Lent
February 16, 2018
Scripture Reading: 1 Peter 3:18-22
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 3:20-22
I checked out my purchases at one of the do it yourself machines now prevalent in stores moving items from one place to another to make sure I ran them all. I then pushed my full cart to my car several yards away in the cold wind. As I unloaded the bags, something hanging from the seat for children caught my eye. I reached down and pulled up a long thin plastic bag filled with those little plastic ties used to pull together cords and keep them from being an unsightly tangle. The little plastic ties cost 79 cents. I looked at the ties, I looked at how very far I was from the store entrance, and I confess I thought the store would not miss my 79 cents. My conscience disagreed with my brain, and I trekked back into the store, ending up at a card only check out machine, ran the scanner over the package, and charged 85 cents with tax added on my bank card. God was certainly the ultimate source of my conscience; my parents made sure I got the idea. Doing the right thing is a habit of the heart. A part of the discipline of being a follower of Christ is engraining doing right things, even the smallest things, into our very being. If we do the right thing in the small things, it becomes easier to do the right thing in the tough, perhaps controversial things.
The story of Noah’s Ark is a story of one man doing God’s will while others did not. I do not readily get the connection with baptism that the author of I Peter is trying to make, but I do know that being cleansed of old habits and old hurts that limit our abilities to love like Jesus is important as we grow in wholeness with Christ as our example.
Prayer: Lord, cleanse us as we grow out of old bad habits and strengthen us as we strive to build new good habits. Amen.