Today’s Readings: Psalm 119:73-120; Isaiah 45:18-25; Matthew 4:18-25; 1 Corinthians 1:10-17
Two days ago I was talking with an individual in his twenties about some of his friends’ experience of the church. The individual issued one of the most stinging indictments I could have imagined regarding the church; he said the church is totally irrelevant to their lives. “How sad,” I thought to myself as I heard him say those words. I thought that not simply because I’m worried about the future of the institution; I thought that because it was evidence of how much we Christians have gotten off track in our attempts to live out our faith. You see, if there was one thing that Jesus went out of his way to model for us it was that our faith ought to be relevant to the lives of people. Take the way Jesus issued Simon and Andrew’s call in today’s Gospel passage from Matthew. Knowing that they were fisherman, Jesus issued their call by saying: “Come with me. I’ll make a new kind of fisherman out of you” (Matthew 4:19 from The Message). By using language that was consistent with Simon and Andrew’s social location - language that was relevant to their lives - Jesus was able to reach out and draw them in. My question for you to consider today is this: how relevant is your faith to your day-to-day life? Is your faith a decorative ornament that you tuck away until a moment when you feel like taking it out, or is it something that’s integrated into the fabric of your every day life? Til next time…
Two days ago I was talking with an individual in his twenties about some of his friends’ experience of the church. The individual issued one of the most stinging indictments I could have imagined regarding the church; he said the church is totally irrelevant to their lives. “How sad,” I thought to myself as I heard him say those words. I thought that not simply because I’m worried about the future of the institution; I thought that because it was evidence of how much we Christians have gotten off track in our attempts to live out our faith. You see, if there was one thing that Jesus went out of his way to model for us it was that our faith ought to be relevant to the lives of people. Take the way Jesus issued Simon and Andrew’s call in today’s Gospel passage from Matthew. Knowing that they were fisherman, Jesus issued their call by saying: “Come with me. I’ll make a new kind of fisherman out of you” (Matthew 4:19 from The Message). By using language that was consistent with Simon and Andrew’s social location - language that was relevant to their lives - Jesus was able to reach out and draw them in. My question for you to consider today is this: how relevant is your faith to your day-to-day life? Is your faith a decorative ornament that you tuck away until a moment when you feel like taking it out, or is it something that’s integrated into the fabric of your every day life? Til next time…
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