A Journey With the Family

Psalm 34
My father-in-law's health has been less than stellar of late, so naturally I have spent time thinking about him recently, about the impact he has had on many lives as a minister and as a friend. Those lives include mine. The Christian faith really is a family in so many ways; not one of birth or marriage, but one of covenant and community. My father-in-law has done much over the years to help me feel at home in the family of faith and I think of people like him when I read words like those found in Psalm 34. "O magnify the Lord with me," says the psalmist, "and let us exalt his name together" (Psalm 34:3). These are words of invitation meant to make us feel at home in the family of faith. These are words that say "come and share in a life of purpose and joy that can only be found in serving God." They say "come and be a part of God's people, the community of the covenant. Come and belong." These are words my father-in-law has embodied through decades of ministry and discipleship.

Each of us who considers him- or herself a Christian has a different story as to how we came to have faith in Jesus Christ. Like Paul on the road to Damascus, you may have experienced conversion from a life that was leading you in one direction when you experienced a change of heart that led you in another. Or perhaps like Timothy, you may have simply grown up in the faith,  never realizing it was possible not to believe. In any case, there were others who played a part in getting us to where we are today in our journey with God, whether it was friends, co-workers, family members, neighbors, fellow church members, even strangers. Any of these may have touched us at an appropriate time and helped guide us on our way. The end result is that we stand in community, in covenant with one another and with God. We now have the opportunity to reach out to others the way that others have reached out to us, to say with the psalmist, "O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together."

Obviously, we are not the source of the message; it is Jesus Christ who calls us into relationship with God. But we have a vital role to play nonetheless. The community of faith as we know it is always in flux. It is not a rigid, fixed group of people, in lockstep, marching along the road of faith. It is, instead, a changing, dynamic collection of saints at various stages of their respective faith journeys. The joyous call to discipleship, then, is not an invitation to a sit-down, black-tie dinner. It is a "come as you are" affair, a ramble along the road that leads to the coming kingdom. It is a trip that changes us from what we were into what we can be. It is a trip without much in the way of a fixed starting point, but it has a goal: full, self-giving service to God through Jesus Christ. Our words of invitation, addressed to the world, can be the starting point for someone else's trip along the road to the kingdom, and it may be the only invitation that some people ever receive. So let us magnify the Lord, and let us exalt his name together.

Prayer: Lord, on our journey of faith help us to remain open to what you are doing in and through us and to what we may do through you for others. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Love and Wisdom

Jim:

Proverbs 4:1-27
The fact that our daughter is about to graduate from high school makes this reading especially meaningful for me today. Soon she will enter college and be faced with challenges and choices that will determine a great deal about her life. For nearly 18 years her mother and I have had the privilege of offering her what wisdom we could and what council we thought best. But the greatest source of hope I have for her is that she has been raised in the church where she has been exposed to greater wisdom than her mother or I could have offered alone. She has heard us preach, yes, but she has had others to teach her Sunday school classes, and others to sponsor the youth group, and others who have visited with her at pot lucks and church gatherings. It is the collective wisdom of that community, blessed by the Holy Spirit and centered on God in Jesus Christ, that I believe will serve her best. Her life will not be perfect, but she knows that God loves her and she knows there are people of faith who genuinely care for her. This is how she will “keep straight the path of (her) feet” (v.26a).

1 John 4:7-21
I’ve got most of this passage underlined in my study Bible for various reasons. But just today I have underlined verse 21: “The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.” And what a challenge this is! I can honestly say that I have hated very few people in my life, and mostly when I was a child. Now that I’m an adult I can rationalize my antipathy toward others without calling it hate. But if I am to love God, truly love God, I’ve got to recognize the imperative to love my sisters and brothers, no matter how difficult that may be. And by love I believe the writer of this passage would mean to have genuine concern and compassion for. This means that it is my responsibility to love even the people who cut me off in traffic, or who vote for “the other guy,” or who, regardless of their motivation, cause me pain. Clearly this is tough work. But then, who ever said the way of the cross is easy?