I have found very back and forth information on St. Valentine. I've read history.com and wikipedia.com and followed other links for more background information. Most sources seem to think that there were at least three Valentine/Valentinus', and they were martyrs. I tried to look for a "reformed" view on this and didn't come up with much. So please any reformers with knowledge on the subject put in your opinion. One view is that St. Valentine was alive around the 260s AD and that he was trying to help "Christians" by performing marriages that were illegal due to the reign of Claudius II. However, if you look up Claudius II, they talk mostly about his battles for the Roman Empire and little about his beliefs or desire to not allow marriage.
What is known is that Geoffrey Chaucer is one of the reasons the holiday is highly associate with romantic love. This occurred in the 14th century. So for six hundred years February 14th has been celebrated for "lovers", take that word loosely.
As a believer in Christ, I acknowledge that God is love. That I fall short daily in loving my God, family, friends, community, and the world. I recognize that part of my sinfulness is forgetting to do what I ought. That the calendar does remind me to celebrate the love I've been given. To remember Easter, my saviors' rise from death and all that he conquerred in that act. At Christmas, we remember His birth and the sacrifice Christ made to become human and put on this humiliating form. That there were many believers who have lived and fought for the faith. St. Pattrick and his enlightened idea that a Shamrock shows us how the trinity is three persons yet One God. Saint Nicholas and his fight for Christ's deity at the council of Nicea and caring for poor and needy in his community.
Should I remember daily that God is love (1 John 4:16), showed us what love looks like in Christ, and that I should do the same? No question, may it always be. But to be honest, I do not remember everyday. I do remember some days, even ones that aren't special occasions, but will I like the Puritans do away with the calendar holidays? No. the Puritans believed in only celebrating two things: the Day of Humiliation and Fasting and the Day of Thanksgiving and Praise. These days were not scheduled but celebrated whenever they felt God had bestowed "good gifts." Well shouldn't that be every day, or what if you forgot for a decade?? (I'm not trying to hate on the Puritans, they like anybody had strengths and weaknesses) I recognize my sinfulness and my inability to live perfectly just now. One day I will be as I ought, but I'm not there yet. I hope to decrease as Christ increases in me, and do what I ought more and more. Bottom line is, we believers will be known by our love (John 13:35). I choose to (by relying on God) be a part of redeeming this holiday and everything else our culture tries to drain the meaning out of. Mark Driscoll's idea of redeeming holidays reminds me of the scripture that says Christ came not to abolish the law, but fulfill it (Matt 5:17). Instead of casting it aside lets remember how it can point us to Love.
I will celebrate the truth on V day: that the history of the day is sketchy at best, but has become a symbol of love. Believers know the Author of love. We know that we can love each other only because we have been loved first. I'll end with C.S. Lewis, "God lends us a little of His reasoning powers and that is how we think; He puts a little of His love into us and that is how we love one another. When you teach a child writing, you hold its hand while it forms the letters: that is, it forms the letters because you are forming them. We love and reason because God loves and reasons and holds our hand while we do it."
No comments:
Post a Comment