07-03-20

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
July 3, 2020
Scripture: Galatians 5:14
For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Thought for the Day: If you were to sit in and listen to Board Meetings from a dozen different churches, how do you think you’d summarize what you heard? Would it be entirely focused on love? Or would the energy and passions give the appearance that round tables are better than rectangle shaped tables; that organ music should be played a bit more softly; that fingerprints all around the light switches are to be blamed on the Boy Scouts? All three of these points come from my own experience, listening to impassioned speeches on the topics. At times, it felt like people were throwing down the theological gauntlet as if these issues were front and center in the ministry of Jesus. Going beyond Board Meetings, how would people summarize your faith based upon your Facebook posts, the spending of your money or how you choose a candidate for political office? I’m not raising these questions because I find them easy. When we understand the command to love our neighbor – when neighbor includes those who don’t like or agree with us – it sure challenges many aspects of our lives. There are plenty of folks who would like to keep Jesus confined to an hour or two each week, but that’s just not the way Jesus works.

Prayer: I ask for both strength and wisdom as I strive to love my neighbor as I have been taught through the life of Jesus. O God, keep me just a bit uncomfortable in regard to where I am in allowing love to flourish in every aspect of my life. Amen.

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