The lead piece is from "Amazing Grace by Kathleen Norris. In this book she takes many of the words and images of the faith and attempts to put some reality and life to them.
CHRISTIANIn writing about "commonplace Christians" she knows and can name, Norris writes:
These people are not seeking to "do good" in a way that might be replicated by a compassionate social worker. They're not even trying to "be good." They do what they do because Jesus has asked it of them, and they count their service as the cost of Christian discipleship. I've never heard any of them describe themselves as "enlightened," but they sometimes speak about having been redeemed by Christ... To believe in a spiritual elite is to flirt with the danger of a judgmental mentality, one that history shows us can lead to the worst sort of religious intolerance. If there is any difference between the self-righteous of the narrow-minded Christians who believe that being saved by Christ means that they are morally superior to everyone else, the New Age types who consider themselves more spiritually evolved than the common folk, or the devout free-thinkers who take pride in being beyond any need for God, I haven't been able to detect it.
We are not people who "do a certain thing" or "act a certain way" - we are people who trust in our God whose love for us is revealed in Jesus, the Christ. We are Christians because of where we place our trust. We trust...what God says about us...how God stands with us and is eternally for us...and the place we have been given at the banquet feast within God's reign. That...is what I would call the Gift of the Christian life. That gift...fuels life. That gift...cause things to blossom and grow in our lives. But what make us Christian...is the Gift...freely given and always empowering for life. We are not robots who must act this way or that...or people who claim that God is doing this or that with our lives. We trust God's promise to be for us and with us and then...the Spirit shapes us and moves us and calls us and in many and various ways Christians are a bunch of people as diverse as the field of wild flowers.
Connection: Much of what I do in my day I do because the Holy Spirit encourages me to trust that God's love for me is the truth. Much of what I do in my day has nothing to do with that word of life...in fact I act contrary to that Word. What does God's unconditional word of love for you whip up in your life on any given day...like today?
Life Giving Lord, you are the one who rules over all things. You place us within this day with the reminder that we are your beloved and nothing can prevent that word of life from finding its way to us. Your love shines out to us from the cross for on that "tree" you let no power turn your unbounded love from us. Praise be to you. Amen
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