Living in the Spirit
July 5, 2015

Scripture Reading: Mark 6:1-13

Then he went about among the villages teaching. He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, ‘Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.’ So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.  –Mark 6b-13

I heard a news report regarding the results of a survey trying to determine what caused the shift in the United States among its citizens from being against gay marriage to supporting it. What they found was for most people their hearts and minds were changed not from protests or TV shows but from actually knowing someone who is homosexual and understanding his or her life situation better. Isn’t that what Jesus is addressing in our scripture today that we need to go into the world and actually get to know our neighbors. Learn the problems that they face, live with them through their unique issues.

Jesus was all about the way we live. He called us to a life of loving God and loving our neighbors as we love ourselves. These are two basic principles from his Hebrew background, ancient in origin, nothing new at all, yet woefully missing from our practice. Any regular readers of my devotions probably think I quote them ad nauseam and I can promise you that is not going to change until I get it right and our society gets it right. I believe this is the repentance to which he instructed his disciples to introduce others.  He did not list a lot of “thou shalt nots” but these two “thou shalts” for when we get these “thou shalts” right the “thou shalt nots” are no longer needed.

Jesus calls us to get to know the people whose paths we most likely would never cross unless we make the effort to seek them and meet them and love them just as they are.

Prayer: Love that will not let us go, free us from the fear of opening our hearts and minds to others. Help us accept each other and let love be the ointment that brings us to wholeness, oneness, and justice.

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.