The Cyber Vitamin July 31, 2006

The Cyber Vitamin
July 31, 2006

Read: Ephesians 6:1-16

The Story:

With perfect humility, meekness and patience, Paul tells us we preserve the bond of unity. One Here Paul combines the awesome wonder God provokes in us with God’s expectation for unity and kindliness in our midst.

Paul is in prison. But he doesn’t throw in the towel, or focus on “poor me.” Nor does he blame God for his predicament or tell us to hunker down, lower our expectations and just survive without making waves.

Rather, Paul exhorts us to live a life worthy of the life we have received in Jesus.
Rejoice in hope and live the life you have received to the fullest and the boldest way you can. And do so, always respecting the unity which the Spirit directs and binds us to become: one body , one faith, one Spirit, one hope and one Lord.

Reflection:
Paul is calling us to, through the power we have received through the resurrection of Jesus Christ to obey the fundamental biblical command: “U’bakharta bakhaim” (Deuteronomy 30:19). This means we are to choose life, or “You shall choose the living.” What does this mean to you today as we see the hoof prints of the apocalyptic horsemen of sin, evil and death pound across the land and human flesh of Israel and Lebanon? And dare not forget the recent earthquakes in Indonesia, the deadly one step forward, two steps back cavort our soldiers dance in Afghanistan, or the suffering of the helpless and homeless in Darfur region of the Sudan. Why not hunker down and eke out as pleasurable existence as best you can?

Can it be, that in naming the high calling we have been gifted with through faith in the risen Lord that to say yes to life will urge us on to pick up the pieces; to recognize our vulnerability as human beings but also our potential for improvement?

Can it be that to choose life is to say in the face of death that life is worth living; that to choose for the living is to celebrate the love which precedes the grief that may presently overwhelm us?

Prayer:
Lord, you can and do satisfy our needs and our hungers. So we turn to you with hope and openness. Guide us as individuals and as Christ’s body the church to be faithful to our high calling. We thank you and bless you for what you have already accomplished in our midst. Amen.