Chapter 7 of 1 Corinthians deals with marriage relationships - always interesting.
Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: "It is well for a man not to touch a woman." But because of cases of sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. the husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but his wife does. Do not deprive one another except perhaps by agreement for a set time, to devote yourselves to prayer, and then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. This I say by way of concession, not of command. (1 Cor. 7:1-6)
There are more questions to be asked in this text than there are answers given. In fact, many of the questions that we could and should ask about what is said are questions that do not come up within these writings. Some examples would be: Do we marry simply to stop the potential for sexual immorality? Is marriage all about sex - conjugal rights seems to be all that is addressed? What about companionship for life...what about two becoming one as in a many-sided and holistic relationship in which both sides find their lives complete in a Genesis kind of way of being human? What if a spouse has an unhealthy sex drive (idolatrous we could say) that is, in essence, abusive to the other spouse for the sake of self? What if conjugal rights become oppressive and so domineering that the spirit of life in the one is broken because of the "rights" of one being met as they would want them met? What if you do not have the need for a relationship, sexual or not, with someone of the opposite sex and you long to be with that person for life? What if the choice of celibacy is not really a choice - what if it is due to abuse or fear of relationship/rejection - could celibacy be quite unnatural? Paul would have everyone be like himself, but we don't know what that is - nor do we need to. Most of all, we must first consider the depth of the command to love one another and to love the Lord, God. Now...how - in any relationship within any community - does a person engage others so that all the people in a relationship or potential relationship are honored as beloved of God? Many questions that take us beyond the bounds of Paul's letter, and yet they take us into the many more facets of our life as sexual beings who are gifted with the wealth of our whole humanity.
Connection: In a culture longing for commands and rules to set everything in its place, today we can look to Paul to remind us that all of this "stuff" is not ruled by commands. Rather, there is always in relationships the need for concessions, exceptions, and that love that take us beyond what the world can offer us.
Creator of Our Humanity, we know that we rest in your love and we are called forward into this day to live within the brilliant image of your likeness. When we long for fences to rule us, show us a new and courageous way to follow you as you beloved. Amen.
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
29 June 2005
This section of 1 Corinthians continues to be with us today.
" All things are lawful for me," but not all things are beneficial. "All things are lawful for me," but I will not be dominated by anything. "Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food," and God will destroy both one and the other. (1 Cor. 6:12-13a) The body is meant not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that whoever is united to a prostitute becomes one body with her?... But anyone who united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. (1 Cor. 6:13b-17) Shun fornication! Every sin that a person commits is outside the body; but the fornicator sins against the body itself. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body. (1 core. 6: 18-20)
Oh how happy are those who can say "I'm no fornicator!" Those are the ones who view sin in degrees and as actions as clear as knowing what it black or white. But sin, when it is seen as a separation from God and from one another, seems to throw all of us into the basket of fornication - as there is no sin greater than any other. When we let our lust for anything drive us and be our purpose for life and our source of energy for the day, we are doomed to be disappointed and to never experience the fullness of life that is promised to all who trust what God says about us and for us...forevermore: You are beloved. But it is much too easy to simply let fornication be that same old same old...sex, sex, sex. When that is the case, we can easily jump to the head of the religious class and receive a reward for our good life not like those who....who....who....fornicate. The Good News in all this conversation about what is not acceptable is the final line: ...you were bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body. Our life has been redeemed...no matter what is the bumbling debt, we have been bought and secured and that is and will be the word about us. Therefore, we can admit to the many ways we fall down and know that the word for this day is that we can begin as though we are only who God says we are. There is a power in that word that will invite us out of the clutches of any power to which we are willing to be whores...any powers.
Connection: There is Good News even in the middle of words that seem to dwell on what we are not to be. The difficult part is to be able to hear the Good News. That is why we are to hear with ears baptized by the Holy Spirit for new life and not the same old rambling we tend to stumble upon much too often in our self-centered world.
Lord, lift us up to see your gift of new life that you already give to us and promise to have waiting for us at the dawn of each new day. Amen.
