A Radical New Beginning
Good Morning Friends,
We are both on the road to Pentecost and in the age of Holy Spirit where God’s redemptive acts reach out to change the world. There is a portion of this journey done and a portion left to be done. We see it reflected in the feast days. We see it reflected in the traditions of our lives. We see it in Holy History. But it is here in this marriage in us with the Holy Spirit, in culture that, I think we join in the substance of Christ’s redemption most clearly. Here we recognize that redemption has occurred is occurring and hope in its continued occurrence. So this morning even as I contemplate a future corporate wedding I embrace the Holy Spirit. And it is here in this mediation experience of Pentecost I realize and I hope you do too, a new meaning for old feasts. God is at work here in us as both a fulfillment of that which is old and A Radical New Beginning.
Scripture: Therefore say: Thus says the Lord God: I will gather you from the peoples, and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.
When they come there, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations. I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them; I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, so that they may follow my statutes and keep my ordinances and obey them. Then they shall be my people, and I will be their God. But as for those whose heart goes after their detestable things and their abominations, I will bring their deeds upon their own heads, says the Lord God.
Ezekiel 11:17-21 (NRSV)
Therefore do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or sabbaths. These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
Colossians 2:16-17(NRSV)
Message: When the desert fathers withdrew from the city, they found that they could not escape thoughts of their former lives. They used a three-step method to retrain their thoughts: they noticed, quarantined and replaced. Something similar happened, I believe, to the disciples between the Resurrection and the Day of Pentecost. Friends we are to notice, quarantine and replace the bad things that have happened. God is far more interested in our future than our past. He specializes in new beginnings. I do hope you perceive this new thing God does. Look at the situations in your life. God is continuing to create new traditions out of the old. God is continually redeeming your memories. Taste it again for the very first time with new faith in this new age of the Holy Spirit. Contemplate this intersection of eschatological time and community life and live in the new reality given by the Holy Spirit healing us in the shadows and in the hope of what is to come.
Pray we replace our fearful and angry thoughts with thoughts of love and peace. Pray we embrace that inspiration, that transformation of our life, from turmoil to transcendence in the experience of remembering our Risen Lord and that joy of believing that someday we will be renewed with a new body, a new mind, a new home and a new beginning. Pray we thank God for the Grace to ask for what we do not deserve…a fresh start…a new beginning. Pray God create in us new memories we can share collectively as a community of love. Pray we retrain our thoughts to not live in distraction but attend to God at work in us even now.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 