Intersection of the Sacred and Secular Life
Good Morning Friends,
This morning I am thinking and feeling that on a deep level there is a culture of Christ and a reality of Christ in culture that supersedes the culture of countries…that supersedes politics and institutional religion. Our God is a God of history and at the heart of human events: the challenges of a complex society there is a need to liberate people but also systems across time. The reconciliation of the privileged class has to be part of the approach. The revolution is won by reconciliation, redemption and liberation of both the oppressed and the oppressor here at the Intersection of the Sacred and Secular Life.
Scripture: He has saved us and called us to a holy life-not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,
2 Timothy 1:9 (NIV)
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12:2 (NIV)
The voice said to him again, a second time, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” This happened three times, and the thing was suddenly taken up to heaven.
Acts 10:15-16 (NRSV)
Message: It seems that the sacred, makes its impact on the secular by providing principles that are to govern the relations between persons and by holding before humankind a vision of the divine that gives purpose to life as a whole. We are to live everyday life in the world, but at the same time claim a contemplative dimension. We are to contemplate the Lord and the world… the reality and beauty of the world… the great sins of society, and its deviations from the divine. And here we are to link with others… and with courage live into the world continually reconciling the sinner in us. Friends, there may be a separation of Church and State but there is not and never was meant to be a separation between the secular and the sacred. All flesh is to bless God forever throughout history. It just takes a while. To choose the secular or the sacred is a false choice. The attitude of action and the grace of gratitude are to be one. Our honor for those who hunger and our hunger for what is right and just are never to be separated. The Incarnate Word of God and the person of God are to be pulled out of our mundane daily actions and all that we eat and drink of life, as well as from the words of scripture. Our daily bread and the mercy and praise we experience are to also feed us as well as the poor we honor or we will find ourselves dancing between things that are not there… we will fail to join in the dance of the Holy Spirit. Friends, it is in our nature to desire to be close to our Divine Father…to live in response to Jesus’ love. Every Child of God wants to know the security of being close to their parents…the familiarity of their faces, the security of their strength, and the assurance of their words…the impact of worship on the world. WE need to continually repent for God is continually doing something in us. The Spirit of the Lord has been shared with us in the broken Body of Christ as a blessing so we might carry on His work feeding the poor, pitying the slaves, unbinding their chains, reflecting God’s justice, through us as we imitate the Word made flesh until His return. For believers, there is no distinction between the secular and the sacred; we belong to God and all belongs to our Lord.
Pray we be evangelical yeast to leaven all the dough of the world. Pray we realize that our true wealth is the all-encompassing love of God. Pray we adopt a way of life that reflects the reality that we are made in the image of God. Pray our hearts are reconciled with God. Pray we are in the world and not of the world, but for the world. Pray we realize that everything secular is potentially sacred. Pray the joy of Christ urges us to share with others the beauty of faith. Pray we are available to be used by God to further God’s purpose of reconciliation, liberation and redemption. Pray we realize that to resist the power of the sacred is to accept the profane. Pray we realize what is holy and not yet holy. Pray thy Kingdom come on earth as in heaven.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Friends, for additional reflection see this link:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/111283170901815924328/posts/89xa5XsjqAn
It is the work of Fredrico Calderon, a student of my friend Dr. Richard Hailer. Fredrico is from El Salvador and did a project on the life and death of Cardinal Romero, who he knew as a boy. He used a technique called “draw my life.” Notice in the story the convergence of the political and the sacred….the link between evangelism and justice…between witnessing and martyrs… between saints to be and to journey towards salvation.
Daily Devotionals 