but it is commanded. Fortunately, we are not without help. We have the Holy Spirit to make possible what we cannot do on our own. We also have our fellow Christians who love us in this way. They strengthen us in the sometimes difficult way of following Jesus.

Such love is found in the Word of God and the Word is also found in us (1 John 2:14). That Word assists us in seeing this old commandment as something new. Jesus has made it so.

PRAYER: Holy God, you gather the whole universe into your radiant presence and continually reveal your Son as our Savior. Bring healing to all wounds, make whole all that is broken, speak truth to all illusion, and shed light in every darkness, that all creation will see your glory and know your Christ. Amen.

___

My web portal to all things “Faith Seeking Understanding” can be found here.