Reflection for Saturday, Mar 8, 2008

Romans 12:1-8

I find this whole area of Romans is very inspirational.

I read this as a call for us to try to follow the example of Jesus and to offer ourselves up as a living sacrifice; that is, to place every aspect of our life before God as a worshipful offering. We are fond of saying that Christ redeems us. But what does that mean? It means comforting us in our sorrow and healing the scars Breisen wrote about.

Paul tells us not to conform to this world. Every day we're bombarded with messages about what to buy and tips on how to use people for our own gain. In this letter we're urged to go deeper; to have lives of real meaning; to love God and each other.

(Sorry this is late...Joey and Ellie have been sick and it's taken a lot of my waking hours...)

by Paul Mowry

Reflection for Saturday, Mar 1, 2008

Romans 9:19-29

This can be an extremely difficult passage to interpret. It has led a lot of people throughout the millennia to try and figure out who is saved (that is, receive eternal life) and who is not saved. The thing about Christianity is, if you're in for your salvation, you're missing the boat. Jesus tells us the most important thing is to love God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind; and to love our neighbor as yourself (Mt 22:36-40, Mk 12:28-31, Lk 10:25-37). You can't do that if you're obsessed with whether or not you're going to heaven. And if you love God SO THAT you'll go to heaven, well, that's not the point either.

There are many places in the Bible where God acts in such a way as to make people do what we all see as the wrong thing, like with the Pharaoh when Moses was trying to lead the Jews out of slavery in Egypt, mentioned by Paul earlier in this chapter. God "hardens" Pharaoh's heart. So, does that mean all the bad things we do is because God made us do it? No. Why does God act this way sometimes? We can ponder, but we will never surely know the mind of God.

What then can all this mean to me?

I believe to live in Christ is to live as much as I can in the radical compassion, forgiveness and welcome that Jesus did. I am not too concerned with WHY someone acts badly towards me, themselves, others, or society in general. I can only try to embrace the Holy Spirit and greet that person with compassion, forgiveness and welcome. Perhaps God has hardened someone's heart. Perhaps this was done so that I would have the opportunity to embrace the spirit of the living Christ by showing that person compassion.The next time someone really bugs you, try thinking that in bugging you they are providing you with an opportunity for your own spiritual growth by embracing what Jesus taught us about love, forgiveness, and acceptance.

In peace and love,

Paul Mowry

Reflection for Saturday, Feb 16, 2008

ROMANS 4: 13-25

"Grace alone, faith alone, Scripture alone [are] principles of understanding which continue to guide and motivate the people of God in the life of faith." That comes from our Book of Order (G-2.0400), part of the Constitution of our Church. And in this part of Romans, we are in the thick of Paul's clear reasoning for these "Protestant watchwords."

What catches my eye in these few verses is: "He [Abraham] grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God." It's sometimes hard for us to understand what it means to "give glory to God." It can sound so ancient or fanatical or seem like God is someone with a big ego who needs to be flattered all the time.

God doesn't need us to give God glory.

God doesn't need us to pray.

God doesn't need us to worship or go to church.

We don't do these things FOR God. We do them for US.

When we praise God (give God glory), what we are really doing is reminding ourselves of the most important things: we are deeply loved; we are loved unconditionally; no matter how bad things get or whatever bad things we may do, God loves us still. And there's more...we remember how beautiful Creation is -- the trees, the animals, people; we remember that people try their best, even though they may come up short; we remember that we are part of a community of people all over the world, people we don't even know, people we love who have died, and people we have yet to meet.

When I remember these things, I feel stronger. I feel better. I feel hopeful.

When you read this, take 30 seconds (or an hour) and remember.

By Paul Mowry

Reflection for Saturday, Feb 9, 2008

Romans 2: 1-16

Do you not realize that God?s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? (2:4)

While Paul's tone is harsh here, I think the message is so important. He echoes the words of Jesus in Matthew 7:1, "Do not judge, so that you may not be judged."

It's easy to hear this as, don't do it because you wouldn't want someone to do it to you. But I hear it as, God has forgiven you! That's the "good news"! So don't judge someone because God has forgiven them and if you judge someone else it means you've probably forgotten that God has already forgiven you, too! Who cares about judging someone else when we know that we are forgiven, that we are okay?

For a long, long time, the Church has put the message out in such a way that most often we only feel bad about ourselves. But that's a mistake. God's Grace has already forgiven us. My experience is that when someone has been kind to me, I feel much better and am more likely to be kind to someone else. I think that is what Paul is getting at in this verse.

I'm glad to be blogging with all of you!

In peace,
Paul