" All things are lawful for me," but not all things are beneficial. "All things are lawful for me," but I will not be dominated by anything. "Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food," and God will destroy both one and the other. (1 Cor. 6:12-13a) The body is meant not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that whoever is united to a prostitute becomes one body with her?... But anyone who united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. (1 Cor. 6:13b-17) Shun fornication! Every sin that a person commits is outside the body; but the fornicator sins against the body itself. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body. (1 core. 6: 18-20)
Oh how happy are those who can say "I'm no fornicator!" Those are the ones who view sin in degrees and as actions as clear as knowing what it black or white. But sin, when it is seen as a separation from God and from one another, seems to throw all of us into the basket of fornication - as there is no sin greater than any other. When we let our lust for anything drive us and be our purpose for life and our source of energy for the day, we are doomed to be disappointed and to never experience the fullness of life that is promised to all who trust what God says about us and for us...forevermore: You are beloved. But it is much too easy to simply let fornication be that same old same old...sex, sex, sex. When that is the case, we can easily jump to the head of the religious class and receive a reward for our good life not like those who....who....who....fornicate. The Good News in all this conversation about what is not acceptable is the final line: ...you were bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body. Our life has been redeemed...no matter what is the bumbling debt, we have been bought and secured and that is and will be the word about us. Therefore, we can admit to the many ways we fall down and know that the word for this day is that we can begin as though we are only who God says we are. There is a power in that word that will invite us out of the clutches of any power to which we are willing to be whores...any powers.
Connection: There is Good News even in the middle of words that seem to dwell on what we are not to be. The difficult part is to be able to hear the Good News. That is why we are to hear with ears baptized by the Holy Spirit for new life and not the same old rambling we tend to stumble upon much too often in our self-centered world.
Lord, lift us up to see your gift of new life that you already give to us and promise to have waiting for us at the dawn of each new day. Amen.
Monday, June 27, 2005
28 June 2005
Adding to yesterday's discussion of 1 Corinthians 6.
" All things are lawful for me," but not all things are beneficial. "All things are lawful for me," but I will not be dominated by anything. "Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food," and God will destroy both one and the other. (1 Cor. 6:12-13a) The body is meant not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that whoever is united to a prostitute becomes one body with her?... But anyone who united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. (1 Cor. 6:13b-17)
We have a higher calling than to be consumed by or be consumers of anything. We are the followers of Jesus and when we call Jesus "Lord" we are setting ourselves up to be a people whose spirit of life is set within the way of Jesus. Now...how do we deal with this passage. Well, we could consider it to be simply about "fornication." That is...about sex...abusive, inappropriate, and...all-consuming sexual activity. Though that fits the context of this letter, the message of the Good News is made so much less if that is how we talk about the Reign of God in Christ,Jesus, in contrast to the perversion of the world. We are not to "unite" ourselves with any power or force or part of creation to the point that we lose control of the gracious life of the followers of Jesus in community. We are not to become like those who are consumed by consuming. Our appetite is not to be for that which will gratify us at the expense of others and the disrespect of our own lives. Our appetite is for a banquet of solidarity and peace and holiness that is rich with respect, honor, grace, and love for one another. We are not a people who run away from the powers of prostitution, we live a life of graciousness that none of the prostitutes of our day can master. That becomes the blessed community of transformation through which the powers of the day are confronted and their priorities exposed.
Connection: Dream of the hopeful Reign of God. Do not simply let it be a dream...let it be a part of our holy imagination that seeps into all of our days and in every part of our life together. When the powers of the world want us to "sleep with them" it takes much courage and prayerfulness and peace to resist their ways.
Lord of Liberation and New Life, how majestic is your loving presence that attracts us and keeps us firmly held within your ways. Remind us of the power of your Reign as all the powers of this world continue to try and drain us of your vision for new life. Amen.
