Hi First Presbyterian,
It’s time for our Mid-Week Meet-Up! I’d like to write to you today about Valentine’s Day, but, first, an update from the Session’s meeting last night. The Session decided to reintroduce food service and eating/drinking back into our church activities. That means serving and eating food may now return to coffee hour, LOGOS, Optimists, and any other church event. The reintroduction of food service is the only change to our COVID protocols at this point, meaning masks are still required in the building for everyone unless actively eating or drinking.
Now, to the topic of Valentine’s Day. It’s interesting to think about how February 14, a day that has historically been a feast day for Saint Valentine in the Roman Catholic tradition, ever became associated with romance. Any historical details about the Saint Valentine celebrated on Valentine’s Day are essentially lost. There are so many conflicting stories about him that all we really know is a man named Valentinus was executed by a Roman emperor at the end of the third century AD for his belief in Christ. It’s unclear when Valentine’s Day was first connected with romantic love, but the first written record comes from a poem written in the fourteenth century by the great English poet Geoffrey Chaucer:
And in a clearing on a hill of flowers
Was set this noble goddess, Nature;
Of branches were her halls and her bowers
Wrought according to her art and measure;
Nor was there any fowl she does engender
That was not seen there in her presence,
To hear her judgement, and give audience.
For this was on Saint Valentine’s day,
When every fowl comes there his mate to take,
Of every species that men know, I say,
And then so huge a crowd did they make,
That earth and sea, and tree, and every lake
Was so full, that there was scarcely space
For me to stand, so full was all the place.
In the section I just quoted, Chaucer is describing a dream in which Nature is presiding over a council where all kinds of birds are choosing mates for themselves. I love watching nature documentaries on Netflix with my kids and learning about the courtship behaviors of birds. Some birds sing. Some birds, like peacocks, display bright and colorful plumage. Some birds, like birds-of-paradise, dance. One thought-provoking way some birds try to attract a mate is by building a nest. Some male birds show off their nest-building abilities to potential female mates to show them how safe and secure their offspring would be if the female would choose that male. I like the image of a bird putting so much time and effort into building a nest for its love-interest, because, to me, it illustrates that love requires preparation. The male bird shows the female bird that he is prepared to raise baby birds with her. Love requires preparation.
Lent, which is approaching next month, is a time of preparation. Specifically, it is a time to prepare for Easter. Sometimes, to understand and to show love, we need to prepare. We need to count the cost of what is required to be in a relationship of love. We need to consider in advance what will be required of us. That is what Lent is all about, and I encourage us all to consider how we will approach Lent as a time to prepare to experience the love of God shared with us through Christ’s resurrection.
Peace to you,
Pastor Neff