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Minister's Musings
Sunday, December 3, 2023
Sunday, November 26, 2023
Monday, November 13, 2023
Tuesday, October 24, 2023
A Stark Contrast; Luke 20:45-21:4
Most
of us are familiar with the story of the widow and her two copper coins, but
perhaps less of us are familiar hearing her story in context of Jesus’s prior
words. This widow is often held up an
example, and she is, but not so much for her generosity but for her faith. She is 100% dependent on God for her life,
and her act of giving is an example of that dependence. In stark contrast to
the widow, we have the scribes, who are out to make a name for themselves.
Our story takes place after the last
word game attack on Jesus, which was by the Sadducees. All those testing Jesus were done with them,
but He was not done with them. We saw
how He wouldn’t let the issue of the resurrection be dropped. He pushed not only the Sadducees, but all
listening about the truth of the resurrection and His part in it. And then Jesus goes on to criticize the
scribes. He specifically singles them
out. We know that Jesus in the past has
been critical of the Pharisees. Now it’s
the scribes’ turn. His criticism comes in
the form of a warning to His disciples of how not to be.
Jesus’s first warning has to do with the
scribes walking around in long robes.
But wait, you might say, “Pastor LaVera, you are wearing a long robe!
That doesn’t seem like you are heeding Jesus’s warning!” Some pastors do think this way and won’t wear
any garment which would distinguish them from the laity. Some, in my opinion, dress too casually, so
that the sense of coming together in the presence of an Almighty and Holy God
is diminished. There seems to be a lack
of reverence in worship. But the
practice of clergy wearing robes dates back to the OT Law, when very specific
garments were required of the priests and Levites. These were to be worn as they were performing
their official duties. The scribes,
while scholars, were given no such instructions regarding the wearing of robes,
but they wanted to be identified with the priests. My robe was conferred upon me at my ordination
to the pastorate. You will not see me
wearing this robe outside of the context of a worship service. In addition to it being a sign of my office,
as a female member of the clergy, I have found it to be practical. Women
generally tend to be judged more strongly on appearance than men. When I wear a robe, hopefully you are less
distracted by how I look, what I’m wearing, whether or not I have gained or
lost weight, and perhaps it is easier for you to focus on what the Spirit is
saying through my words. Whether or not
it is true, it does make me a little less self-conscious. That being said, unlike the scribes, you will
never see me wearing this robe in the marketplace! There are occasions when you may see me
wearing a clerical collared shirt out in public, even at the grocery store, but
it would be because I am on my way to or from a pastoral duty in the
public. Priests and clergy from other
denominations often wear their collars all the time, because their call is to
be always on duty all the time. While I
consider myself always on call, I don’t consider myself always acting in an
official capacity as a pastor, though all of us all the time represent Christ
wherever we go and whatever we do.
Sometimes we represent Hiim better than other times, but it is important
for us to remember this.
The next three critiques have to do with
attention seeking. The scribes even
thought they deserved more honor than their parents. And while there is nothing about the duty to
give honor to religious authorities in the 10 Commandments, there is one about
honoring your father and mother.
Remember that the 10 Commandments was given to adults, not
children. Adult males in particular were
responsible for keeping them for themselves and on behalf of their
families. Now, we all want to be
respected. We all appreciate being
honored, but I hope we don’t go around expecting to be honored or acting like
we are superior to others. As Jesus told
in another warning, don’t seek out the chief seats at a banquet, but take lower
seats until you are invited to take the more privileged spots.
And then we come to a really important
criticism—“who devour widows houses.”
How did they do this? The scribes
are the lawyers. They charged fees for
legal help. Sometimes these fees were
extreme. I read that the case of the
Navy Seals who were dishonorably discharged from the service for refusing the
COVID vaccine was settled. They were
awarded $1.8 million, 100% of which went for their legal fees. So they won, but not really. They can receive now an honorable discharge
or they are free to reenlist, but as far as lost wages or time—zip. And these are mostly men still in their
prime. But imagine a widow trying to get
justice and having all her efforts go to legal fees. They also oversaw loans. If you couldn’t repay it, your property was
seized. The scribes were also known to
mismanage the estates of those widows who chose to dedicate themselves to temple
service. If you were a widow with no
heirs, you might not have anyone to take care of you, but you could dedicate
yourself to temple service and be taken care of that way. Your estate, if you had any, would be
taken. Remember Anna, the prophetess,
who met the baby Jesus in the temple? We
don’t know if her estate was mismanaged or not, but she was one of those widows
who dedicated herself to temple service.