" All things are lawful for me," but not all things are beneficial. "All things are lawful for me," but I will not be dominated by anything. "Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food," and God will destroy both one and the other. (1 Cor. 6:12-13a) The body is meant not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that whoever is united to a prostitute becomes one body with her?... But anyone who united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. (1 Cor. 6:13b-17)
We have a higher calling than to be consumed by or be consumers of anything. We are the followers of Jesus and when we call Jesus "Lord" we are setting ourselves up to be a people whose spirit of life is set within the way of Jesus. Now...how do we deal with this passage. Well, we could consider it to be simply about "fornication." That is...about sex...abusive, inappropriate, and...all-consuming sexual activity. Though that fits the context of this letter, the message of the Good News is made so much less if that is how we talk about the Reign of God in Christ,Jesus, in contrast to the perversion of the world. We are not to "unite" ourselves with any power or force or part of creation to the point that we lose control of the gracious life of the followers of Jesus in community. We are not to become like those who are consumed by consuming. Our appetite is not to be for that which will gratify us at the expense of others and the disrespect of our own lives. Our appetite is for a banquet of solidarity and peace and holiness that is rich with respect, honor, grace, and love for one another. We are not a people who run away from the powers of prostitution, we live a life of graciousness that none of the prostitutes of our day can master. That becomes the blessed community of transformation through which the powers of the day are confronted and their priorities exposed.
Connection: Dream of the hopeful Reign of God. Do not simply let it be a dream...let it be a part of our holy imagination that seeps into all of our days and in every part of our life together. When the powers of the world want us to "sleep with them" it takes much courage and prayerfulness and peace to resist their ways.
Lord of Liberation and New Life, how majestic is your loving presence that attracts us and keeps us firmly held within your ways. Remind us of the power of your Reign as all the powers of this world continue to try and drain us of your vision for new life. Amen.
27 June 2005
Today we will move back into the letter to the Corinthians.
" All things are lawful for me," but not all things are beneficial. "All things are lawful for me," but I will not be dominated by anything. "Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food," and God will destroy both one and the other. (1 Cor. 6:12-13a)
Grace runs us right to the edge of life. We exist in a realm of freedom that is beyond our comprehension. Therefore, it is important for us to understand that we will either try to fly off that edge and abandon any sense of community and graciousness or we will put on the brakes and never let ourselves get anywhere near the edge. When we put on the brakes because we are afraid of where freedom will lead us we also destroy community. We may make a community of robots who must all fall within a template of existence, but the community of love and graciousness that we inherit in Christ, Jesus, will be a dream miles away. When we fly off the edge because we have let ourselves trust a banner phrase rather than the life behind it (All things are lawful for me), our lives do not take the time to consider how our actions have an impact on the whole of the community and our individual lives. Our community becomes "me" and "mine" which is really no community at all...unless of course , we limit our lives to those whose lives are being ruled by that which pulls them off the edge. I suppose we could put these to categories of extremes onto many different labels - either political or religious - economic or social - sexual or educational. And yet, both are afraid of the call into community with all people. We live on the edge in the domain of grace. It is not always an easy way to live. It is always thrilling because we cannot be there alone. WE must understand that there will be those who are always pulling back from the edge and those who are constantly dangling over the edge...and yet, our God calls the whole bunch of us into a life where grace pulls us to the edge and love keeps us there - together. That, I think, is call the community of Christ.
Connection: Where is the edge? Today we may find ourselves at the edge, pulling away from the edge, and throwing ourselves over it. In the meantime, there will be confusion, anger, and the possibility of immense joy. Where is the edge in the lives we are living TODAY?!?
Gentle Lord of All Hopefulness, the guidance of your Spirit is needed in all we do. Keep us mindful of your gracious presence among us. Amen
" All things are lawful for me," but not all things are beneficial. "All things are lawful for me," but I will not be dominated by anything. "Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food," and God will destroy both one and the other. (1 Cor. 6:12-13a)
Grace runs us right to the edge of life. We exist in a realm of freedom that is beyond our comprehension. Therefore, it is important for us to understand that we will either try to fly off that edge and abandon any sense of community and graciousness or we will put on the brakes and never let ourselves get anywhere near the edge. When we put on the brakes because we are afraid of where freedom will lead us we also destroy community. We may make a community of robots who must all fall within a template of existence, but the community of love and graciousness that we inherit in Christ, Jesus, will be a dream miles away. When we fly off the edge because we have let ourselves trust a banner phrase rather than the life behind it (All things are lawful for me), our lives do not take the time to consider how our actions have an impact on the whole of the community and our individual lives. Our community becomes "me" and "mine" which is really no community at all...unless of course , we limit our lives to those whose lives are being ruled by that which pulls them off the edge. I suppose we could put these to categories of extremes onto many different labels - either political or religious - economic or social - sexual or educational. And yet, both are afraid of the call into community with all people. We live on the edge in the domain of grace. It is not always an easy way to live. It is always thrilling because we cannot be there alone. WE must understand that there will be those who are always pulling back from the edge and those who are constantly dangling over the edge...and yet, our God calls the whole bunch of us into a life where grace pulls us to the edge and love keeps us there - together. That, I think, is call the community of Christ.
