Becoming Christ’s Children, The Sacrifice of Family and the Hope of Reciprocal Altruism.
Good Morning Friends,
Today on this Second Sunday in Lent we contemplate those habits of daily sacrifice that extends love in families and communities.
Today we explore acts of selflessness and the practice of concern for the welfare of others. One has to wonder of the possibility of how this all works. Too often we do not think of being our brother’s keeper, but then there are those acts of Marines for their brothers, there is charity, emergency aid, help to coalition partners, even tipping to strangers and gifts to those we love or might learn to love. There are the intrinsic rewards for these things such as there is for those who fight for a cause greater than self. Maybe for you it is environmentalism, for others art or sports or business but for the Christian, though they might embrace these things as well, there is more. Perhaps the sacrifice of having children is the best example of that hope of personal gratification that lives on in something abstract, but the church too. You see, in this physical world, family and church have observable benefits even though the concrete and abstract blur. Here it is interesting to note that Jesus gave up this earthly possibility children and choose instead to embrace something that could not be reciprocal accept in the abstract. With that in mind today we contemplate Becoming Christ’s Children, The Sacrifice of Family and the Hope of Reciprocal Altruism.
Scripture: Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Ephesians 5:1-2 (NRSV)
Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have produced a man with the help of the Lord.” Next she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel for his part brought of the firstlings of his flock, their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.
Genesis 4:1-5 (NRSV)
Message: The sacrifice of things which are intangible and abstract in their nature is more difficult to make, yet more important for the individual and the church, more necessary for success in community, and also more likely to be overlooked or ignored even in a family. Abstract things may be ignored as objects of sacrifice because they are rooted in our hearts and minds. They are not of the natural world. The value of sacrificing them is not fully captured in a visible act like putting the cap back on the toothpaste tube.
Maybe giving up something deserves to be called a sacrifice only when we love and value it in the abstract. I have found that when I give away money, what I really give up, and what makes it a sacrifice, is my love for money, not the object itself. Stephen R. Covey put it this way, “Happiness is- in part at least – the fruit of the desire and ability to sacrifice what we want for what we want eventually.”
Maybe for Cain and Able and for us too it is not so much a sacrifice as it is an offering.
Pray we desire and value becoming children of God. Pray
we realize that it is more difficult and more necessary to sacrifice abstract things rather than the concrete. Pray we realize that we can give up something we love and to which we attach value only for something we love more and to which we attach greater value. Pray we realize that this must sometimes be an act of faith and hope. Pray we learn the value of being in family. Pray we find value in families as they help us to change our perspective and eventually help us to become more concerned for the future. Pray this offering of our life glorify God in the reality of what God can do that we cannot.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 