While Al Debelak is on vacation, we will be re-posting devotions from June of 2000.
Text: Matthew 5:17-20
Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments , and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
First of all, the Kingdom of Heaven - or as I call it the Reign of God - is a living reality available now and always. It is life as is lived within God's embrace and as a reflection of the life God wants for God's beloved. With that in mind, even when we stumble and fall and cannot keep every bit of the law...we are still within that embrace - God's Reign and we are still called to live more fully trusting in God's life given for us. Remember, what we often hear as law is not bad. It is life shaping so that we might come to follow the pattern of God's love for one another. Again, today, I shot into a road repair area going much faster than the signs that posted 55. The law calls for 55 for a reason - the welfare of all. It is difficult to see beyond my own wants - speed and speed that will give me what I want...to hell with others! But the law bids me to look beyond myself...to all. The law is not something done to get something. The law is one way we are encouraged to love. Justice/righeousness must be more than a show or a facade - it needs to be our every breath. Just as even the smallest stroke of a hebrew letter makes a difference...so too does my life's smallest stroke bring the Reign of God life to life as I live it.
Connection: The welfare of all - how many times during this day is the command to love pulling you to follow all the way - now. Yes, we often want to follow the law of God's love up to a point...but can we learn to press beyond the points we place in our path and act within the law of love. Even as the least in the Reign of God we are called to be responsible for the fullness of the Reign to come to life. In word...in deed...in presence.
Teaching God and Master of the fullness of life itself, catch our eye, turn our heads, touch our lives so we experience even now the everpresent life within your blessed Reign. Remind us of Jesus' walk within your Reign so we too might walk on in with Jesus at our side. Amen.
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