Thursday, February 16, 2017

Heather Jephcott writes



A Sacred Kiss

A Sacred Kiss
Love flowing from a pure heart
accompanied by friendly touch
not misconstrued
to mean
anything more
anything less.

A Sacred Kiss
Love expressed simply,
meaningfully,
bursting with friendliness
companionship.

A Sacred Kiss
A sign of love
and holy affection,
brotherly,
sisterly,
motherly
hugs.
A Sacred Kiss
Blessing with love,
divinely anointed,
dedicated to
embracing well.

A Sacred Kiss
An unspoken word of honour
revealing preciousness,
"for you I will live,
for you I will die."

(reflecting on Rom.16:16)

 painting-kiss
 The Birthday -- Marc Chagall

1 comment:

  1. Romans 16: 16 "Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ send greetings."
    St. Paul announced in his epistle to the Christians in Roma (probably in the winter of 56-57 or 58-59, during the reign of Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus) that he was planning to visit the imperial capital in the near future. There was already a large congregation there, composed of Christian Jews and Greeks, under the leadership of St. Peter (though many Protestants have used the absence of any direct mention of Peter in the epistle as evidence that Peter could not have been the first pope). The Gentiles were in the majority, but the Jews held that their traditions gave them a special position in the church. Since Paul had finished his eastern missionary work, he sought to unify the Roman congregation and make it the center of proselytization westward, he presented his letter as a full doctrinal treatise, the most systematic of all his epistles. Almost every influential Christian thinker, including Origénes Adamántios, Tommaso d'Aquino, Pierre Abélard, and Philip Melanchthon, wrote noteworthy commentaries on "Romans." For Martin Luther it contained "in richest measure what a Christian should know, namely, what Law, Gospel, sin, punishment, grace, faith, righteousness, Christ, God, good works, love, hope, cross, is, and how we should comport ourselves against every one, whether he be pious or a sinner, strong or weak, friend or enemy, and against ourselves.... Wherefore it seems that St. Paul ... wanted to condense the entire Christian and Gospel doctrine in a brief summary, and prepare an introduction to the entire Old Testament." Many theological notions were derived solely or mainly from the epistle: St. Augustinus of Hippo acquired his idea of original sin from Romans 5, Luther gained his understanding of justification by faith alone from Romans 3-4, Jean Calvin obtained his doctrine of double predestination from Romans 9-11, John Wesley got his ideas on sanctification from Romans 6 and 8, and Karl Barth derived his notion of the importance of the righteousness of God from Romans 1 and 2.

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