Psalms 88 * 91, 92; Genesis 27:46-28:4,10-22; Romans 13:1-14; John 8:33-47Jesus is in a knock down, drag-out verbal match with the hierarchy that controls the religious system. Strong words, insulting words and accusations, are bantered about. But before Jesus' words get intemperate (calling his foes spawn of the devil), he says that these folks are trying to kill him because there is no place in you for my word.
These individuals with whom Jesus is arguing had created a world rigid with rules and regulations and guidelines, micro-managing how people were to live their lives in a "holy" fashion. A by-product of that kind of approach to life is that those rigid constructs also control how we can understand the world and how we understand God. These tight constructs had left no room for God, as these rules defined God in very tight and particular parameters. Jesus, his life and ministry, are testament to taking our notion of God out of the box. Of making room in ourselves for ambiguity, and thoughtful imagination, and dreaming, and not-so-rigid-rules-and-regulations, and a space to breathe, and see the beauty of God's creation all around us.
Life can seem to be so much easier with tight constructs controlling how we live and interact in the world, and how we define God. "Seem" is the operable world, for those constructs, mostly, are false and human-made and can, and do, keep God out of our life. We are asked to consider today where in our life have we left no room for God.
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Copyright 2012, The Rev. John F. Dwyer. All Rights Reserved.
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