Friday, March 21, 2014

Lenten Devotional – Day 15

Q. 20. Did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery?

A. God, having out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace, to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer.

“But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.” (Titus 3:4-5)

"God doesn't lose heart! Beginning with creation God keeps coming up with creative, imaginative ways to respond to our destruction, our refusals, our ignorance and stubbornness and sin. God comes after us and will never stop. Jesus keeps saying this: that he has come to search out what is lost, to find and heal the broken-hearted, to bring good news to the poor. That is what Jesus is here for - unconditional love. God just keeps devising more and more mysterious and humble and spirit-filled ways to get us to be human and love back." - Megan McKenna, from "Parables"

Midway along the journey of our life
   I woke to find myself in a dark wood.
   for I had wandered off from the straight path.
How hard it is to tell what it was like.
   this wood of wilderness, savage and stubborn
   (the thought of it brings back all of my old fears).
A bitter place! Death could scarce be bitterer.
   But if I would show the good that came of it
   I must talk about things other than the good.
How I entered there I cannot truly say.
   I had become so sleepy at the moment
   when I first strayed, leaving the path of truth...” - Dante, The Inferno, I. 1-12, p. 76

Titus34  “Before we were born, God knew us. He knew that some of us would rebel against his love and his mercy, and that others would love him from the moment that they could love anything, and never change that love. He knew that there would be joy in heaven among the angels of his house for the conversion of some of us ....

  In one sense, we are always traveling, and traveling as if we did not know where we were going. In another sense, we have already arrived. We cannot arrive at the perfect possession of God in this life, and that is why we are traveling and in darkness. But we already possess him by grace, and therefore, in that sense we have arrived and are dwelling in the light.” - Thomas Merton in Mornings With Thomas Merton, cited in Christianity Today, July 13, 1998, 72.

  God did not plan to leave us to the darkness. God has always from the beginning of time wanted to remain in a relationship with God’s good creation, but sin prevents it.

  In the Old Testament, terms for salvation cluster around the needs for safety, deliverance, restoration, and help in times of distress. The people of Israel are given a covenantal relationship with God and receive salvation throughout their history.

  In Paul’s writings he pronounced the pervasive nature of human sin by stating since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;” (Rom. 3:23) and its alienating, enslaving power (Rom 5:12-7:25). Yet, for Paul, God has lovingly taken the initiative and out of free, divine grace has given the gift of salvation to humanity in Jesus Christ. This is captured when Paul wrote, But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.” (Roman 5:8-10)

  The Presbyterian Church, (U.S.A.) Brief Statement of Faith declares this same message and hope in Christ:

But we rebel against God; we hide from our Creator.
   Ignoring God’s commandments.
   we violate the image of God in others and ourselves,
   accept lies as truth,
   exploit neighbor and nature,
   and threaten death to the planet entrusted to our care.
   We deserve God’s condemnation.
Yet God acts with justice and mercy to redeem creation. (Presbyterian Church, (U.S.A.), Brief Statement of Faith, lines 33-40)

Today’s Lectionary Readings
Morning Psalm: 22
Evening Psalm: 11, 133
Jeremiah 5:1-9
Romans 2:25—3:18
John 5:30-47

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