Some
scribes charged fees for prayers. Rabbis
could not legally charge for their teaching, and many were dual career. So, pastors shouldn’t get paid, right? Some churches believe this. They use minimally or informally trained
elders who have other jobs to preach.
But Jesus was financially supported in His ministry largely by
women. We know this from Luke
8:1-3. Paul also said that the apostles
had a right to be financially supported for their work and gives Peter as an
example, even though Paul himself chose to partially support himself through
his tentmaking abilities. He writes this
in I Corinthians 9. But abuses still
happen today. I think of multimillion
dollar TV preachers who continue to seek donations and promise blessings and
miracles for such gifts. The reason I
left Grace Presbyterian was financial.
It became painfully obvious they could no longer afford me even at
half-time, but they didn’t want to fire me.
At the time, it was required that ministers who were part of the
pensions program also had to get health insurance through the denomination. That didn’t change until the 2016 General
Assembly when the Minister’s Choice program was approved, allowing stated
supply and lay pastors to accumulate pension credits without having to have
health insurance through the Board of Pensions.
This allowed me to continue serving Antioch Presbyterian Church for
another couple of years and has continued to allow me to serve churches like
Trinity.
The final critique is that the
scribes prayed long prayers for appearances sake. Keeping public prayers short is generally a
good idea, but there are certainly examples of powerful longer public prayers
in Scripture. In fact, whole communal
services dedicated to lament occurred with people praying for many hours as
well as long services of praise. But
generally, these prayers weren’t just given by one person. We have examples of saints and faithful
believers who prayed for hours, but these prayers were largely private. Whether public or private, these good
examples of long prayers were not done to put the attention on the person
giving the prayer. They were not looking
for admiration from a congregation. It
is the motivation that makes the difference in prayer, not the length.
And then Jesus gives us the
seriousness of His warning why not to be like the scribes—“for they will
receive greater condemnation.” One of
our interesting discussions last week was the intermediate states between when
Christ returns and the new heavens and new earth are ushered in, when all the
dead are raised, both believing and unbelieving—the righteous with new,
glorified bodies to live in the New Jerusalem and the unbelieving to be
resurrected and cast into the lake of fire.
The Bible does point to intermediate states until the resurrection, but
it is not clear exactly what they are.
There is an intermediate state of punishment for the wicked, and it
seems to have degrees. But it seems even
believers will be judged in the intermediate state. James 3:1 says, “Not many of you should be
teachers, knowing that we shall receive heavier judgment.” Whether the scribes were ultimately destined
for the New Jerusalem or the lake of fire, we don’t know. Probably a mix of both, but James will most
certainly be in the New Jerusalem, and yet he is aware of his accountability
for what he has taught before Jesus. Though we don’t know all the details, we
have heard again and again from Jesus Himself that what we do or don’t do
matters. And those in positions of
teaching the word of God will be judged more harshly, though not necessarily
condemned. Romans 8:1 assures us, “Now, therefore there is no condemnation for
those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Condemnation isn’t even a remote possibility for the believer.
And then the widow comes in with her
two small copper coins. What she offers
is only enough for one, small meal, but it is all she has. No one notices her, except Jesus, who points
her out to the disciples. Her giving is
both a willing gift as well as a sacrificial one. No one is compelling her to give. Who would care whether or not she kept this
paltry amount or gave it? Jesus
cares. He says her gift is greater and
more important than all. Is she an example?
I saw this week where Donald Trump is no
longer in the top 10 of the world’s richest people. His wealth is valued only at 2.4 billion and
the cut off was 2.9 billion. Still
Donald Trump could give away 80% of his assets to charity and still have more
to live off of than all of us combined plus!
His hypothetical 80% giving might not be as much of a gift as your 10%
or 15%. When you still have nearly a
half a billion in wealth, it hardly seems sacrificial. That’s not to say that giving away all that
wealth couldn’t do great good in the world, because it could if given in the
right way to the right places. But at the same time, he may or may not think
about being dependent upon God for his life.
He sure talks a lot from an “I”-centered point of view. And yet, whether or not he realizes it, he is
just as dependent upon God for his life as you or I. But God wants us not only to recognize our
dependence on God, but to live it out in faith.
