The Pledge of Love

This coming sunday, Sunday 8 April, is Easter sunday. It is the crest of the Christian calendar, the high point of Christian faith, as we remember and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.

It is also the last of our lenten meditations on lament.

Last night's lament was a journey through the seven last words of Jesus on the cross, with the small group of women and men who remained with him, who took him from the cross to the tomb, and who returned after the sabbath to anoint his body only to find it gone. And we joined together to return to the Lord with our wounds, because he is wounded to.

‘Come, let us return to the Lord;
   for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us;
   he has struck down, and he will bind us up.
After two days he will revive us;
   on the third day he will raise us up,
   that we may live before him.
Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord;
   his appearing is as sure as the dawn;
he will come to us like the showers,
   like the spring rains that water the earth.’
      Hosea 6:1-3

This sunday's lament is called 'Come Lift Up Your Sorrows: Rejoice With Those Who Rejoice, Weep With Those Who Weep.' During this meditation we will be celebrating the Meal, the Lord's Supper, communion, the eucharist, in the manner that the Anabaptist martyr (and my personal hero) Balthasar Hubmaier offered, which includes a liturgy called The Pledge of Love.

Whilst I will probably reword some of it to make it more accessible for our modern world, I adore the essence of the Pledge of Love. It captures in a liturgy the essence of the Anabaptist understanding of community, the interdependant commitment to each other through all that may come, inspite of personal preferences - a community that lives and breaths together, that rejoices with those who rejoice and weeps with those who weep, that is wounded with those who are wounded and haunted with those who are haunted.

You may know the Pledge of Love already, but I post here for those who haven't yet read such beauty.

The Pledge of Love

Brothers and sisters, if you will to love God before, in, and above all things, in the power of his holy and living Word, serve him alone, Deut. 5; 6; Exod. 20, honour and adore him and henceforth sanctify his name, subject your carnal and sinful will to his divine will which he has worked in you by his living Word, in life and death, then let each say individually: "I will".

If you will love your neighbour and serve him with deeds of brotherly love, Matt 25; Eph 6; Col 3; Rom 13:1; 1 Pet 2:13f., lay down and shed for him your life and blood, be obedient to father, mother and all authorities according to the will of God, and this in the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, who laid down and shed his flesh and blood for us, then let each say individually: "I will".

If you will practice fraternal admonition toward your brethren and sisters, Matt 18:15ff.; Luke 6; Matt 5:44; Rom 12:10, make peace and unity among them, and reconcile yourselves with all those whom you have offended, abandon all envy, hate, and evil will toward everyone, willingly cease all action and behaviour which causes harm, disadvantage, or offense to your neighbour, if you will also love your enemies and do good to them, and exclude according to the Rule of Christ, Matt 18, all those who refuse to do so, then let each say individually: "I will".

If you desire publicly to confirm before the church this pledge of love which you have now made, through the Lord's Supper of Christ, by eating bread and drinking wine, and to testify to it in the power of the living memorial of the suffering and death of Jesus Christ our Lord, then let each say individually: "I desire it in the power of God".

So eat and drink with one another in the name of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. May God himself accord to all of us the power and the strength that we may worthily carry it out and bring it to its saving conclusion according to his divine will. May the Lord impart his grace. Amen.¹