Connection: Where is the edge? Today we may find ourselves at the edge, pulling away from the edge, and throwing ourselves over it. In the meantime, there will be confusion, anger, and the possibility of immense joy. Where is the edge in the lives we are living TODAY?!?
Gentle Lord of All Hopefulness, the guidance of your Spirit is needed in all we do. Keep us mindful of your gracious presence among us. Amen
Sunday, June 19, 2005
Friday, June 24, 2005
Here's one last piece from Stanley Hauerwas for a while.
"The name used to indicate the inseparability of worship, evangelism, and ethics is holiness….To be made holy is to have our lives rendered unintelligible if the God who has claimed us in Jesus Christ is not the true God. To be made holy is to have our lives 'exposed' to one another in the hope that we will become what we have been made."
"Holiness" is not likely to be a favorite word for many Lutherans, and maybe with some good reason. The word conjures up images of arrogance and empty moralizing-no one wants to be labeled "holier than thou" or associated with "holy rollers." We hear "holiness" talk and think of closed-minded withdrawal from the world or pretentious fire-and-brimstone preaching. With those mental pictures in mind, it's no wonder that Lutherans are not eager to pursue "holiness," whatever it is.
The problem for us Lutherans, however, comes the moment we read almost any of the New Testament, which unflinchingly calls the followers "a holy nation" and summons us to be holy as God is holy. But of course, to hear Jesus tell it, our holiness is never about abandoning an ungodly secular world because we are too wise or good for it. Rather, it is about being so profoundly shaped by the grace of God that our lives and our faith appear foolish. It is, as Cardinal Suhard of Paris once said, "to live in such a way that one's life would not make sense if God did not exist." For us, holiness is another way of saying that we will be so taken by the reckless love of God that we will really let it guide our actions and living-eve if it means we are dismissed as reckless and silly ourselves. Holiness, then, is the gift of being willing to be marked by love, even when-especially when-that love looks like silliness. What a gift to be so recklessly holy!
Connection: The extravagant love of God frees us to foolishly and recklessly love others. So here is a dare-think of some way that love of God might show up in your day if you had no inhibitions-and then let it happen. There is nothing to lose.
Holy One, pry open our fists clenched tight around our fears, and teach us to let go. And in open-handed surrender, let us become who you have declared us to be. Make us wholly holy. Amen
"The name used to indicate the inseparability of worship, evangelism, and ethics is holiness….To be made holy is to have our lives rendered unintelligible if the God who has claimed us in Jesus Christ is not the true God. To be made holy is to have our lives 'exposed' to one another in the hope that we will become what we have been made."
"Holiness" is not likely to be a favorite word for many Lutherans, and maybe with some good reason. The word conjures up images of arrogance and empty moralizing-no one wants to be labeled "holier than thou" or associated with "holy rollers." We hear "holiness" talk and think of closed-minded withdrawal from the world or pretentious fire-and-brimstone preaching. With those mental pictures in mind, it's no wonder that Lutherans are not eager to pursue "holiness," whatever it is.
