Godly Love of Self and Neighbor - Fr. David Trautman
On this Third Sunday of Epiphany, we are delighted to welcome Fr. David Trautman as our guest preacher this morning. Fr. David graduated from FSU with a double Major in Philosophy and Religious Studies. He then earned a Master’s degree in Religions of Western Antiquity with a focus on New Testament studies. He completed his seminary training with his wife, Megan, at Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge, PA, receiving his Masters in Sacred Theology in May of 2012. Megan graduated with her Masters in Divinity in May of 2013. While in seminary, he worked as the Director of Communications for the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh and Press Officer for Archbishop Robert Duncan. Upon graduation, he accepted a position at Church of the Ascension in Pittsburgh as Associate Rector. After three years in this position, he was called as the Rector of Trinity Anglican Church in Thomasville, GA. In 2019, he was appointed as the Dean of the Central Deanery in the Gulf Atlantic Diocese. He has led mission trips to the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Rwanda. They have three young children: Amanda (8 years old), Daniel (5 years old), and Luke (3 years old).
In our readings for this Sunday, we continue to receive epiphanies about our Lord Jesus and his desire for us. Today, he reminds us that loving God and loving others as ourselves are our highest callings in this life. In fact, that’s how he himself lived! But we are only able to love others as ourselves because we have been loved. As St. John reminds us in his first epistle: “We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19
Psalm 139:1-18 Domine Probasti
1 You have searched me, Lord, * and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise; *
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down; *
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue * you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before, * and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, * too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit? * Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, * if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 Even there your hand will guide me, *
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me *
and the light become night around me,”
12 Even the darkness is not dark to you; *
the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being; *
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; *
your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, *
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; *
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God! *
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand *
when I awake, I am still with you.
Mark 12:28–34
28 One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30 you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32 Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘he is one, and besides him there is no other’; 33 and ‘to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself,’—this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that no one dared to ask him any question.