Is the widow an example to us?
Her complete trust in God to provide for her and care for her, her
holding loosely to earthly things, and her willing and selfless giving are
certainly to be emulated.
This widow is also the prime example of
what Jesus condemned in the scribes. Her
house has been devoured. Jesus noticing
her is as much a lament of her state as it is praise of her faithful
generosity. If she doesn’t join temple
service, if she is not helped by the temple or others, if God doesn’t
miraculously provide for her needs, she will soon die. She has nothing left and nowhere to go. Woe to those who prey on the poor in the name
of God! The treasury was used for
various things, much of it for the building. Extra biblical sources talk of 13 different
collecting boxes, called “trumpets” that echoed when you dropped your coins
in. One was for wood, another for
incense, another for care of the golden vessels, etc. Herod’s temple wasn’t completely finished, and
as we are keenly aware, maintenance is always needed and is often costly. And there are costs occurred for the
maintenance of worship itself. Still,
some temple funds were supposed to be set aside particularly for widows and
orphans, and it was to be a priority fund, not a secondary fund. God through the prophet Jeremiah condemned
religious leaders especially and the people in general for not obeying the
God-given duty to care for widows and orphans.
In Jesus’s day, this command continued to be neglected, at least in
part.
Let’s bring it home. We have a building which we can’t
afford. We have several widows in this
congregation. I would hate to see us be
a church that spends its resources on a building over using its resources to
grow the Kingdom of God. This is not to
say buildings don’t have value, even this one.
We provide a site for the Scouts to meet. We know that there are several churches in
Havelock that have had the Scouts and don’t particularly we want them back, but
we value them as an important part of ministry.
The Scouting program is not a ministry in and of itself, but ministry
takes place in the context of Scouting as we have many leaders who are strong
Christians. Christ is modeled in the
lives of believers, in conversations with participants and in practices
incorporated. Some of these young people
would have little to no Christian witness other than through encountering
faithful Christians through the Scouting program. But is keeping a building for the Scouts the
most faithful way we as Trinity Presbyterian Church are called to be stewards
of God’s resources? Is there a different
way we can serve Scouting and do even more to promote the kingdom of God? To that end the session continues to work on
turning our property from a liability to an asset.
Wednesday, October 4, 2023
Jesus: Bread of Heaven, Bread of Life; John 6:25-60
Long
before the Last Supper, Jesus associated Himself with bread. In John 6, He declares Himself as the “Bread
of Heaven” and the “Bread of Life”, words which we associate with Communion. These are part of the “I Am” statements of
Jesus. Jesus has already introduced
Himself as the “I Am” to the woman at the well.
He did not tell her that He was the Living Water, only that He is the
source of living water. No, His
self-introduction to her was simply, “I Am” after she said, “I know that
Messiah is coming who will teach us all things.” Jesus identified Himself as Messiah and
God. This treatise about bread by Jesus
takes place after the feeding of the 5000+ people. A group went the next day looking for Jesus
and couldn’t find Him, but eventually caught up with Him in Capernaum. It may have taken a day or so to make that
trip by foot. They want to see what Jesus can do next, but Jesus shows them
that what they need is Him, not simply what He can do or even what He teaches. On this World Communion Sunday, when we come
to the table, we acknowledge our need for Jesus Himself.
Jesus is the gift of life and
sustenance. Jesus gives living water,
but He is the Bread of Heaven and the Bread of Life. The living water probably and rightly reminds
many of us what Jesus does for us in baptism.
In the picture of water, Jesus emphasizes the joy that comes from
life. But in Communion, we do not eat bread
with water, but with the fruit of the vine.
Though Jesus calls Himself the True Vine, He does not call Himself the
fruit of the vine. Rather we are to bear
the fruit as we are connected to Him. At
the Last Supper, Jesus tells us that the cup symbolizes the new covenant sealed
by His blood. Though I won’t focus too
much on the cup in this message this morning, both the bread and cup remind us
that Jesus is God giving Himself to us that we might have life.
The crowd following Jesus was looking
for what they could get out of Him. They
were not looking for Him. Jesus says, “You
seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were
filled.” Furthermore, we know this
because many of them quit following Him after this speech. Some wanted to kill Him. Even His disciples said, “This is a hard
saying.” How many of you have been in a
relationship with someone who was only out to use you? Maybe someone you thought was a friend, maybe
a family member, maybe someone you were genuinely trying to help, maybe someone
you dated? How did it make you feel
about yourself and about that person?
