More on Jesus' Ubuntu with Michael Battle.
Some two thousand years later, Jesus' comforting presence, the Holy Spirit, enables us to move through the bondage of oppressive identities into reconciling ones. The Holy Spirit continues to cause Pentecost and reorients those who follow Jesus, the church, outward and against cultural boundaries, even the boundary of death (Matthew 28:16). It is the presence of the Spirit who raises Jesus from the dead that makes possible the moving out to other cultures.
As I started reading this passage, I was listening to Queen's "Another one bites the dust." How true when we are in the life of the Holy Spirit. The old oppressive powers fall and bite the dust. In the presence of Jesus, there is no other power that can overrule what we hear and see as the Spirit of our Lord is dismantling all the powers that attempt to rule us and contain us. This is an endless reality. Each day and every moment, we must listen to voices that attempt to oppress and change us into something less than the gift we are as people who reside in the Reign of God that is already breaking into the day and breaking down the dividing lines. Another one bites the dust and we are invited to step through the dust...again and again.
Connection: I find that it is important to hear all the coercive voices around us. But then...turn them upside down. Take the power from them. That is what the Spirit enables us to do in the midst of the ordinary voices that are always trying to oppress us - God's beloved.
Lord of Love, again we ask that you lead us through all the debris that is left by the powers of darkness that are always willing to fed us their lies even as we sit at your table full of all that is needed for life abundant. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment