Word to the Wise
Wednesday, January 9, 2019 - Wednesday after Epiphany, or Jan. 9
[1 John 4:11-18 and Mark 6:45-52]WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2019 CHRISTMAS WEEKDAY [Wednesday after the Epiphany] [1 John 4:11-18 and Mark 6:45-52] God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him. [1 John] One of the important words in the gospel and letters of John is “remain.” It does not have the meaning of “leftover” or “staying behind afterward,” but more the meaning of the word “abide” (as in the old hymn “Abide with me”). In today’s first scripture “remain” appears four times as a way of describing God’s abiding presence in a person who loves God and neighbor. For some, the term “grace” might explain this presence. For me, I tend to think of it in terms of friendship. A friend is someone whose presence in one’s life is “there” even if that friend is thousands of miles away physically. The scriptures in this period after the Epiphany are showing us the importance of God’s love manifested in the birth and ministry of Jesus. The Word was made flesh and dwelled among us, as the Prologue to the Gospel According to John. Jesus is love personified and he invites us to do the same. The opening lines of today’s first scripture make this clear: “If God so loved us, we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us.” AMEN