DAILY GRACE
March 25, 2020, Wednesday in the Fourth Week of Lent
Hello Everyone! I wish you grace and peace today . . . as we continue in this time of COVID-19. If anyone has a prayer request or a bit of news you would like to share with the congregation/ community, please do not hesitate to call the church office (276-988-4724). We will disseminate the information via email.
Sincerely,
Pastor Dave Gilbert
Scripture: John 5:17-30
But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, and I also am working.” For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God. Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing; and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished. Indeed, just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomever he wishes. The Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son, so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life. “Very truly, I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself; and he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not be astonished at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and will come out—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Meditation
“. . . [A]nyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life . . .”
Normally we live on overload. Normally we’re overloaded with a deluge of marketing messages and product choices. Normally many of us have what is termed “e-mail attention deficit disorder.” That is, normally we live in anticipation of “the next” — the next gadget, the next president, the next film, the next sale, the next fashion — only to “downgrade” the next big thing within minutes of its arrival. We are children of our culture. Normally we live according to the frenzy of “next.” It makes us impatient with working our way through something like COVID-19. Everything has come, seemingly, to a stop. There is no “next,” except the minute-by-minute updating on the TV news of the latest on all things related to the pandemic.
I read today’s Gospel passage. I want to skim over it because it seems so unconnected to what is going on. I want to press on to something else, something I haven’t heard before, something I haven’t read before. But is it unconnected? In this Gospel passage, Jesus is stating that he is the Son of God. Rather than a boring bit of old news, Jesus is actually addressing what that means for you and me. As Son of God, as divine, Jesus continues his work of healing us. He raises us and gives us life; he will judge us at the end of time and give us eternal life. That information seems so “old-hat,” doesn’t it? We’ve heard it all before so many, many times. We want to press on to the “next.” But Jesus is offering us here treasures we do not find anywhere else. We don’t have to wait for the next big thing. We can settle down and immerse ourselves in the eternal life we are given now — in this present crisis we’re living with and making our way through. All our Lord asks of us is that we listen to his words and believe. He then gives us peace.
Prayer
Listen and believe. Lord, my thoughts are in the future, and I believe them when I see them. How can I find peace by listening to the words of the Gospel again and again, believing in something I can’t see now? There must be something better: some author who says it better . . . some preacher . . . some devotion . . . some visionary . . . Like a butterfly I keep flitting from flower to flower, expecting to land on the spiritual jackpot. How silly! I already have everything I need in you. In this “down-time” of physical distancing let me not be distant from you. I will give you time, . . . to listen, and to believe.
Contemplation
“Jesus Christ, Son of God, I believe.”