The problem for us Lutherans, however, comes the moment we read almost any of the New Testament, which unflinchingly calls the followers "a holy nation" and summons us to be holy as God is holy. But of course, to hear Jesus tell it, our holiness is never about abandoning an ungodly secular world because we are too wise or good for it. Rather, it is about being so profoundly shaped by the grace of God that our lives and our faith appear foolish. It is, as Cardinal Suhard of Paris once said, "to live in such a way that one's life would not make sense if God did not exist." For us, holiness is another way of saying that we will be so taken by the reckless love of God that we will really let it guide our actions and living-eve if it means we are dismissed as reckless and silly ourselves. Holiness, then, is the gift of being willing to be marked by love, even when-especially when-that love looks like silliness. What a gift to be so recklessly holy!
Connection: The extravagant love of God frees us to foolishly and recklessly love others. So here is a dare-think of some way that love of God might show up in your day if you had no inhibitions-and then let it happen. There is nothing to lose.
Holy One, pry open our fists clenched tight around our fears, and teach us to let go. And in open-handed surrender, let us become who you have declared us to be. Make us wholly holy. Amen
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Ready for another helping of "Worship, Evangelism, and Ethics-On Eliminating the And"? Here's another taste:
"We believe that God's salvation is nothing less than participation in God's very life through word and sacrament. Worship is what we do for God, but in that doing we believe our lives are made part of God's care of creation."
God is always turning the tables on us and surprising us with more. Remember the story of King David? He decides he wants to build a "house" for God-a temple. And at least as the story is told in 2 Samuel 7, the king has good intentions: he wants to honor and worship God. He would build a house for God as a gift given in thanks. But God turns the tables on David and promises instead to build a "house"-a dynasty-and the promise of a descendant to rule justly forever. (And those who know the story also know that a mere thousand years later, a descendant of David is born to a backwoods girl named Mary, who names her son Jesus.)
David, of course, has no idea how God will work through him when he makes the offer to build a temple. But as it turns out, it is simply God's character to turn the tables on us, to grace us beyond our imagining, and to draw us into the divine life. We think we will offer God a gift-and at its best, that is what our worship is-but God always beats us to the punch with something more. And what's more, the great exchange doesn't stop there, because our God never settles for simply turning our gifts around. No, we too are turned around, transformed, and drawn into God's saving work. In the table-turning grace of God, we are both gifted and gifts ourselves, both blessed and blessing. In that sense, our worship is always dangerous-or at least adventurous-because it opens us up to receive surprising gifts and to be drawn unexpectedly deeper into the life and love of God.
Connection: God is already at work in you and through you today, even in the mundane details of your day, even in ways you cannot perceive. How might that change the way you face the encounters and tasks in front of you?
Surprise us with grace, O God. We barely know what we are getting ourselves into to ask it, but we ask it nonetheless. Turn the tables on us, and make us into your gifts for the world.
"We believe that God's salvation is nothing less than participation in God's very life through word and sacrament. Worship is what we do for God, but in that doing we believe our lives are made part of God's care of creation."
God is always turning the tables on us and surprising us with more. Remember the story of King David? He decides he wants to build a "house" for God-a temple. And at least as the story is told in 2 Samuel 7, the king has good intentions: he wants to honor and worship God. He would build a house for God as a gift given in thanks. But God turns the tables on David and promises instead to build a "house"-a dynasty-and the promise of a descendant to rule justly forever. (And those who know the story also know that a mere thousand years later, a descendant of David is born to a backwoods girl named Mary, who names her son Jesus.)
David, of course, has no idea how God will work through him when he makes the offer to build a temple. But as it turns out, it is simply God's character to turn the tables on us, to grace us beyond our imagining, and to draw us into the divine life. We think we will offer God a gift-and at its best, that is what our worship is-but God always beats us to the punch with something more. And what's more, the great exchange doesn't stop there, because our God never settles for simply turning our gifts around. No, we too are turned around, transformed, and drawn into God's saving work. In the table-turning grace of God, we are both gifted and gifts ourselves, both blessed and blessing. In that sense, our worship is always dangerous-or at least adventurous-because it opens us up to receive surprising gifts and to be drawn unexpectedly deeper into the life and love of God.
Connection: God is already at work in you and through you today, even in the mundane details of your day, even in ways you cannot perceive. How might that change the way you face the encounters and tasks in front of you?
