Living in the Spirit
July 8, 2015

Scripture Reading: Psalm 24

Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?
   And who shall stand in his holy place?
Those who have clean hands and pure hearts,
   who do not lift up their souls to what is false,
   and do not swear deceitfully.
They will receive blessing from the Lord,
   and vindication from the God of their salvation.
Such is the company of those who seek him,
   who seek the face of the God of Jacob. –Psalm 24:3-6

I have been struck recently by how much I am more a creator of the culture around me than I am of the Kingdom of God. This reality appears most often in an ingrained sense of entitlement that I take for granted as a white, middle class citizen of the United States. I mistake clean hands for obeying the letter of the law and a pure heart for my dedication to liberal agendas of society. I recycle when it is convenient for me, buy free trade coffee, probably as much because it taste better than it is the right thing to do. But I pay little attention to where my clothing was made or whether a child working 16 hour-days made them.

Self-righteousness comes in many forms and is insidious. We in the US practice it from all sides, liberal and conservation. Somehow we think our worth is established by our measuring one against the other as if God loves one more and one less because of what we believe. I cannot find that in the Bible anywhere. God’s love is unconditional and more importantly universal. The plumb line of righteousness is our love for God and one another.

There is nothing innately wrong with culture. Society is dependent on norms being established to make the flow of life less complicated. What is crucial is understanding the beauty of the many cultures across our earth and being attentive to those things within our culture, which are detrimental to our ability to love one another across cultures as God love us.

Prayer: Lord, make me aware of how my way of being impacts the way of being of others and when those impacts are detrimental to my loving the other, enable me to love like you do. 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.