Readings: Exodus 20:1-17, Psalm 19, 1 Corinthians 1:18-25, John 2:13-22
The cross is where we see, again and so very clearly, the love God has for us. In Jesus Christ, God-made-flesh, we see that the promises of God, that the covenants God has made, are true.
When God and people disagree about things, God does not run. God does not turn God’s back on when the going gets tough. Jesus would be tried and killed for the things he preached and the love he showed to certain kinds of people—but he stuck with it.
Neither does God smite us for disobedience. Jesus didn’t send armies of angels to rescue him from death on a cross—no more flood waters to destroy the earth even when God’s son was crucified. God stays in relationship that is grounded in who God is for us—God is steadfast love and faithfulness, God is God who rescues from slavery, God is God who would die on a cross and rise again so that God could continue to love, claim, bless, and save us: And God is God who would adopt us, through baptism into Christ, that we might join God in loving, saving, and blessing the world.
God is God of all the world, but in some foolish scheme God has chosen weakness as God’s strength. God has chosen death on a cross as love’s victory. God has chosen us to be a people through which God blesses the world: the followers of Christ to be Jesus’ body in the world today.
A quote attributed to Theresa of Avila is this: “Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”
Though I’m not completely convinced that God works only through the church, I know for certain that God works particularly, and especially, through the church. And that means that God is with you, Christ is in your good works, wherever you go, 24/7/365.
The 10 Commandments are God’s covenant with a people chosen, ordained, and called to be God’s people—because God will be and is God to them. In baptism, we are adopted into a new covenant. Brothers and sisters, as Peter put it, “you are chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
It is our proclamation of the foolishness of the cross, it is the foolishness of weakening one’s self for the sake of the neighbor, and standing up for the least and the weak in the world, that shows the world the love of God in Christ Jesus. God’s saving, loving, and blessing the world happens through God’s people, the body of Christ. Your ten fingers, your ten toes, your 24/7/365 is where God has chosen for the love of Christ to dwell. “Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world.”
God said: “I am the LORD your God” and the cross of Christ shows us the extent of God’s love for us.
As in the words of Psalm 19: May the words of our mouths, and the meditation of our hearts, be God’s love in Christ for the world today.
When God and people disagree about things, God does not run. God does not turn God’s back on when the going gets tough. Jesus would be tried and killed for the things he preached and the love he showed to certain kinds of people—but he stuck with it.
Neither does God smite us for disobedience. Jesus didn’t send armies of angels to rescue him from death on a cross—no more flood waters to destroy the earth even when God’s son was crucified. God stays in relationship that is grounded in who God is for us—God is steadfast love and faithfulness, God is God who rescues from slavery, God is God who would die on a cross and rise again so that God could continue to love, claim, bless, and save us: And God is God who would adopt us, through baptism into Christ, that we might join God in loving, saving, and blessing the world.
God is God of all the world, but in some foolish scheme God has chosen weakness as God’s strength. God has chosen death on a cross as love’s victory. God has chosen us to be a people through which God blesses the world: the followers of Christ to be Jesus’ body in the world today.
A quote attributed to Theresa of Avila is this: “Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”
Though I’m not completely convinced that God works only through the church, I know for certain that God works particularly, and especially, through the church. And that means that God is with you, Christ is in your good works, wherever you go, 24/7/365.
The 10 Commandments are God’s covenant with a people chosen, ordained, and called to be God’s people—because God will be and is God to them. In baptism, we are adopted into a new covenant. Brothers and sisters, as Peter put it, “you are chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
It is our proclamation of the foolishness of the cross, it is the foolishness of weakening one’s self for the sake of the neighbor, and standing up for the least and the weak in the world, that shows the world the love of God in Christ Jesus. God’s saving, loving, and blessing the world happens through God’s people, the body of Christ. Your ten fingers, your ten toes, your 24/7/365 is where God has chosen for the love of Christ to dwell. “Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world.”
God said: “I am the LORD your God” and the cross of Christ shows us the extent of God’s love for us.
As in the words of Psalm 19: May the words of our mouths, and the meditation of our hearts, be God’s love in Christ for the world today.
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