Opening Prayer:
Merciful and kind God, thank you for being quick to forgive and slow to anger. As we start this week, save us from our small thoughts that this week is only about making more money, keeping everyone happy, having a little fun, or "just getting by." Restore us to your vision of good life which is nothing less than life lived out of gratitude for your love, life spent honoring you by doing great things and by serving those in need. That is life worthy of eternity.
Scripture: Matthew 3: 1-17
Comments:
This past weekend I got a better idea of what it looks like to empty myself. After swimming and biking in the Florida summer heat at full speed, I got off my bike and began to run a 5k on the way to completing a sprint triathlon. My shoes squished with sweat each time I took a stride, my mouth was dry, my head was pounding, and I was running out of energy. Sportscasters working the Tour de France often say of cyclists climbing one of the Alps, "He's turning himself inside out!" I certainly wasn't climbing an Alp, but I did feel like I was turning myself inside out, expending every last drop of energy. Hmmm, I wonder if spending every last drop of energy in life on Jesus' work to bring wholeness to this broken world is what Jesus means when he says to his disciples and other followers, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it (Mark 8: 34-35)?"
In today's reading, we find John the baptist in the desert crying out to the world to turn away from their sin and turn back to following God. The desert...really? Why not go to Jerusalem or New York City where people actually live if you want to get the word out? Why would God want to call people out to the desert to turn back to him? Hmmm...could it be that going out to the desert requires us to be inconvenienced, to have to go out of our way, to step aside from what is normal for us, to empty ourselves of our broken ways of living so that we will be cleaned out and ready to receive the new life Jesus comes to give?
This God of ours doesn't always seem interested in our convenience or in perpetuating our life-denying ways of living. This is no namby-pamby, feel good, positive thinking, "programs to make your life better" God. This is a God who says, "You want eternal life, you've got to die to your selfish ways and turn back to me, plain and simple." Hmmm, that will need some time to ponder. God seems resolutely focused on reorganizing our lives according to his ways, ways of love, justice, and mercy, even if that means inviting us out to the desert to empty ourselves.
Life Questions:
1. In what ways do I love convenience more than I love God?
2. What in me needs to be empty on my way to the desert to be filled by the loving, saving presence
of Jesus Christ and his Spirit?
Closing Prayer:
Save us from a life of weak resignation to "normal." Fill us with a passionate, all out love for you and the creation you have died and risen to save. In the name of Jesus who fills us with life overflowing, amen.
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