The week comes to an end with this strong piece by Robert Bertram in A Time for Confessing.

This systematic demoralizing of people at the very base of their existence, hence their ultimate destruction, is met by Augustana's classic reply: "...we do not become good in God's sight by our works, but...it is only through faith in Christ that we obtain grace for Christ's sake." With this radical re-valuing of sinners solely on the strength of their faith, which renders them valuable because of the One it trusts, the most basic disparity between oppressors and oppressed is effectively undercut not just between one ethnic or sexual group and another, but the most insuperable inequality of all - the gap between the righteous and the ungodly, the good and the bad.

Bertram makes a valuable statement for us. Each of us - baptized in Christ, Jesus - are rendered "valuable because of the One" we trust. No other criteria stands before this. No other criteria diminishes this foundation that is Christ, Jesus, who is eternally for us. When we sing "for all the saints who from their labors rest," it is not merely about those who have recently died. It is for all of us who, need not labor in order to be embraced by the fullness of God's Reign. We can rest in God alone and begin our lives within and through that resting place. From this place there is still law...it is the law of love. No other law can transform and renew and enliven the people of God. It is the power to wipe away all the tears that our divisions and judgments and fears and anxieties have whipped up in order to keep us from being the image of God in the world. Here is an equality that undoes all the gaps...all the gaps.

Connection: Rest, be loved, and know that you are free to be the beloved that you are in God's Reign that is already at hand.

When we are a divided people, O God, you Reign showers down upon us that we may see one another with new eyes and begin to live within the freedom of your love that opens us up to your future. We give you thanks and for the rest you have provided for us. Amen.