Eastertide
May 15, 2020
Scripture Reading:
1 Peter 3:13-22
For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight people, were saved through water. And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him. –1 Peter 3:18-22
I wonder if we still have consciences—the sense of knowing the difference between right and wrong. The Greek word, syneídēsis*, translated conscience in the above scripture has a deeper meaning than knowing the difference between right and wrong. It combines the moral and spiritual consciousness as part of being created in the divine image. Accordingly, all people have this God-given capacity to know right from wrong because each is a free moral agent (cf. Jn 1:4,7,9; Gen 1:26,27). In being created in the image of God, we are all equipped with the knowledge of righteousness and justice. So, what separates our knowing from our actions—idol worship?
Many stories in the Hebrew Bible include warnings about idol worshiping from the Golden Calf at Mount Sinai to Elijah’s attack on the prophets of Baal. Some may think those were just the ways of ancient pagans bowing down to real statues. We would never do that. While idols have evolved over time within cultures, we remain dedicated to worshiping something upon which we can project our personal desires and call it our gods, such as wealth or privilege or power.
Worshiping the gods of wealth, privilege, and power fosters greed, bigotry, and violence. People of faith face as great a challenge now as our ancestors in faith did in helping all people to understand that there is nothing worth having more than the Love of God and living in the light of that love, which is broad enough to include all of God’s children.
Prayer: God, who is love, forgive us for creating our own gods to the detriment of your other children. Guide us as we return to living in your light. Amen.
*https://biblehub.com/greek/4893.htm
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.