Did it affect your relationships with other people? No one likes being used, including
Jesus. Are you chasing Jesus because of
what you can get from Him or are you pursuing Jesus for Himself, for what He
willingly offers to you and wants you to have?
When the crowd hears Jesus tells them
they should desire the food that gives eternal life, not food that perishes,
they ask, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” In other words, what must we do so that we
can get this bread from heaven which gives eternal life? The answer is simple yet profound. “Believe in God and the One whom He has
sent.” Believe, as Ernst Haenchen puts
it, “that Jesus is the One sent from God, and in Him God is represented and
made presence.” There is only one work that we must do—believe in Jesus. Believe in who is He—that He is God, that
eternal life is found in Him, that He is Life.
Unlike the woman at the well who responds quickly upon hearing Jesus
say, “I am”, even running back to her village to tell others about the Messiah,
this crowd is slow to respond. Instead
of faith, they ask for another sign, another sign having to do with physical
food—like the manna that fell from heaven in the Old Testament. You see, this crowd knew the story from the
Midrash that in the last days, manna from heaven would again fall, but they
make some mistakes. First, they
attribute the giving of manna to Moses instead of to God the Father. Jesus corrects them and goes on to say that the
Father gives the true bread from heaven.
Now they decide it is something they want, so they ask Jesus to give
it. This is their second
misunderstanding. The Bread is
Jesus. He is the gift. He is eternal life. Jesus affirms the prophecy, but lets them
know that it is fulfilled in Him. He is
the manna. He is the bread of heaven,
sent by God the Father in the last days.
How much does Jesus have to prove Himself to you before you believe
Him? Do you want Jesus always, or only
when you are desperate or it serves your convenience or your purposes? Jesus is the gift! Jesus promises not to cast out anyone who
comes to Him. Like last week, we hear
Jesus promising resurrection and putting Himself at the center of it. Jesus affirms life and life to come.
Early Christians were accused of
cannibalism because of the Last Supper.
The recitation of Jesus’s words, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of
Man and drink of His blood, you will not have life within you,” caused outsiders
to believe that some kind of human sacrifice was happening. Even the Jews who heard Jesus say these words
were confused by them. They didn’t know
how they could possibly do this. In
fact, it was especially offensive when Jesus said that we must drink His
blood. Eating and drinking blood was
forbidden by the Mosaic law as recorded in Deuteronomy 12:23, “for the life is
in the blood.” Even in the Book of Acts,
as recorded in Acts 15, the prohibition against blood was one of three laws
that was passed on to the Gentile believers.
The life is in the blood. Jesus’s
blood had to be shed for us to give us life.
Today’s passage is the key passage on
which Catholics base the doctrine of Transubstantiation, that in the mass when
the words of institution are given, the bread, which is called the Host,
actually becomes the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ. They take the words that Jesus says in this
passage literally. They do not take all
of Jesus’s other I Am sayings as literally as this one, such as “The True
Vine,” “The Good Shepherd,” “The Door of the Sheep”. However, the doctrine of Transubstantiation is
quite ancient. One of the earliest clear
teachers of this doctrine was Justin Martyr who died in 165 AD. As Reformed Protestants, we too believe that
Jesus is the Host at the Communion meal, but we generally do not call the bread
the Host. Our Host remains unseen by our
physical eyes, but He is still present.
We believe that Jesus feeds us with Himself without the bread literally
becoming the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ. We believe the bread and cup are
representative of Jesus’s real presence with us and that this sacrament is more
than just a memorial ordinance. We
affirm that in this meal, the power of Christ is transferred to us. That being said, we welcome all baptized
believers to the table because we believe in the one body of Christ, and the
one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, and because the table does not belong
to Trinity Presbyterian Church, but to Jesus Christ, who invites His own to
come.
So how do we eat Jesus’s flesh if we do
not believe the bread and cup literally become His body, blood, soul and
divinity? How do we eat Jesus’s flesh
and drink His blood if not literally? First,
Jesus says it starts with God the Father.
We can’t even begin to do this if God hasn’t drawn us to Jesus
first. Second, most of us do not eat
things while they are still alive. Even
if you eat something raw, you want it dead first. Once again, we see Jesus referring to His
sacrificial death. In verse 51, He says,
“And the bread also which I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh.” German theologian A. Schlatter taught. “What
we have to do with His flesh and blood is not chew and swallow, but that we
recognize in His crucified body and poured out blood the ground of our life,
that we hang our faith and hope on that body and blood, and draw from there our
thinking and willing.” We unit our lives
to Christ’s; for we have no life without Jesus.
Friends, to eat and drink of Jesus is to depend on Jesus for your very
life. And it is to do the will of
Jesus. When the disciples came back with
lunch for Jesus and saw Him at the well with the woman running away, they
wondered if He had eaten, but He replied, “My food is to do the will of the One
who sent Me.” In John 6:38, Jesus
affirms, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will
of Him who sent Me.” As Jesus did the
will of the Father, He was satisfied and lacked nothing. In verses 56-57, Jesus says, The one who eats
My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I in Him. As the living Father sent e, and I live
because of the Father, so the one who eats Me will also live because of
Me. St. Ignatius of Antioch equated
eating Jesus’s flesh and drinking His blood to being united with Him through
martyrdom. St. Ignatius was bishop of
the church in which the apostle Paul was discipled, not during Paul’s time, but
shortly after as He was martyred in 110 AD.
Knowing he was going to be executed, St. Ignatius wrote to the Roman
church:
I have no delight in corruptible food, nor in the
pleasures of this life. I desire the bread of God, the heavenly bread, the
bread of life, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who became
afterwards of the seed of David and Abraham; and I desire the drink of God,
namely His blood, which is incorruptible love and eternal life.
In
these last days of his life, St. Ignatius declared that Jesus was everything to
Him. He needed nothing but Jesus nor was
there anything that mattered but Jesus. To
do Jesus’s will is enough. Follow
Jesus. Finish His work of being and
making disciples. Embrace the way of the
cross for the promise is eternal life and resurrection! May Jesus be everything to you.
Tuesday, September 26, 2023
Monday, September 18, 2023
Render Unto God; Luke 20:20-26
I don’t know that anyone enjoys paying
taxes. I just paid my 3rd
quarter, and it was not a small chunk of change! And yet, I think we can agree that at least a
portion of our taxes goes to things that benefit us. In today’s passage, we see that Jesus’s
enemies are trying to set another word trap for Him to fall into. They ask Him if it is lawful to pay taxes to
Caesar or not. Jesus shows in His answer
that although taxes are legal, our duty to God as God’s image bearers is the
most important thing.
The religious leaders have just heard a
parable spoken against them. They know
that they can’t do anything to Jesus, so they are hoping that they can get
Jesus to say something so that Pilate will have cause to put Jesus to death. If Jesus said paying tax was wrong, they could
report it to the Roman authorities. After all, there was a rebellion against
Rome over the poll tax in 6 AD led by a man named Judas. His rebellion was short-lived as he was
killed by the Romans. Gamaliel mentions
this rebellion in Acts 5:37. Despite the fact that the parable Jesus told
indicated that the rule of Rome wasn’t going to come to an end soon as everyone
had hoped, the expected answer to the question is that Jesus is going to say
taxation is wrong, but even if he goes along with taxation, the hope is that He
will lose a good chunk of His support, for the tax wasn’t popular among the
common people. We have seen how tax
collectors were among the most disliked of people.
Jesus could have answered with a list of
Scriptures from the Law and the prophets about the responsibility to pay
tribute as part of covenantal obligations.
He could have traced how God’s people were conquered as a result of
their disobedience. But Jesus does not
give a long historical and theological discourse. Instead, He asks for a denarius. They provide one. Jesus doesn’t have one, but someone else
does. When Peter had answered a
different time that Jesus paid taxes, this one the temple tax, Jesus had to
send Peter to catch a fish with a coin in its mouth, to cover the amount of
both Jesus and Peter. A denarius was the
exact amount of the debated poll tax or head tax—the tribute each person, 14
years or older, had to pay annually to Rome.
It was equivalent to a day’s wages, certainly not excessive. The fact that they had a coin showed that
they were participating in the economic system that they were claiming was
unjust. Furthermore, the coin had
Caesar’s picture on it with an inscription “son of the deified Augustus.” On the back was a picture of his mother Livia
with an inscription “high priest.” It
could have been argued that possession of the coin violated the second
commandment against idolatry, having a graven image, esp. since Caesar was
worshipped. No one was arguing about
whether it was right to possess and use money.
