Eastertide
May 2, 2014

Therefore prepare your minds for action; discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed. Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance. Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; for it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’ – 1 Peter 1:13-16

All people have been made in the image of God and thus have the potential to be imitators of God. We are capable of loving like God. Jesus Christ demonstrated how that can be done in his life here on earth. His modeling of being in the nature of God is our model to follow. That is what being holy means. We are called to be set apart, to be different from what perhaps our human inclinations and environmental influences might make us. First Peter 1:13-16 is saying that we have to work at being holy.

We are challenge to be active not passive, disciplined, and focused on the grace of Jesus Christ.  By disciplining ourselves to be Christ like we are enabled to become Christ like because he is holy. I call that being in synch with God.

I have been frustrated recently. I just bought a new HD TV that is supposed to be great and indeed I now can see all the moles and wrinkles on all the actors not to mention the scores during basketball games. The only problem is that the TV apparently gets out of synch occasionally with the cable stream and I see the pixels in slow motion from time to time. At points it totally shuts down and a message flashes telling me that the cable company has lost the stream for the station I am watching. I can either try to find something else to watch or call a number and they will reset the box, which could take up to 15 minutes. The only problem is the message does not stay on long enough for me to catch the number I am supposed to call.

I think my TV experience describes the way many of us handle our relationship we God. Rather than doing the work necessary to be in synch with God, we let the relationship flounder and find ourselves in a constant state of rebooting.

Being holy is intrinsically connected with being whole.

Prayer: Holy One, enable us to be whole through the disciplines of the spirit. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.