What's the Problem?

Friday, March 20, 2009 -- Week of 3 Lent, Year One
Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne, 687

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 954)
Psalms 95* & 88 (morning) 91, 92 (evening)
Jeremiah 11:1-8, 14-20
Romans 6:1-11
John 8:33-47 *for the Invitatory

The spiritual journey is a pilgrimage from bondage into freedom. Our bondage takes many forms, but one simple way of speaking of it is as our slavery to sin. Jesus' original audience resisted this language of slavery. We are not slaves, they said, we are free.

We may say we are free, but most all of us are in some forms of bondage. Sometimes language like this helps us recognize our bondage: We are compulsive, driven, addicted, self-centered, dependent. We experience fear or anxiety because we may not feel safe and secure; we may feel empty, unable to trust ourselves or the world. We experience shame or a sense of rejection because we feel like we have to earn our place in the world; we believe we have to achieve something in order to receive the kind of affection or respect that we believe we need, in order to truly belong and to relax into a deep sense of acceptance. We experience anger and a desire for autonomy and control in an unpredictable and threatening world; we feel a sense of powerlessness and resentment because we aren't able to make things the way we want them.

All of these are conditions of sin and bondage. Most of us experience one or more of these conditions at some time in our lives. Many of us live chronically with these afflictive emotions.

Jesus speaks of the truth that will make us free. Paul speaks of dying to that old self so that we might no longer be enslaved to sin. Paul says that we are raised from death into new life.

The truth is that we are perfectly safe and secure in Christ. Jesus has participated in all that can threaten us and has overcome it. We are free to trust that God will protect us and provide enough, all that we truly need.

The truth is that we are perfectly loved. God loves us with an unqualified love that is God's gift of grace, forgiveness, renewal and belonging. There is nothing we have to achieve to receive this love. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted.

The truth is that God is in control. God's power extends over our lives and over creation. What God does is to bring life out of death. Therefore, we can relax into God's work of healing and reconciliation. There is nothing we need to be defensive about.

We can love God with all our heart and mind and soul and strength, and we can love our neighbor as ourselves, because God first loved us, and provides for us, and guides us into being.

Shifting from paragraph 2 above to the paragraph immediately above is what Paul invites us to accept as our baptism into Christ's death and our rising to walk in newness of life. It is accepting the truth that makes us free.

Lowell

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Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

About Morning Reflections
Morning Reflections is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life

We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas