2-14-2020

        Matthew 19:6; “So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

    The story of the man known as St. Valentine is murky at best.  He is believed to have lived during the middle part of the third century.  The most widely accepted view is that he was a bishop in the church probably in Rome or at least very close.  At a time of persecution, when it was illegal to be or to help a Christian, Valentinus (Roman version) was a priest who continued to witness about his faith.  Purportedly, he went about performing marriages in a Christian fashion when it was very illegal to do so.  He supposedly encouraged godly love with the type of self-sacrificing love that marriages need. 

    He pushed for marriage based on love and not proprietary relationship.  Marriage was supposed to be living and loving as God designed and not as society had planned.  He was soon arrested for this activity.  As he was under arrest, he eventually came to spend time with the Roman Emperor, Claudius Gothicus, who found Valentinus interesting.  That was until Valentinus tried to convert the emperor to Christianity.  At this instance, the emperor ordered Valentinus to be stoned and then beheaded on the Via Flaminia outside of Rome.  Tradition puts that event on Feb. 14, 269.

    According to tradition, St. Valentine healed a Roman official’s adopted daughter of her blindness.  This is part of what lead to his beatification and sainthood.  He stands as an example of someone who believed in the true love between a husband and a wife and the purity with which God had intended, the mystical union of two person into one flesh.  This is how God designed marriage; one man, one woman, one lifetime.  So today we want to thank God for marriage and for true love, not the Hallmark or FTD or Whitman Sampler version, but the true self-sacrificing love that Jesus demonstrated for us on Calvary.

    This is the love God plans for us here on earth while we travel life’s journey.  He wants us to live a life that is filled with the kind of love which he perfectly showers on us.  Our human love will never be perfect but should be a glimmer of that love.  This is the way God designed it but sin ruined it.  But God is active with his grace to restore us to the life that he has designed for us.

    So as you spend time with your valentine today, remember the love that God has shown you and try and show that same kind of love to those around you especially those whom God has given to you as a spouse or other close family member.  God’s grace will see you through.

Father of all true love, we come to you looking for your grace and mercy.  You lead us into the loving embrace of your arms.  Guard us and guide us by your Spirit.  Be with those who feel unloved.  Bring them the certainty of your hope.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret