January 22, 2024

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE READING:

“As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 4.1-6)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

I am compelled to assert the Fatherhood of God 1) because my Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ relates to God in word, in name and in worship as Abba and taught His disciples (and us through their witness and testimony) to do the same in the prayer template for authentic living called “The Lord’s Prayer;” and 2) because the enemy of God and humankind, indeed of the entire creation, has dedicated his purpose and ambition to neutering God of power, praise and spiritual relationship which authenticates our own identity as men and women of God, Yahweh Elohim. I believe that as mighty ones of God, ambassadors of the gospel and members of the priesthood of all believers, we must expose the lies concerning the Fatherhood of God and lift up the truth just as the Son of Man was lifted up on the cross so that our authentic human healing may be experienced and prospered. If we dare to look and investigate with loving and thoughtful intention the desires of those who rebel against the Fatherhood of God in their own lives and in the lives of others we would see the confusion which the “Father of Lies” has been sowing and now is reaping in terrific volume the surrendering of souls to him. We were not made for this. We were made to choose God even in the midst of our brokenness of body, mind and spirit and bring glory to His Name: Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” (Ephesians 3.20-21)

Those who stand opposed to God have found their effort to suffer greatly. They are not able, because nature itself stands opposed to them, to dissuade humankind of its yearning and longing for authentic meaning and purpose. In all its searching throughout the cosmos beginning in the recesses of our own existence to the furthest reaches of our ability to grasp the space that surrounds us, there is the reality that something more exists beyond it. The struggle to exist cannot exist without this realization of that “something more” which is not us ourselves. And the great lie is that all that matters is us. Commissioned by this lie, the yearning cannot be eliminated so its volume, identity and creativity is attacked. If there is no further need for a God who creates life out of lifelessness, then we do not have to ask “Where did I come from?” nor “What is the meaning and purpose of my life?” If I am able to take away the very basic identity of a God who is creative and creates out of love, truth and a hope of enduring peace then I have no need to grapple with the future. My denial of that most certain future of ultimate accountability is shadowed into nothingness because there is nothing which I believe exists beyond this world we live in and the universe that is the sea on which the craft of our existence sails.

I do not have to address the gender question, and it is complicated by the brokenness of this world which sin has made manifest in both a destructive and challenging way, because if God is not Father and thus did not create then the gender of male and female also do not exist nor have to be functionally compatible except to serve one’s own agenda of lostness. If we remove our own function in the reproduction of life and foster it with the merely adequate production of life, then we ourselves lose contact with the most creative aspect of life: seeking to let God move in us and through us for the goodness of others and not ourselves. I do not have to wrestle with self-identity because there is no set prescribed identity if there is no Creator who acts with design and purpose. If I am an “accident of nature,” I am no accident because there was no intention except to exist as I have come into the world and as I see fit. To set aside the notion of God as the Holy One and Other, Creator and Sustainer of Life, Savior and Progenitor of Spirit and Truth in the flesh and in the soul and to ignore any call to recognize Him as Father casts each person into a chaotic vortex which tumbles from one reality to another without end. We may well find that in that reality there is still no end but a continuing transformation without cause but only effect.

Yet, Paul speaks to us through this teaching to the Christ community of faith found in Ephesus which addresses the issue of living a life worthy of being “called,” to recognize that in our desire to be whole within ourselves, between ourselves and one another, between one another and the greater community and ultimately to be whole in relationship with God we must settle on this singular identity of “God as Father.” The fullness and ramification of such argument is pivotal to our own faith journey, healing and eternal reality. We are “reproductions” of God created in His image both male and female with full purpose, full meaning, full opportunity and full responsibility. Perhaps the question at this point is not “who am I and what am I supposed to be and do,” but rather “why am I afraid to be who I have been created to be in the image of God and how shall I manifest it knowing that without the help and love of God I would not be able to.” We have not seen with our own eyes, nor hear with our own ears that manifestation as did Paul nor as did the original disciples who became apostles. But, we do have God’s Word and it, as John declared, was in the beginning and was the beginning of all life and living. That invitation alone can “father” the peace which is born into the world in our own lives as comes only from the “Father of Truth.”

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit spoke us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit so that others may be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind that we would know that we are Your people and that You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.