Today’s Lectionary Readings: Psalm 52; Isaiah 46:1-13; Luke 3:1-14; 1 Corinthians 3:10-17; Psalm 6
One of the biggest challenges those of us in post-modern faith communities face is overcoming our tendency to interpret all of the teachings of our faith on a purely abstract level. By reducing teachings exclusively to the abstract level, we often give ourselves permission to feel content simply thinking about the teachings rather than actually putting them into practice. Today’s passage from Luke is a great challenge to such an approach. For in that passage, things start out abstractly by setting the stage for John the Baptist’s ministry through the words of the prophet Isaiah. But the passage doesn’t leave the effects of John’s ministry in the abstract. It moves from the abstract to the concrete. The purpose of his ministry, for instance, moved from simply being to preach “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” into concretely interpreting what repentance looked like for specific individuals (i.e. for a person with twice as much food or clothing as he/she needs, he/she should share it; tax collectors should collect only what is due, etc.). That marriage between abstract principle and its concrete expression is what made John’s ministry (and later Jesus’!) so effective. On the final days before the beginning of Lent, the passage reminds me that each of us still has some specific and concrete work to prepare our hearts for the upcoming events that will lead us toward Easter. What is the concrete work you have to do? Perhaps you can think about it and turn that into a spiritual discipline during the Lenten Season (i.e. I will give up gossip; I will give up my apathy concerning my prayer life and devote more time to prayer; etc.). Til next time…
One of the biggest challenges those of us in post-modern faith communities face is overcoming our tendency to interpret all of the teachings of our faith on a purely abstract level. By reducing teachings exclusively to the abstract level, we often give ourselves permission to feel content simply thinking about the teachings rather than actually putting them into practice. Today’s passage from Luke is a great challenge to such an approach. For in that passage, things start out abstractly by setting the stage for John the Baptist’s ministry through the words of the prophet Isaiah. But the passage doesn’t leave the effects of John’s ministry in the abstract. It moves from the abstract to the concrete. The purpose of his ministry, for instance, moved from simply being to preach “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” into concretely interpreting what repentance looked like for specific individuals (i.e. for a person with twice as much food or clothing as he/she needs, he/she should share it; tax collectors should collect only what is due, etc.). That marriage between abstract principle and its concrete expression is what made John’s ministry (and later Jesus’!) so effective. On the final days before the beginning of Lent, the passage reminds me that each of us still has some specific and concrete work to prepare our hearts for the upcoming events that will lead us toward Easter. What is the concrete work you have to do? Perhaps you can think about it and turn that into a spiritual discipline during the Lenten Season (i.e. I will give up gossip; I will give up my apathy concerning my prayer life and devote more time to prayer; etc.). Til next time…
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