01-26-21

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
January 26, 2021
Scripture: James 2:14-16
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?

Thought for the Day: In one of his sermons, St. Augustine wrote: “Faith is to believe what you do not yet see; the reward for this faith is to see what you believe.” I have been reading these words over and over again and wrestling with them. Faith is so often depicted as nothing more than a ticket to heaven that requires only a few magical words. This approach demeans the Biblical understanding of faith and diminishes the sacrificial power of the cross. Dietrich Bonhoeffer called it cheap grace. Am I suggesting works righteousness, the dreaded Protestant heresy? Maybe? Sort of? Yet at the same time, my faith depends entirely on grace. Faith allows me to imagine the Kingdom of God given to creation through grace, even though I cannot yet see it in the world. At the same time, this faith invites me to live into that image of the Kingdom, and suddenly it is manifesting itself in tangible ways in the world.

Prayer: Give me a faith that clings to the idea that kindness and love and mercy can exist in this world. I need your help, Gracious God, as the antitheses of these holy attributes often seem to be more prevalent. May I never lose hope. Amen.

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