大象传媒

Music
Here is love (instrumental)
CD: Simple Instrumental Worship (Integrity)

Welcome

Good morning.听 鈥楾his is love鈥�.听 Those are the words of John, the 鈥榖eloved disciple鈥� -seeing out his later years with the congregation of his beloved church in Ephesus.听 鈥�This is love鈥�.听 In the centuries since, poets and musicians of every hue have been happy to expand on the idea for him.听 To Han Suyin it was a 鈥榤any splendored thing鈥�, to Freddie Mercury it was a 鈥榗razy little thing鈥�, and to William Thackeray it was a thing which makes fools of us all.听 Many will add to that list today with greetings and messages exchanged on St Valentine鈥檚 Day.听 Maybe all those facets of love are true, but as we shall see 鈥� John himself does not leave it undefined.听 On listening to his voice, and other voices from around the worldwide church, we shall try to understand it better.听

Prayer

Dear God, we thank you that you are love.听 You define it.听 You encompass it.听 You are its beginning and end.听 We shall know it better when we know you better.听 We shall plumb its depths when we plumb your depths.听 Today, we ask for the breath of your spirit to inspire and the flame of your spirit to kindle our faith.听 Amen.

Reading: 1 John 4 v. 7 鈥� 11

Music
O love that wilt not let me go
CD: Heartcry Vol. 2: How great is our God听 (Heartcry)听

If we think that John will come to our aid with an easy definition of love, then we are mistaken.听 The 鈥渢his鈥� of his opening statement turns out to be God himself.听 God is love. He goes on to expand by telling us how God has shown his love among us.听 He has shown it in the sending.听 He has shown it in the sacrifice of giving.听 He has shown it in the forgiving too. This is a love which stretches out beyond the confines of its own.听 It is a love which stands tall and gracious when all around is chaos.听 It is a love which gives of itself for the sake of others.听 Ultimately, it is a love which prevails.听 The extent to which we love a God whom we cannot see is measured by the extent to which we love those whom we do.听 Not only that, but in the way we love them, we are to imitate the nature of his love.

Blackburn Cathedral opened its doors as never before when it was transformed into a Covid vaccination centre.听 听

Insert: The Very Rev. Peter Howell-Jones, Dean of Blackburn

When we look at Jesus, we see someone who engages ordinary people on the fringes of community, transforming their lives by his embrace, by his inclusion, by his welcome and by his creativity.听 When at Blackburn Cathedral we agreed to open our doors and provide a long-term home for one of the nation鈥檚 largest vaccinations centres, we did it recognising that at the heart of Christian faith is Christ鈥檚 incarnation.听 God making himself known in the world, the divine becoming human and that humanity being worked out in the messy situations of daily life. Opening our doors to hundreds of people on a daily basis was our way of revealing something of the love of God 鈥� a love that is quietly stretching out to the wider community, to reveal something of the generous hospitality of God today.听 A love that recognises the anxiety and suffering of so many and choosing to respond to a county in crisis by offering the only thing we can, b ecoming a channel through which, the generous love of God can be poured out unconditionally.听听听

Music
Thy perfect love 鈥� John Rutter
Cambridge Singers
CD: Rutter 鈥� A Double Celebration (Collegium Records)

On 听Holy Island, love in a time of lockdown has meant sharing out in such a way that a community cut off from the mainland could sustain each other.听 Rev Sarah Hills is Vicar of Holy Island in Northumberland.

Insert: Rev Sarah Hills, Vicar of Holy Island

We听 are a small community of 150 people听 e. Fishermen, farmers, people in their latter years, school children. A few people have jobs on the mainland, many are retired, some furloughed from the tourism industry. A community of family, friends, neighbours. Some we agree with, some we don鈥檛. Some vaccinated against covid, some not yet.听 Many struggling with the lockdown restrictions, isolation, loneliness. The day-to-day business of food shopping, getting medication from the mainland, fear of the virus sweeping onto the island with the incoming tide. This is a place which has always done 鈥榗ommunity鈥� well. It has had to, cut off twice a day by the tide.

But in this pandemic, we are learning afresh how to live together on this tidal island.听 John exhorts us to love one another since God loved us so much. What does that mean here on Holy Island as we enter 2021, still in the midst of this pandemic? Well, it manifests in the quotidian, the ordinary. We have set up the Holy Island Support Group, o ffers of firewood, help with food shopping, takeaway fish and chips once a week delivered to your door in all weathers. A food pantry in the churc h porch for anyone to help themselves.

