Living in the Spirit
September 5, 2018

Scripture Reading: Psalm 125
Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion,
   which cannot be moved, but abides forever.
As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
   so the Lord surrounds his people,
   from this time on and forevermore.
For the sceptre of wickedness shall not rest
   on the land allotted to the righteous,
so that the righteous may not stretch out
   their hands to do wrong.
Do good, O Lord, to those who are good,
   and to those who are upright in their hearts.
But those who turn aside to their own crooked ways
   the Lord will lead away with evildoers.
   Peace be upon Israel!

And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was cured instantly. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, ‘Why could we not cast it out?’ He said to them, ‘Because of your little faith. For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there”, and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.’ –Matthew 17:18-20.

What do children of God do when the spreading of God’s love requires them to move mountains? The reading of the Psalm above is comforting, if we seek a safe haven from all the evil in the world where school shooters cannot reach us, where nerve gas and bombs dropped from planes cannot fall from heaven, where children are not ripped from parents arms, where the wealth resulting from drug sales is not worth more than the peoples’ lives the drugs infest, where hunger is not as normal as death.

Jesus sang a new song, spoke a new vision calling us to place protective mountains where they are missing; calling us to step out of our comfort zones and see the scepters of wickedness resting on all lands. Jesus asked us to build nothing less than a new heaven and a new earth where the faith of our ancestors in God’s protective care still flows through us as we work to make all things whole within the love of grace of Jesus Christ.

Prayer: God of the Harvest, grow our tiny faith seeds into love that can move mountains when mountains of change are needed. Amen.

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