Daily Lectionary Readings for Year A
Change is not easy. When life changes we feel a little out of control. We lose a sense of our place. We are sometimes confused about our purpose. A part of us might even wish for nothing to change, ever! Keep things the way they always were so that my life isn't disrupted. But we know that change is needed and inevitable. Change is needed because we are not "there" yet. We do not live in a world filled with God's grace and the peace that Christ lived and died for. We have not yet committed ourselves to racial justice. The coronavirus continues to spread in part because we haven't as a society changed the way we think about caring for our neighbor. The environment is all out of whack. The church from its very beginnings has struggled against change. Paul realized the Gospel of Jesus Christ was for the whole world, not just for the children of Abraham who were distinguished by circumcision, the sign of the covenant. When Paul said a person didn't have to be circumcised to be a follower of Jesus he was run out of town. This proves the point that we do not have God's wisdom or depth of grace. God is ever-expanding our understanding of the community of faith and expecting us to care for and about more and more of our neighbors. We can go into this ever-changing world kicking and screaming, demanding that nothing is moved and nothing is done to make us uncomfortable. Or we can embrace God's wondrous plan. We can confront racism, change unjust systems, expand our sense of community, make new relationships, and let love of others be our guiding principle. Take some time today to write down the changes you have experienced in your lifetime. Were they scary to go through? What lessons did you learn from them? How do you deal with change in the church and change in the world? Peace, Dean
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REv. Dean N. PrentissI am blessed to be the Pastor at Wesley Park UMC. Find Daily Lectionary Readings Here. Archives
February 2021
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