We continue with selections from The Justification Reader by Thomas C. Oden.
Life can only be received. Life is offered as sheer gift... Apart from grace one cannot even pray for or hope for a reborn relationship to God. No one can simply grasp, claim, or seize the new birth of faith, hope, and love. They are gifts of the Spirit which until given, the unawakened sinner cannot manipulate into conception, birth, or growth. Like Incarnation and Resurrection, the new birth comes on God's own initiative...
We can choose by God's grace to put ourselves in those places and times where God promises to be present. We can avail ourselves of the means of grace (baptism & holy communion & the Word), but not so as to control them. They remain precisely grace - sheer gift. The teaching of grace stands as a penetrating challenge to all pretensions of self-sufficiency.
The "new birth comes on God's own initiative" and the Good News is all about God's initiative on our behalf. God's reaching in and touching...God's sitting with us and walking with us and eating with us as friend - intimate friend. God acts and beckons us to follow what God promises to put into place. That is why we can indeed choose, by God's grace, to put ourselves within the domain of God's promises. We can indeed seek justice in our world and make for peace even when there is no peace. But then, we act as ones always resting on God's gracious embrace and power. As God gives us life as a gift, we become a part of the gift that is passed on to others. God makes us a gift...part of the reality that is God's reign here and now. No, we can't make sense of it all or claim to have it all...we trust that our God - each day - creates something within our lives that is beyond our abilities and comprehension and yet it is ours to enter as ones gifted by the Spirit.
Connection: It is Friday. It is not the end of the week. It is Friday, the day the Lord has made. It is Friday and the beginning of something new...a gift that we are being handed by the one who reaches in and creates everyday. So, why not enter into this Friday as though it truly is the Lord's day....wrapped up like a heart...a valentine. You are God's beloved.
Loving Lord, you have gifted many people who have become for us a witness to your love that will not let us go. Continue to nudge us and move us so that in the many ways we encounter this day we may touch those around us with the gift of life you promise for all. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment