Valentine !
Some years ago, as some of you know, I took Helen to Rome for Valentine’s Day – for a long time after a number of friends were really cross with me as their wives commented on what a romantic gesture this was – of course the trip did happen to coincide with the Wales v. Italy rugby international taking place in Rome that weekend, for which as an extra Valentine’s present I managed to get some tickets !
The match took place in the Stadio Flaminio, at the end of the Via Flaminia, the place where Valentine is alleged to have died… Of course alleged is a very important word when thinking about Valentine, and the celebration of St Valentine has always been a little bit suspect as nothing is really known about him.
There are many legends with perhaps the most popular being about a Priest who lived about 250 years after Jesus was born – he lived in Rome during the reign of the Emperor Claudius – Claudius was committed to rebuilding the once-great Roman army. However, he believed it was important for men to volunteer for armed service, rather than drafting men into service against their will. But, given a choice, most young men in the Roman Empire refused to serve. They’d rather stay at home with their wives and children than go off into battle.
Claudius came to believe that only single men would volunteer for service, so he issued a royal edict that banned all further marriages, earning himself the nick-name Claudius the Cruel. Valentine thought it was ridiculous! One of his favourite duties as a priest was to marry people. So after Emperor Claudius passed his law, Valentine secretly continued performing marriage ceremonies. He would whisper the words of the ceremony, while listening for soldiers on the steps outside.
One night, Valentine did hear footsteps at his door. The couple he was marrying escaped, but he was caught. He was put in jail and sentenced to death. While he was there, many of the young couples he had married came to visit him in jail. They threw flowers and notes up to his window.
One day, he received a visit from the daughter of one of the prison guards. Her father allowed her to visit him in his cell and they often sat and talked for hours. She believed he did the right thing by ignoring the Emperor and performing weddings. On the day Valentine was to die, he left her a note thanking her for her friendship and loyalty. He signed it, “Love from your Valentine.” That note started the custom of exchanging love notes on Valentine’s Day. It was written on the day he died, February 14, 269 A.D.—a day that was set aside in honour of a man who gave his life for God and for love. Now, every year on this day, people remember Saint Valentine – they send cards, so many in fact that in America the day is also known as Hallmark Day, in honour of the card manufacturers, but most importantly, people think about love.
A little girl told her teacher, “Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on after shave and they go out and smell each other.” In a rather tenuous link – love is what I want to think about this evening – it’s a subject we’ve thought about quite a bit recently through the readings in Church, but it’s a subject that once again is highlighted as we prepare to enter Lent on Wednesday and into the season when we especially think about the love that Jesus has for us, and the cost of that love for him….
In both of our N.T. readings this evening the subject of love is touched upon – in the 1st letter of John (3:1-3) we are told, ‘See what love the Father has for us, that we should be called children of God…’ In the gospel (John 12:27-36a) the word love is not mentioned at all but Jesus talks about his death – he says that he will be lifted up from the earth and draw all people to himself – in those words he spoke about being lifted onto the cross with his arms open pleading for people to come into those arms, but he spoke also of being raised up to heaven, to God’s eternal kingdom, where the invitation is extended to us all to join him…
In the next chapter of the gospel of John we move to what we know as Maundy Thursday – the night of the betrayal of Jesus – then he washes the disciples feet and during the course of that evening told in chapters 13 to 17 of the gospel of John, he mentions the word love 30 times…
It was love that would take him to the cross – and love that would enable him to offer his victory with us all…
And so we are called to receive his love, to offer our love back and to share that love.
There’s a saying associated with a theologian who was asked the greatest piece of theological insight he had ever learnt, and he replied, ‘Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so…’ There was no great theological depth, but simply a repeat of a poem in a children’s book – but it was the greatest theological truth ever, and it remains so – Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so…
There is nothing more profound, nothing more important, than recognising and receiving the love of Jesus…
And then we must offer him our love back – at the time Jesus spoke, a rabbi’s disciples were known as servants but Jesus changed all that – ‘you are my friends – I no longer call you servants…’ It’s relatively easy to say that Jesus loves us – to look at the cross, the sacrifice, the gifts, and so on, but it’s a different thing to say we love him, because love involves an element of cost – love means committing ourselves to a message that isn’t always easy to live out…
And Paul sums up a little of what this means in his letter to the Romans (12:1,2) taken from the Message Bible, ‘Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going out to work, and walking-around life – and place it before God as an offering.’
And then we are to share that love – throughout the gospels Jesus preaches the message, ‘love one another’… in the gospel of John (15:12) he says to ‘love one another as I have loved you’ – and Jesus on that first Maundy Thursday night gave an example of what he meant – later of course he would even die for his people, but first there was a very practical demonstration of his love…
The roads of Palestine were dusty and dirty and as people entered a house it was customary for a servant to wash the feet of a guest before they sat down to dinner. But on this night, it wasn’t any ordinary servant, but Jesus himself, who would wash the filthy feet of his friends…. The son of the living God would get on his knees and wash dirty feet…
He shared his love and we are called to do the same…
St Valentine may be associated with this day – but there’s a more important love to think about – the love of God for us, and our love for him and for each other, and for everyone else… As a Church, we are to be a community of love, extending our hands out to greet people and to help people and just to hold people…
Jesus asks us to receive his love – to offer our love back and to share that love in lives of service and compassion…
‘See what love the Father has for us’, wrote John, ‘that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are…’ AMEN
The match took place in the Stadio Flaminio, at the end of the Via Flaminia, the place where Valentine is alleged to have died… Of course alleged is a very important word when thinking about Valentine, and the celebration of St Valentine has always been a little bit suspect as nothing is really known about him.
