January 24, 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:

Does the word incarnation help us to grasp “living the life we have being worthy of the calling we have received”? Paul declared “…just as you were called to one hope when you were called.” We do not hear of any encounter Saul of Tarsus may have had with Jesus of Nazareth before the Damascus Road experience. In that meeting, it was the resurrected and glorified Jesus as the Christ who confronted him with the truth of his life up to that point. Jesus does not judge that Saul was an unspiritual man of God. Saul possessed the breath of God’s Spirit, the ruach, as any other. He was raised with the traditions of Judaism and the practices of Pharisaism. He was fiercely committed to the purity of the Temple, the Torah and the Testament of Abraham as the “Father of Faith.” What higher ambition for himself he had, we never hear. What manner of understanding of Jesus of Nazareth he had before Jesus was crucified, there is no mention. What we do know is the tenor of Paul’s faith in Jesus is the Christ was akin to the fervor of his faith as Saul of Tarsus who based his life on the Old Covenant. His direction in life was changed when the ruach of God came over and through and in Saul. If Saul had been a fisherman such as Peter and Andrew, James and John, he might have used the imagery known to them as “taking a different tact.” As the “wind” blew suddenly into his face, the sheets which would have been the sails on his boat would require a “call” to change course. Jesus made that call. Saul received it and the course of his life changed forever.

His ambition and goal from that point forward was to “live life as one worthy of the calling to which and by which he had been called.” Significantly, that calling took on even a name change as he would be called Paul and not Saul. It was as if Saul had ceased to exist, though flavors of his heritage remained as elements by which he understood his new mission, and Paul was now the man who sought to defend the faith of Christ. Mighty ones of God, how do we receive the calling of Jesus in our lives, over our lives and through our lives? What is it that we understand about “being worthy” of this calling offered to us in Jesus’ name? Are we indeed worthy? Are we still learning, adapting, adopting and transforming in this reconciliation of faith between the old us and the new? When Nicodemus approached Jesus to inquire of mission, purpose and meaning, Jesus replied, “You must be born again.” Of course, it wasn’t a physical birth which Jesus indicated but a spiritual one. It was a spirituality conferred by Jesus Himself which could not be earned nor derived by “following the rules of righteousness.” Human beings cannot make themselves righteous save by confessing their sinfulness and total need for the saving grace of God made known to us in Jesus the Christ. Saul was captured by the “works righteousness” covenant. Such a life would never prove worthy of the ultimate call on our lives. How it came to be interpreted as the “means of gaining eternal life” showed the frailty of human knowledge of God. It was not the evidence of trusting in God and God alone with one’s whole heart, mind, body and soul. What we have received, mighty ones of God, is the blessing of God’s Word incarnate in Jesus the Christ. He became flesh and fulfilled the image of God by which each of us was conceived. Yes, the ravages of sin which has manifested a broken world sometimes brings to life something other than what we were conceived to be at our birth. But, our reality is not defined by the physical; rather by the spiritual. It is that realm into which we are called. It is that invitation we are asked to receive. It is the realm of righteousness where the mercy and grace of God will make all things new. It is time for us to not follow the winds of human doctrine but instead take the tact which keeps the “ruach,” God’s mighty wind, full in the sails of our lives. He alone makes us worthy and desires to do so with all He is.

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.