Lent
February 18, 2016

Scripture Reading: Philippians 3:17-4:1

Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things. –Philippians 3:17-19

The very thought of anyone imitating me as an example of following Christ is frightening. Even Paul himself, the author of the letter to the Philippians, said, I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. (Romans 7:15) Yet I long for the day when my life has been fulfilled in the image of Christ. In the meantime, we all struggle to be Christ-like while asking for forgiveness when we fail and diligently pursuing wholeness in our relationship with God in response to the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

My god has indeed been my belly at times, literally in over indulgences and figuratively as I live out the greed that is epidemic in our world every day in my actions and reactions. I live in a small house in comparison to many, so I was shocked when my five-year-old nephew asked me, “Why do you live in this big old house all by yourself?” My niece, his mother, was struggling to make ends meet as a single mom with two children living on the salary of a preschool teacher in a house that was about two thirds the size of mine. By the way she succeeded in raising two wonderful young adults.

I saw an interview on the news yesterday with a grandmother raising three grandchildren in South Africa. The drought there is so bad there is not enough food to meet basic needs. She sent the children to school with no breakfast knowing that they would get a small bowl of porridge at school, their only meal of the day. She and a younger child, who stayed home with her, shared some fruit she plucked from a withering tree.

Our weather is wreaking havoc around the world as is income inequity because for too many our god is our belly. The God of Adam and Jesus created a world capable of sustaining its inhabitants once we learn God’s way of practicing dominion over it.

Prayer: Lord forgive us for our inability to see how the way we live impacts all your other children. Help us to understand your way, as you demonstrated with the manna in the dessert, of assuring that each of us have enough. 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 American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.