05. The Work of Love

Friday 16th Feb 

(for more details see here)

 

Pause:

Dear Lord, 
Help me keep my eyes on You.
You are the incarnation of Divine Love, You are the expression of God’s infinite compassion, You are the visible manifestation of the Father’s holiness.
You are beauty, goodness, gentleness, forgiveness, and mercy.
In You all can be found. Outside of you nothing can be found.
Why should I look elsewhere or go elsewhere?
You have the words of eternal life, You are food and drink, You are the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
You are the light that shines in the darkness, the lamp on the lampstand, the house on the hilltop.
You are the perfect Icon of God. In and through You I can see the Heavenly Father, and with You I can find my way to Him.

O Holy One, Beautiful One, Glorious One, be my Lord, my Saviour,
my Redeemer, my Guide, my Consoler, my Comforter, my Hope, my Joy, and my Peace.
To You I want to give all that I am.
Let me be generous, not stingy or hesitant.
Let me give You all—all that I have, think, do, and feel.
It is Yours, O Lord. Please accept it and make it fully Your own.

Amen.

HENRI NOUWEN (A Cry for Mercy)

 

Today's reading: John 13. 1-5

If you've ever witnessed anything so shocking that it seems like... time... itself... ...slows... .....right..... ......down...... then you might understand a little of what I'm about to describe...

We are all reclining together around the table. There's talking, there's laughing, there's eating, there's drinking.
There is deep sharing.
We have walked together through the most transformation years of our lives - seeing and feeling more than our hearts knew they had capacity for. Some of our most precious moments are when can be alone together with Him.
Away from demands.
Away from danger.
Times just like this.

Then unannounced, Jesus gets up. We are all kind of leaning on each other, so no-one could miss it when He broke the circle of friends.

Eyes turn to the Master... awaiting instruction... But none comes.

He takes off His tallit katan, His rabbi's robe, and throws it off to the side... What on earth is He doing?

Then He picks up a towel and wraps it around His waist... just like a servant would. The picture jars - this is all wrong. This is Jesus, our Master, our Friend, of everywhere here He is the last person who should be doing this.

Next He picks up an empty jug, and walks over to ceremonial water jars by the door. The ones we all walked straight past as we arrived. We had ignoring them as best we could, wanting to avoid get lumbered with their work.

He pours the water out in a bowl. Eyes that were fixed on Him now start to flit around the room.
An uncomfortable silence descends upon us.
We fear what's coming.
But no... surely not...

Carrying the bowl over, Jesus kneels at the feet of one of us. He gently begins to undo their sandal! Naturally the sandals is dirty, and dusty; it's going to be sweaty and smelly. Not something your Master should have to touch, let alone wash! 

But taking their foot in His hands, He lowers into the cool water, and works it between the toes... and into the sole of the foot... taking care to remove the caked layer of dust and dirt that has built up through the day.

Dumbstruck, we watch as Jesus continues from one foot to the other... and then from one of us to the next... showing no signs of slowing.

When we're not staring at His hands we're looking at His face. Perhaps He is doing this in anger - begrudging trying to make a point? Or is He disappointed in us - and doing this because He wants us to make us feel guilty?

No.

His face is quite serene... relaxed... happy even.
This isn't a chore, or a point, or a guilt trip.
He's not doing this with any hint of aggression, or frustration, or duty...
This is simply a labour of love...
 
 

Reflection: The Work of Love

"Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end."

JOHN 13.1

He loved them "to the end..." - a phrase in the original Greek language that can be translated as: "He showed them the full extent of His love..."

The full extent - all the way to the cross. Some people might use the phrase: "I love you to death.", but Jesus didn't just say that... He showed us that.

In both big ways and small ways and every way possible, Jesus life and death are purely and simply: love on display.
 

Questions for today:

We often think of love as an inner, invisible feeling, but the missionary Heidi Baker has a powerful phrase: “Love looks like something.” For Jesus it looked like picking up a bowel, kneeling down, and washing our feet. For Jesus it looked like the cross.

How might my love for others be seen?
What will love look like for me today?
 

Prayer:

Dear Jesus, help us to spread Your fragrance everywhere we go.
Flood our souls with Your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess our whole being so utterly
that our lives may only be a radiance of Yours.
Shine through us and be so in us that every soul we come in contact with may feel Your presence in our soul.

Let them look up and see no longer us, but only Jesus.
Stay with us and then we shall begin to shine as You shine, so to shine as to be light to others.
The light, O Jesus, will be all from You. None of it will be ours.
It will be You shining on others through us.
Let us thus praise You in the way You love best by shining on those around us.
Let us preach you without preaching, not by words, but by our example;
by the catching force – the sympathetic influence of what we do,
the evident fullness of the love our hearts bear to You.

Amen.

MOTHER TERESA
 

 I prayed this.

My prayer for today: (if you would like to, please feel free to add your own prayer here):

 

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