Lent
March 23, 2016

Scripture Reading: Acts 10:34-43

Then Peter began to speak to them: ‘I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all. That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.’

‘I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.

 I have often wondered where we ever thought we got a say in judging God’s relationship with anyone. Yet we seem to relish the task, casting doubt on people who do not practice the same theology that we practice.

Jesus commanded us to love God and love our neighbors as we love ourselves. I think achieving those two tasks will surely take me a full life time leaving me no time to judge anyone else’s beliefs or behaviors. Jesus actually drew the assignment to judge all of us and yet he said to the woman caught in adultery, neither do I judge you, go and sin no more. (John 8:11)

As we experience again the trial of Jesus this week consider what is behind the judgment calls being made about him. They have little to do with his actual actions and much more to do with the threats his actions bring to those judging and the way of life they have chosen to practice. How much of our judging of others is primarily concerned with protecting ourselves?

Prayer: Lord, forgive me when I shy away from loving a neighbor who intimidates me, who I do not understand, who does not fit my way of being. Let your love flow through me to enable me to love the others I encounter along life’s ways just as they are. 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.