Living in the Spirit

Living in the Spirit

August 18, 2022

Scripture Reading: Hebrews 12:18-29

You have not come to something that can be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them. (For they could not endure the order that was given, ‘If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned to death.’ Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, ‘I tremble with fear.’) But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. –Hebrews 12:18-24

Hebrews ends with a comparison of a relationship with God via comparing old with new, the law compared to the gospel, Abel’s blood spilled and Jesus’s blood bringing in a new covenant. Moses trembled with fear as he approached the holy mountain while entrance to the heavenly Jerusalem is a coming home experience.

Our world and everything in it routinely experiences small but dramatic changes. Thirty years ago, did you imagine life with a cell phone? Major changes have had even greater ramifications, the Renaissance for example, or the “discovery” of the New World. I believe we are in one of those major-change times right now and I believe we are called, to work with God to tilt the outcome toward the formation of the Beloved Community.

Our world is suffering the chaos of change, threatened with battles between authoritarianism and democracy, the growing division between the haves and the have-nots, and climate change that threatens our very being. God continues to shape our world just as he created the earth out of chaos. We must be open to God’s calling to partner with God in the work of making the Beloved Community a reality.

Prayer: Lord, turn our fear of what is happening in our world today into energy to build your Beloved Community. 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.