Lent
Scripture Reading: Ephesians 5:8-14
For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as
children of light— for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and
right and true. Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in
the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful
even to mention what such people do secretly; but everything exposed by the
light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore
it says,
‘Sleeper, awake!
Rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.’
As a cradle Christian, I have no excuse for sinking into darkness. The letter to the Ephesians was written primarily to new Christ followers with varied past. When I toured Ephesus a few years ago, I walked past the statues of gods that were worshipped as Paul and others brought the Word to these people. I remember pausing beside a representation of a fish etched in the stone walkway sending the message to those new followers that they were not alone.
These words to the Ephesians today may be as important to us as they were to those new followers of antiquity as we deal with varying messages regarding who Christ is and what Christ taught some sounding unfamiliar to this lifelong Christian. I am particularly struck by the phrase, Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. How do we do that? I write and speak often of putting everything in our lives to the litmus test of does this act, do these words, does this motivation passed the test of love? I accept the definition of love in very simple terms as wanting the best for another just as God wants the best for me. I do not accept that I have the capacity to determine what is the best for another, which makes loving another more complicated. I must deal with observing what I consider to be harmful self-inflicted behaviors based on my understanding of God’s love and must discern what, if any, appropriate response I might make. Perhaps suggesting to another to Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord is a great place to start.
Self-examination is really hard. The filters we build up in our beings are difficult to clean. The first step in self-examination is admitting that fact and soliciting God’s help in supporting our earnest attempts at understanding that which is interfering with our ability to accept God’s love and to love all God’s children including ourselves like Jesus loves.
Prayer: Lord, help me clean the filters that are clogging my ability to love. Once cleared help me to install new filters that keep out that which entices me not to love. 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 America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.