Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God . . .”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, August 25, 2019
by Dr. Kimberly Leetch, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: God came as the most vulnerable of humans—a baby—to save a vulnerable humanity.
God is the beginning of all things. God created, spoke, and acted before all things. In the beginning was God’s Word; all things were created through the Word.
We understand God’s Word to mean not only what God spoke (through which all things came into being), but also Jesus (through whom all things were redeemed). Jesus, who was with God at the creation (John 1:1, Gen 1:26), walked the earth as flesh and blood (John 1:14), shining God’s light (John 1:4-5) into a dark world.
The Apostles’ Creed includes an account of God’s journey on this earth as flesh and blood in the person of Jesus. Jesus, conceived by the Holy Spirit, was born of a human, nine months of pregnancy, labor and delivery, and then birthed in a messy room into a messy world. To be born into this world means God became the most vulnerable human alive—a baby. From before they are born, babies are completely dependent on their caregivers for survival. If they are not given food, they die. No clothing, they die. No shelter, they die. No love and human contact, they die.
Still, God became ultimately vulnerable so that God could know what it is to be human, and so that God could communicate with us with that full knowledge—God is love. It would take the rest of Jesus’ human journey through suffering, death, and resurrection before we could learn of the scope and depth of God’s love. We will never fully understand it. But we can believe that God knows how hard life can be for the vulnerable, and humanity is certainly that. Through Jesus, God rearranged the fabric of creation so that our ultimate survival does not depend on our ability to get it right, but on God’s ability to love.
How is our ability to love tied to God loving us?
An
Exceptional
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