Above all, this time of pandemic gives us the realisation that we need each other. We need to give and we need to receive. It is in these ordinary acts of kindness that love is found. It鈥檚 not perfect, we still fall out sometimes, but that鈥檚 OK. We are an ordinary community in an extraordinary place of liminal beauty. St Aidan in the 7th century walked the lanes of this island sharing hospitality, building community, bringing peace 鈥� the good news of Christ. He is a pretty good model for us to follow in the 21st century contending with this time of covid conflict. In these day-to-day acts of love here on Holy Island we can play a small part in building up God鈥檚 kingdom here on earth. Love on Holy Island in a time of covid.

Music
Down Ampney
Christian Forshaw
CD: Sanctuary 鈥� Christian Forshaw (Quartz Music Ltd)

Reading: 1 John 4 v. 12 鈥� 21听

John says that all of this loving is not merely imitation.听 In doing these things as God鈥檚 children we are not simply 鈥榗arrying on a family tradition鈥�.听 Rather, he says, it makes us more fully human. 鈥楾his is how love is made complete among us鈥�. Could it be that we who bear God鈥檚 name begin to understand more of his nature when we take on the mantle of love and service?听 Maybe in the enacting and embodying of his love the mantle of human nature somehow comes to fit us better.听 We become more our true selves.听 Since we are made in his image, and that image is love 鈥� then perhaps we bear it more truly when we enact it more powerfully.听

A home-made village on the outskirts of an abandoned mine near Johannesburg is no place to be when all visible support is cut off.听 Rev Sharron Dinnie, Rector of Kwasa College, Springs, just outside Johannesburg.

Insert: Rev Sharron Dinnie, Rector of Kwasa College

A few weeks into our first lockdown I drove to our school chapel with donations of food and clothing.听 Some of our children and staff were sitting outside and I could see something was wrong.听听 One of the women,听said 鈥榳e鈥檝e run out of food, and people are in pain鈥�.听 We unloaded the gifts together and she immediately halved everything and sent the young children off with one half.听 鈥榃here are they going鈥� I asked, initially concerned.听 鈥楾hey are going to the village to share what we have been given with the people there, because people are hungry鈥�.

More than 1000 people live in shacks and informal housing near our school.听No-one could have seen this disaster coming, but what our staff and children told me then really humbled me.听The villagers began to further share what had been brought.听听

From then on, even though we could never feed everyone who needed help during lockdown, whatever our school was given was halved, and shared with our neighbouring community. Then the community members halved whatever they were given to make the food go further.听Through their concern for each other, all that we had was shared time and again, every day.

Every day our young children who live at or near the school,听 delivered rice or meilies, vegetables or fruit,听 to the elderly and infirm, to the mothers and the aunties, who then cooked and shared again.

Here, in our little corner of the world, love has been taken out with little concern for the risk:听听 听young children and teenagers - without their hands the donations would not have reached the most needy.听 And those most in need took love and shared it.听听 I saw that it takes both giver and receiver to make God鈥檚 love real.

听

Music
大象传媒 recording of Holy Cross Choir made in Holy Cross Church, Soweto, in May 2017.

We often think of the church as a quiet place in a noisy world 鈥� a refuge where we might slip away from the demands outside her doors.听 For many years, St John鈥檚 Church in Lafayette Square, Washington DC has been just that 鈥� offering a place for presidents and citizens to pray.听 More recently, it is a church which has found itself at the heart of the George Floyd protests in the city.听 Rev Robert Fisher, Rector of St John鈥檚 Church Lafayette Square reflects on recent events there, and how how his church has shown love by providing a space of grace鈥�

Insert: Rev Robert W.听Fisher, Rector of St John's Church, Lafayette Square听

St. John鈥檚 Church in Washington, DC was built when our country was very new. In fact, the architect, Benjamin Latrobe, designed St. John鈥檚 as a side project while he was reconstructing the White House across Lafayette Park which was still a ruin after the British burned the city in the War of 1812.

Since then, every president beginning with James Madison has worshiped here. Lincoln used to walk alone across the park at night to sit in the back row pew for quiet reflection and prayer. At our best, over the centuries, St. John鈥檚 has been a place of grace for a city that can be very grace-challenged.

And truly, this church has seen a lot over all this time鈥攂ut never anything like we saw this past summer.

It was complicated, challenging, dramatic鈥攁nd at the heart of it all鈥攁n opportunity to grow in love and to stand up for what is right.

After the murder of George Floyd, we found ourselves at the center of a great outcry for racial justice.

Because of COVID, we at St. John鈥檚 could not bring people into our church space鈥攊nto that space of grace鈥攂ut we could instead bring the church out to the people.

