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Friday, February 8

Today’s Lectionary Readings: Psalm 106; Leviticus 26:1-20; Matthew 8:14-22; Galatians 3:6-14

Today’s passage from Galatians addresses one of the longest standing tensions without our faith tradition; the role faith plays in our spiritual lives vs. the role works plays in our spiritual lives. I know this debate causes angst for many. For me, however, the relationship between faith and works has always been fairly straightforward. Maybe that’s because I’m not smart enough to make it more complex than it currently is for me. That would have to be the topic of another blog entry J Anyway, as someone who works best in the concrete rather than the abstract, I think of our relationship w/ God like the relationship we have with our significant other. The question in this context becomes this: do you do things like buy the other person flowers, treat the other person to dinner and a movie, save up for months or years to go on a vacation with the other person in order to fall in love with them (this would be the law-based/works based approach) OR do you do these things as the natural expression of the love that is already in your heart? Important point to make here for those who think proponents of the faith-first approach are advocates of the old “anything goes” approach: in both scenarios works follow. The difference between the two approaches lies simply in what produces the works: self interest (“I want to be saved so I’ll be good and reap the rewards”) or love of God (“I’m so head over heels in love with God that I can’t help but respond with expressions of that love”). In Galatians 3:11, Paul put is a little differently than I (“Clearly no one is justified before God by the law... – NIV), but the point is similar: faith – the living, breathing, sustaining RELATIONSHIP with your Creator – is foundational. The question for you to consider today is this: what is foundational in your connection with God. Faith? Works (law based approach)? Or something else? Til next time…

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