All Loves Excelling
Into the Flames, by Big J Lections: The Sixth Sunday of Easter , AD 2026 A Homily: Lord, we pray for the preacher, for you know his sins are great. Alleluia! Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed! Alleluia! Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments … Those who keep my commandments are those who love me, and those who love me will be loved by my Father … and I will love them.” Feels kind of ominous, doesn’t it? There’s a way to read these verses that makes them sound conditional, if not a veiled threat. “If you love me, prove it. If you love me, do what I say. If you love me, then I’ll love you.” And that can be a bit of a kick to the gut. Because it feels like judgment; it feels like Law; it feels like the threat of damnation. For whatever else it became, the Protestant Reformation began as a pastoral response to the anguished question, “How can I get right with God? How can I be save...