Surprise us with grace, O God. We barely know what we are getting ourselves into to ask it, but we ask it nonetheless. Turn the tables on us, and make us into your gifts for the world.
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Here's some more from Stanley Hawerwas' "Worship, Evangelism, and Ethics."
"It is not any God that Christians worship, but the God whose justice is to be found in Jesus' cross and resurrection. To learn to worship God truthfully requires that our bodies be formed by truthful habits of speech and gesture. [It is] to acquire a character befitting lives capable of worshiping God."
In the Torah, the people of Israel are told to rehearse the story of God's deliverance constantly. They are to recite the words when they rise and when they lie down. They are to write them on their doorposts and wear them on their bodies. And why all the constant reminders? The people need to be reminded of who and whose they are. The practice of rehearsing the story in all those forms ingrains in them God's saving love for them and the vision of how they are to live in response. By hearing the story again and again, they become who God has declared them to be. By embodying that story in their worship, the cadences and character of God are to become their own as they reflect God's goodness, mercy, and justice.
That is at least one thing that has not changed over the millennia. As the people of God in Christ, we still have to learn who we are. We may think we know exactly who we are-our likes and dislikes, our preferences, and our commitments. Or we may have bought into one of countless other stories offered to us. But the claim of God on us, marked in baptism, reminds us that we must be always re-oriented to the character and grace of God in Jesus. We belong to a new community, we are given a new identity, and we have been drawn into a new story of cross and resurrection. God has done all of that for us. Yet once we are living within that new community and identity, we need to hear, embody, and enact that story again and again to let it sink in and take a hold of us. And that is exactly what we do in the church-in the liturgy, in the Word spoken and sung, and at the Table, we "practice" being who we are. We let the transforming story of God's deliverance in Jesus have its way with us, and as that happens, we learn who we are.
Connection: When voices around us would tell us who and what we are, we are always led back to the ancient-and-yet-new story of God's love for us in Jesus that tells us we belong to God. That story, the gospel story, is simply more real for us than anything else.
Lord, you are forever saving a forgetful people. Speak again amidst all the surrounding noise to remind us who are, and let your story of love open our eyes, mold our hands, and build our lives to be your people.
"It is not any God that Christians worship, but the God whose justice is to be found in Jesus' cross and resurrection. To learn to worship God truthfully requires that our bodies be formed by truthful habits of speech and gesture. [It is] to acquire a character befitting lives capable of worshiping God."
In the Torah, the people of Israel are told to rehearse the story of God's deliverance constantly. They are to recite the words when they rise and when they lie down. They are to write them on their doorposts and wear them on their bodies. And why all the constant reminders? The people need to be reminded of who and whose they are. The practice of rehearsing the story in all those forms ingrains in them God's saving love for them and the vision of how they are to live in response. By hearing the story again and again, they become who God has declared them to be. By embodying that story in their worship, the cadences and character of God are to become their own as they reflect God's goodness, mercy, and justice.
That is at least one thing that has not changed over the millennia. As the people of God in Christ, we still have to learn who we are. We may think we know exactly who we are-our likes and dislikes, our preferences, and our commitments. Or we may have bought into one of countless other stories offered to us. But the claim of God on us, marked in baptism, reminds us that we must be always re-oriented to the character and grace of God in Jesus. We belong to a new community, we are given a new identity, and we have been drawn into a new story of cross and resurrection. God has done all of that for us. Yet once we are living within that new community and identity, we need to hear, embody, and enact that story again and again to let it sink in and take a hold of us. And that is exactly what we do in the church-in the liturgy, in the Word spoken and sung, and at the Table, we "practice" being who we are. We let the transforming story of God's deliverance in Jesus have its way with us, and as that happens, we learn who we are.
Connection: When voices around us would tell us who and what we are, we are always led back to the ancient-and-yet-new story of God's love for us in Jesus that tells us we belong to God. That story, the gospel story, is simply more real for us than anything else.
Lord, you are forever saving a forgetful people. Speak again amidst all the surrounding noise to remind us who are, and let your story of love open our eyes, mold our hands, and build our lives to be your people.
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