Remember that we have already heard that these religious leaders were
“lovers of money.”
Jesus doesn’t stop with “Render unto
Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.”
He goes on to add, “And to God, the things that are God’s.” By asking about the image on the coin, Jesus
is reminding His audience that they are God’s image bearers. They were created in the image and likeness
of God. Wherever we go and whatever we
do, we bear God’s image. We belong to
God. We represent God. We carry God with us. As image bearers of God, we are called to
give our lives to and for God.
Jesus also reminds us that God’s reign
is bigger than Caesar’s. Everything
belongs to God. Caesar falls under the
reign of God. Though paying tribute is
legitimate, obedience to Rome or any authority must be measured first against
obedience to God. The apostle Paul
reminds us of this in Romans 13:1-7. READ We do have to submit to the governing
authorities, because God put them in place.
Their role is to punish evil, execute justice, and protect the people,
and support the common good. But this
doesn’t mean that they always stick to their role. Caesar may get our money, but God gets our
hearts, our minds, our bodies, and our wills, along with our stuff, remembering
that the first fruits belong to God.
Governments are not perfect. There will be no perfect government until
Christ returns to reign on earth.
Earthly governments are made up of flawed human beings, most of whom
aren’t even disciples of Jesus, but that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t ordain
and direct them. Still they will do evil
things. Both Jesus and Peter told us to
expect the governments to persecute followers of Jesus even to the point of
martyrdom. They warned us to not be
afraid, to be prepared to stand strong, and to trust that the Holy Spirit will
be our guide and voice. We prepare
ourselves by staying close to Jesus through prayer, learning the Scriptures,
and learning how to hear and obey the Holy Spirit. Faithful Christians make good citizens
because they are submissive, work hard and ethically, and care about their
fellow human beings, and yet the gospel is a threat to those who thirst for
power because the way of the gospel is the way of humility and not power. There is always a higher power who comes
first, and it’s not those in control or who want control, but it is God
Almighty. This is why Christianity is
hated around the world despite all the good done by Christians.
There are times when civil disobedience
is necessary. Toward the end of our
peacemaking Bible study series, the group watched a 2-part documentary on
non-violent resistance. People united
together in civil disobedience were able to tear down and stand against evil
regimes, like apartheid in South Africa, resistance against the Nazis in
Denmark, the overthrow of military dictatorship in Chile, the overthrow of the
communist regime in Poland, the end of segregation here in the US. We see an examples of nonviolent civil
disobedience in the book of Daniel both when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
refuse to bow down to the golden statue of Nebuchadnezzar, and when Daniel
opens his window and prays toward Jerusalem against the edict to pray only to
the emperor. Remember that God comes
first, so when governments grossly violate God’s demands for justice, it’s time
to resist. If rulers demand obedience to
a law that directly violates God’s commands, it’s time to resist.
God must always come first in our
lives. We belong to God and we bear
God’s image. Regardless of what regime
is in power wherever we live, our true citizenship is in heaven as Paul reminds
us in Philippians 3:20. And we are
commissioned to be Christ’s ambassadors, representing the kingdom of heaven on
earth. As ambassadors that means that
our job is not to try to escape from or disengage from civic duties, but to
engage from a biblical point of view, with the gospel as our message. We are to act like God acts, for indeed God
acts through us. We are to value what
God values. We are to be Jesus’s voice,
hands, feet, eyes, ears, and heart in the world. We carry God with us wherever we go. As we are reminded of the original way that
God created us, we also remember the original mandate, to care for the earth,
to make it fruitful and productive, to live into God’s goodness. And we ought to value our fellow human beings
as well, because whether they believe in Jesus or not, they too are made in the
image and likeness of God and deserve dignity.
Treating people the way we want to be treated is hard enough, but what
if we treated people as if they were Jesus?
In Bible study today, we are finishing up our discussion of the Matthew
25 passage where Jesus compares Himself to the “least of His followers,” and
that doing or neglecting to do basic, although often inconvenient things in
service to others is the way we treat Him.
Jesus’s command to “render unto God the things that are God’s” reminds us
to look for the image of God in others.
Sometimes it’s hard to see. This is turn ought to cause us to examine
ourselves. Is the image of God easy to
see in us, or is it hard to see?