ILC Devotion - 28 January 2013

Immanuel Lutheran Church Weekly Devotion

Monday 28 January 2013

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^NRS 1 Corinthians 13:3-8a  If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. ⁴ Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶ it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. ⁷ It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. ⁸ Love never ends.

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The above text is part of the 13^th chapter of First Corinthians. The 13^th chapter is often selected by couples and used in their wedding. Sometimes families select the 13^th chapter for use in a funeral service. Maybe we need to apply the above text to our daily lives, rather than saving it for weddings or a funeral. Before writing my Monday devotion, I saw a TED talk on domestic violence - see link:

http://www.ted.com/talks/leslie_morgan_steiner_why_domestic_violence_victims_don_t_leave.html?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2013-01-27&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email

Leslie, the speaker, offers a compelling narrative of her experience of domestic violence. Domestic violence is what happens when Paul’s 13^th chapter is not heard, honored or followed. In domestic violence, love is perverted, love is desecrated - turned into a demonic caricature of control, anger and abuse. There are two victims: the abuser and the one being abused. For whatever reason the abuser has lost this ability to love and forgive. Love becomes a manipulative tool, used to control and intimidate. The abuser has lost any sense of the beauty, trust or comfort love brings to a relationship. Likewise the one being abused sees love in a distorted sense where the warmth, trust and beauty of love has been transformed into something grotesque and damaging rather than edifying.

The only way to save love is for the one being abused to leave, escape the abuser. Both need to find healing. But all too often the abuser continues abusing others. The one who was abused has to work to rebuild their confidence in love as Paul represents it. Paul presents the ideal of love, as God intends it for us in our daily living. Love is a bright light proudly shining in our lives. Abuse of love hides in the darkness. In darkness is the power to deceive.  It [love] does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. Paul calls upon us to live in the light of love as God intends it and to shine the light of truth in situations where abuse takes place.

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We pray: Loving God, you bestow upon us your perfect love and call upon us to share this love with everyone. Forgive us when we distort this precious gift. Help us to live in your love and faithfully share it with others. In your Holy Name we pray.  Amen.