There are many legends with perhaps the most popular being about a Priest who lived about 250 years after Jesus was born – he lived in Rome during the reign of the Emperor Claudius – Claudius was committed to rebuilding the once-great Roman army. However, he believed it was important for men to volunteer for armed service, rather than drafting men into service against their will. But, given a choice, most young men in the Roman Empire refused to serve. They’d rather stay at home with their wives and children than go off into battle.
Claudius came to believe that only single men would volunteer for service, so he issued a royal edict that banned all further marriages, earning himself the nick-name Claudius the Cruel. Valentine thought it was ridiculous! One of his favourite duties as a priest was to marry people. So after Emperor Claudius passed his law, Valentine secretly continued performing marriage ceremonies. He would whisper the words of the ceremony, while listening for soldiers on the steps outside.
One night, Valentine did hear footsteps at his door. The couple he was marrying escaped, but he was caught. He was put in jail and sentenced to death. While he was there, many of the young couples he had married came to visit him in jail. They threw flowers and notes up to his window.
One day, he received a visit from the daughter of one of the prison guards. Her father allowed her to visit him in his cell and they often sat and talked for hours. She believed he did the right thing by ignoring the Emperor and performing weddings. On the day Valentine was to die, he left her a note thanking her for her friendship and loyalty. He signed it, “Love from your Valentine.” That note started the custom of exchanging love notes on Valentine’s Day. It was written on the day he died, February 14, 269 A.D.—a day that was set aside in honour of a man who gave his life for God and for love. Now, every year on this day, people remember Saint Valentine – they send cards, so many in fact that in America the day is also known as Hallmark Day, in honour of the card manufacturers, but most importantly, people think about love.
A little girl told her teacher, “Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on after shave and they go out and smell each other.” In a rather tenuous link – love is what I want to think about this evening – it’s a subject we’ve thought about quite a bit recently through the readings in Church, but it’s a subject that once again is highlighted as we prepare to enter Lent on Wednesday and into the season when we especially think about the love that Jesus has for us, and the cost of that love for him….
In both of our N.T. readings this evening the subject of love is touched upon – in the 1st letter of John (3:1-3) we are told, ‘See what love the Father has for us, that we should be called children of God…’ In the gospel (John 12:27-36a) the word love is not mentioned at all but Jesus talks about his death – he says that he will be lifted up from the earth and draw all people to himself – in those words he spoke about being lifted onto the cross with his arms open pleading for people to come into those arms, but he spoke also of being raised up to heaven, to God’s eternal kingdom, where the invitation is extended to us all to join him…
In the next chapter of the gospel of John we move to what we know as Maundy Thursday – the night of the betrayal of Jesus – then he washes the disciples feet and during the course of that evening told in chapters 13 to 17 of the gospel of John, he mentions the word love 30 times…
It was love that would take him to the cross – and love that would enable him to offer his victory with us all…
And so we are called to receive his love, to offer our love back and to share that love.
There’s a saying associated with a theologian who was asked the greatest piece of theological insight he had ever learnt, and he replied, ‘Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so…’ There was no great theological depth, but simply a repeat of a poem in a children’s book – but it was the greatest theological truth ever, and it remains so – Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so…
There is nothing more profound, nothing more important, than recognising and receiving the love of Jesus…
And then we must offer him our love back – at the time Jesus spoke, a rabbi’s disciples were known as servants but Jesus changed all that – ‘you are my friends – I no longer call you servants…’ It’s relatively easy to say that Jesus loves us – to look at the cross, the sacrifice, the gifts, and so on, but it’s a different thing to say we love him, because love involves an element of cost – love means committing ourselves to a message that isn’t always easy to live out…
And Paul sums up a little of what this means in his letter to the Romans (12:1,2) taken from the Message Bible, ‘Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going out to work, and walking-around life – and place it before God as an offering.’
And then we are to share that love – throughout the gospels Jesus preaches the message, ‘love one another’… in the gospel of John (15:12) he says to ‘love one another as I have loved you’ – and Jesus on that first Maundy Thursday night gave an example of what he meant – later of course he would even die for his people, but first there was a very practical demonstration of his love…
The roads of Palestine were dusty and dirty and as people entered a house it was customary for a servant to wash the feet of a guest before they sat down to dinner. But on this night, it wasn’t any ordinary servant, but Jesus himself, who would wash the filthy feet of his friends…. The son of the living God would get on his knees and wash dirty feet…
He shared his love and we are called to do the same…
St Valentine may be associated with this day – but there’s a more important love to think about – the love of God for us, and our love for him and for each other, and for everyone else… As a Church, we are to be a community of love, extending our hands out to greet people and to help people and just to hold people…
Jesus asks us to receive his love – to offer our love back and to share that love in lives of service and compassion…
‘See what love the Father has for us’, wrote John, ‘that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are…’ AMEN
Comments