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Stirring
Have you ever misplaced or lost something, and it stirs little worry? You just know that Read More
Ellie Roscher | Read Jeremiah 31:31-34
God’s new covenant is endlessly exciting. It is dripping with good news. It has consequences for our bodies and beings. And it’s a promise we cannot reciprocate. As we keep score and hold grudges, God remembers our sins no more. As we create a social hierarchy, God extends God’s love to all people. As we create limiting binaries of right and wrong, in and out, good and bad, God is accessible and available equally.
“I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Repeat this throughout your day. It is all we need. There is no longer least or greatest. We are forgiven. We shall know God. Broken, we belong. Broken, we are beloved. All of us, without exception. In the joy of belonging to a loving God who is available to all people, we can shift our energy from binaries to radical inclusion. We can work toward wholeness in ourselves and our communities.
It is easy to forget that God lays the law on our hearts. God’s handwriting is in each of our bodies. There are physical markings of this spiritual gift, lest we stray and forget. Jeremiah’s words remind to look at our own hearts. Read the handwriting so beautiful and distinct that it can only be our Creator’s. Our God is the God of the Israelites, the God who takes us by the hand and leads us to freedom. Our God is a God who forgives, who comes back, who gives us second chances to live in the light of God’s promise. Our God is a God whose love extends to all people, whose love washes over all of us abundantly until we know through and through who we are and whose we are.
God of promise, may I be open to your grace today. Illuminate the law that you have written on my heart. Inspire me to live the new covenant and strive to know you more fully. Amen.
We can maintain outward appearances for only so long. At some point what is in our hearts will come to the surface. God understands this, of course, which is the reason for the promise in Jeremiah. God promises a day when God’s law will no longer be an external standard that we are trying to follow but will be written on our hearts. In the aftermath of his sin with Bathsheba, David cries out in Psalm 51 for God’s forgiveness and a new heart. The New Testament readings begin to focus our minds toward the end of Jesus’ life. God’s transformative work comes at a cost to God through the death of his Son, who suffered in obedience but through his death was glorified.
Read Jeremiah 31:31-34. What are the covenant relationships in your life? How do you fulfill your part of the covenant with God?
Read Psalm 51:1-12. What are the things that clutter your heart, limiting your availability to fully love?
Read Hebrews 5:5-10. When have you offered your prayers “with loud cries and tears” as Jesus did? How does knowing Jesus’ vulnerability impact your life of faith?
Read John 12:20-33. How does this example of the grain of wheat help you to understand Jesus’ crucifixion and death?
Respond by posting a prayer.
I join many of those who will pray for you as you seek to discern what you are called to be at this moment. May God grant you the courage to fulfill that calling. May we all open our eyes and see the misery, open our ears and hear the cries of God’s people, and, like God through the Lord Jesus Christ, be incarnate amongst them.”
View a growing list of resources for the spiritual work of overcoming racism.
