20 May 2005

Just whose are we as followers of Jesus as we stand at the end of this week.

Consider your own call brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." (1 Cor. 1:26-31)

This sounds quite like the song sung by Mary in Luke's gospel. The song called the Magnificat. For in that song and these words by Paul, we can hear the grand reversal. We can hear how the way of Jesus, the way of God's will in the flesh, does not sit in the seat of the powers of our day. Rather, Jesus calls us - all of us - even someone like me who does not deserve a place, but is still called beloved without any qualification. From that identity, comes the power for new life. There are no other categories for boasting. In a day in which we hear crusade language rising up within religious communities (off all kinds) we are invited, once again, to settle within the blessed assurance of our status as it is given to us. We are living in a time when the description "Christian" is sounding like Crusader. When that takes place, there is only boasting that will rise among us. There will be no humility, no self-sacrificing love for those who we are told don't deserve it. And yet, we are invited to stand in opposition to such crusading images and recall the servant who call us to serve without condition.

Connection: There will be voices that will rise up to pull us into positions of power that are run by fear and promise new crusades to cleanse us all. Remember that we are already cleanse and nourished for a life that amazes the world with a strange reversal of power - called the love of God.

Lord of New Life, define our lives by your grace and pull us by your Holy Spirit into the realm of that graciousness within this world of division and power. Amen.