An Old Commandment

This meditation is based on a passage for February 13, 2011 in the Daily Lectionary Year 1 from the Book of Common Worship for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) (1993).

Text: 1 John 2:3-11

Reflection and Question: The preacher here gets carried away as he commends to his listeners to love one another in the community created by faith in Jesus Christ. Images of new and old commandments, light and darkness, truth and lies tumble over each other. The preacher’s bottom line is to love your brother or sister in Christ — that is both the old and the new commandment. This holds today as it did then. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Christians have been telling us for decades that condemnation does not fulfill the command to love them. How has darkness brought on blindness in the church?

Prayer: Holy Spirit of the living God, bring us from darkness into the light of eternal love. Inspire us to love all our brothers and sisters in the body of Christ so that we may obey the commandment that is always new. Find Your truth in us, we pray. Amen.