Today’s Lectionary Readings: Psalm 87; Isaiah 1:21-31; Matthew 24:46-51; Romans 13:8-14; Psalm 14
Buried near the middle of today’s passage from Isaiah lies one of my VERY favorite theological concepts. Let me first share the passage from Isaiah that I’m referring to and then reveal that theological concept to you. After Isaiah begins by pronouncing God’s disgust at Israel’s practices in the first four verses of today’s passage, Isaiah then tells us God says in Isaiah 1:25b (NIV): “I will thoroughly purge away your dross and remove all your impurities.” In my old Wesleyan circles, the concept here is referred to as sanctification. Sanctification is the process wherein the Spirit of God works within the heart of an individual to clean things up. The key thing to remember here is that sanctification is the work of God – NOT the work of an individual. In order to understand this process I’ve always thought of sanctification in terms of what happens to an individual when she or he falls in love. When the individual falls hard for that special someone, each and every element of her or his life begins to fall in line. You unconsciously start finding time to be with the special someone; you think about that special someone incessantly when you are apart; you find excuses to seek out that special someone’s presence. That’s what happens in our spiritual lives as well when we fall in love with God. This Advent season – as we once again fall for the incomprehensible love of God that we find expressed in that manger in Bethlehem – may we give thanks for the ways in which sanctification kicks in and helps our lives catch up with our hearts. Til next time…
Buried near the middle of today’s passage from Isaiah lies one of my VERY favorite theological concepts. Let me first share the passage from Isaiah that I’m referring to and then reveal that theological concept to you. After Isaiah begins by pronouncing God’s disgust at Israel’s practices in the first four verses of today’s passage, Isaiah then tells us God says in Isaiah 1:25b (NIV): “I will thoroughly purge away your dross and remove all your impurities.” In my old Wesleyan circles, the concept here is referred to as sanctification. Sanctification is the process wherein the Spirit of God works within the heart of an individual to clean things up. The key thing to remember here is that sanctification is the work of God – NOT the work of an individual. In order to understand this process I’ve always thought of sanctification in terms of what happens to an individual when she or he falls in love. When the individual falls hard for that special someone, each and every element of her or his life begins to fall in line. You unconsciously start finding time to be with the special someone; you think about that special someone incessantly when you are apart; you find excuses to seek out that special someone’s presence. That’s what happens in our spiritual lives as well when we fall in love with God. This Advent season – as we once again fall for the incomprehensible love of God that we find expressed in that manger in Bethlehem – may we give thanks for the ways in which sanctification kicks in and helps our lives catch up with our hearts. Til next time…
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