Living in the Spirit

June 25, 2022

Scripture Reading: Luke 9:51-62

When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; but they did not receive him, because his face was set towards Jerusalem. When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, ‘Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?’ But he turned and rebuked them. Then they went on to another village. –Luke 9:51-56

While Jesus seemed to be very spontaneous, he was always intentional, or perhaps his autobiographers only recorded his intentional acts. Jews and Samaritans did not like each other. In fact, most Jews when they traveled north took the route around Samaria to avoid Samaritans. The fact that he traveled through Samara at all was unusual. It probably was not unusual that they did not welcome him. I think Luke is telling us that Jesus knew he had a purpose to complete that was not going to be pleasant but was necessary for you and me and all God’s children everywhere even if it required facing, not just rejection, but ultimately death on a cross.

Our world is in crisis from a pandemic with a mind of its own to a war of pure greed. I just heard on the news that Putin’s not allowing Ukraine’s grain to be shipped out of port will probably cause a deadly famine in Africa and food shortages across the world. Our nation is being attacked by divide and conquer tactics resulting in stagnation in our government.

We, too, must become intentional in our work to create a compassionate community, where we work at loving our neighbor and loving ourselves intentionally until we get it right in the eyes of God.

Prayer: Lord, open our lives to be intentional as we work for a compassionate world. 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.