And there were thousands! 鈥攑eople of all ages, all backgrounds, and from all over our country.

There was a crying out taking place, an expression of pain and lament.

There was also听joy and celebration.

And there was even the beginning of a sense of hope that a long awaited change would finally come, that maybe we could get to a place where we would no longer have to say that 鈥淏lack lives matter鈥� because our society would finally live as if they do.

Sadly, of course, we remain far from that place.

Years ago, I came across a book by a Jewish mystic and theologian named Martin Buber called I and Thou.

As I understand what he is saying in that mysterious book:

鈥�It is a holy thing to see another person with the full glory that God sees in that person. When we see one another as 鈥淭hou,鈥� God fills the space between us and the person whom we behold. It transforms us. This is love. It transforms us when humans are able to behold one another in this way.

And when we do this鈥攚hen we appreciate the holiness in the lives of every single person, the sacredness that is planted there鈥攚e will no longer tolerate the injustices that plague our society, the inequity born of centuries of blindness and racism.

To love one another as Jesus loves us involves hating the inequity that I know Jesus also hates.

If we give ourselves to this act of seeing in a holy way鈥攚ith the eyes of God鈥攈ow can we not stand up for love?

Music
There is a balm in Gilead
Kathleen Battle and Jessye Norman
CD: Spirituals in Concert (Deutsche Grammophon)

To hear these stories of the church鈥檚 love in action is to send the spirit soaring.听 All the same, we know that the hate is still out there, baying at the door.听 It is tempting to think that the opposite of love is hate.听 John suggests, though, that it may be fear.听 Fear makes us shrink from the other, rather than embracing them.听 Fear breeds a caution which stifles love鈥檚 inclination to stand out and stretch out and help out and send out.听 The voices which you are hearing tell a story of love doing all those things, and thereby putting fear in its place.听 It was Dr Martin Luther King who said: 鈥渉atred and bitterness can never cure the disease of fear; only love can do that鈥�.听 There has never been such a need to cure that particular disease.听 There has never been such a good time for fear to take a back seat and find itself eclipsed by love.

Music
Clair de lune from Suite bergamasque 鈥� Claude Debussy
Pascal Rog茅
CD: Debussy 鈥� Clair de Lune and other piano works (Decca)

Prayers

Dear God, we thank you today for your people around the world 鈥� driven by love to defy hate.听 We thank you for their costly efforts to reach out, stretch out, stand out and give out 鈥� even as you have done.听 In all of that, we pray that they might indeed be transformed, taking on more of your likeness each day, albeit unknowingly.听 When spirits flag and service proves to be costly 鈥� we pray for renewed strength and courage.听 Where the language of love has been muted by the presence of fear, we ask you to intervene.听 Where the speech of love has been silenced by the white noise of hate, we ask you to step in.听 Today, in every corner of the world where your children will speak out, stand out, stretch out and give out for you, we pray for your strength and courage.

As we continue to live beneath the shadow of a global pandemic, we pray for all who work to show your love in such a time as this.听 We pray for those who provide social and medical care 鈥� proving that love abides.听 We thank you for the tapestry of love, made up of thousands of tiny acts of kindness, which has enfolded our communities.听 Where the going is especially hard today, and loneliness bites deeply, we ask for your grace.

And on this day, the feast of St Valentine, we pray for those who long to be loved.听 We remember the many thousands who have loved and lost in the past year.听 As others look out alone on what appears to be a sea of couples, we ask you to hear their heart鈥檚 cry.听

Together with all God鈥檚 people, wherever they may be, we pray.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen

Music
Love divine, all love鈥檚 excelling
Salisbury Cathedral Choir
CD: Great Hymns from Salisbury (Priory)听

鈥楾his is love鈥�.听 As we have heard 鈥� 鈥榯丑颈蝉鈥� is too small a word.听 Love is beds for the weary and food for the hungry and shelter for the needy and grace for the fearful.听 Love is the very nature of God, refracted in the lens of his people鈥檚 lives.听 It plays across the surface of the world now, like sunlight reflected from a gem -reaching the darkest corners and finding its way into the narrowest places.听 Like any light 鈥� it eclipses the darkness and banishes the shadows.听 This is love.

Music
The Mission: The Falls 鈥� Ennio Morricone
Yo-Yo Ma
CD: Yo-Yo Ma plays Ennio Morricone (Sony)

Poem 鈥楽ounding the seasons鈥� by Malcolm Guite

Blessing

On this day, may our love for God be echoed and amplified by our love for those around us.听 May he be seen in us, and may we see him reflected in each other. Amen.