January 28, 2024

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE READING:

“But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it is said [in God’s word…see Psalm 68.18] ‘When He ascended on high, He took many captives and gave gifts to His people.’” (Ephesians 4.7-8)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

Shall we consider our “captivity” in spirit and in truth is thus the parallel and companion of worship? The apostle John, one of the ‘sons of Thunder,’ wrote “God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in the Truth.” These words were spoken to the Samaritan woman whom Jesus met at one of Jacob’s wells. She was the evidence of the dividing line which had been dug in the dirt between Israel and Samaria. No, there wasn’t a literal “line in the sand” drawn nor a sign designating “You have now left Israel and are entering Samaria” much like we see on the roads in this country as we move from one county to another. But, there was that “unwritten” line which said that the two (Samaritans and Jews) did not mix well. Were they akin to water and gas, oil and vinegar, sweet and sour? The fact was that Samaritans were a “mix” of people. Not being strictly Jewish as defined by the Pharisees more than any other group in Israel and in Judaism across the world, Samaritans were shunned because they were unrighteous. The truth may well have been and remains to this day that they different more politically than theologically but one definitely influenced the manifestation of both faith and works. In our captivity as believers in God through Jesus the Christ, we also are “unacceptable” to strict Jews. We have learned how to accept each other based on the shared faith in God of the Old Covenant and shared interests in the Word of God as manifested in and through “so great a cloud of witnesses” as preceded the days of Jesus of Nazareth. We definitely do not worship like each other but only because our versions of the truth as similar in a shared hope for the Messiah and yet different because Christ followers see Jesus as having come once and will return again. Our worship, that of Christian faith, is based on Golgotha’s hill where the cross of Christ was high and lifted up and then rendered empty to be replaced by an empty tomb. The worship of those holding fast to the Jewish faith is based on Moriah, Mt. Zion, where the temple of God was built, rebuilt and will be built again one day in the future when Christ comes to fully establish His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

We are both “captives” of faith and have our appointed stations in which we serve and worship, essentially the original word is easily the same in practice and in purpose. Those appointed stations are thus imbued with gifts shared with all believers based on their ability, purpose and mission. Fundamentally, our abilities, our purposes and our mission are as one in the intent which is to “Love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind and strength as much as we are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves [or as we are loved by God.]” We know these two commands to be now self-evident. It is impossible to love others if we do not have love for ourselves. If we love ourselves falsely as with the intention of others to love us as their first priority, then we are not truly “loving” but “lusting.” It is here that Paul will direct the mindset of the Christ community of faith in Ephesus to embracing the gifts which they have been given, those created within them from before their birth as God fully considered them and those which the Holy Spirit enlivens or enriches or plants upon one’s profession of faith as for the purpose of glorifying God, edifying the gospel and building up the body of Christ which is His Church in all nations. It would seem then that our worship and service or service and worship or our worship service is the true response of gratitude to God who makes our lives possible to fulfill the calling by which we have been first called. We commit ourselves to worship God and serve others by serving God and worshipping with others for His glory and for the unity to which we are called as those sharing “one faith, one hope, one baptism, one peace” the One God who is Father of all, in all, through all and over all. Instead of worrying about who we are, we are charged to focus on “whose we are.” Instead of struggling to determine our meaning and purpose, we are challenged to fulfill the shared meaning and purpose of our new lives which is to declare Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Instead of meandering through the myriad “self-helps,” we are invited to share in God’s Word by His Holy Spirit and allow the truth for us to become known in us. It is as natural an occurrence as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west regardless of our how or how low on the horizon it may do so.

And let us read from the word which Paul alludes which comes from one of David’s psalms (68) and see that God accepts the gifts of the captives (which would be their lives, their allegiance and the desire to live faithfully) and return them in full as well as to overflowing. Those who are yet to see, hear and experience this truth of God’s love for all because He is the Father of all, shall be nurtured by this overflowing until they themselves are flowing over with gratitude, thanksgiving and a desire to love others and they themselves have been loved by humans living by faith in God and by God who has put His faith in humans. This is why Jesus could say with confident encouragement “The day will come when we will worship not on this or that mountain but in spirit and in truth.” These are the shared gifts which exist between God and His people. They are available to everyone though not everyone will avail themselves of them. But, because there are some, and far too many, who will not avail themselves of these good gifts offered by one to the Other as by the One to the other, we are not given leave to forsake the calling by which we have been called. Instead, as Paul declared, “Let us live that life which is worthy of calling by which we have been called.” It is the life of Jesus who gave His life to us asking only that we give our old lives to Him in “spirit and truth” so that we may share life and share in abundantly and eternally.

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.