Friday of the First Week of Lent - March 2, 2012
Matthew 5:23 - 24
“So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God."
Honestly, I read these words about leaving the altar to be reconciled with another person, and the petulant little child within me screams, "BUT I DON'T WANT TO!!"
If stepping toward another person reconciliation is the first step toward offering our lives to God at the "altar," the "altar" will be a pretty desolate place.
So few of us have healthy patterns of dealing with anger, forgiveness and reconciliation. And few of us sense ourselves so solidly connected to God in our interior that we are willing to step away from our ego to extend generosity toward another.
Yet, Jesus gave us this picture of the kingdom of God, the radical reorienting of life whereby we are not paralyzed by our own tendency to anger, nor by the hardness of another person. This is a kingdom where relationships are radically reordered, leveled, and where "community" means more than living in the same geographical space with another.
Life within this kingdom has a structure about it that is fundamentally different from the cultures, societies, and mores by which we typically order life.
These words of Jesus are not meant to frustrate us. They are meant, I believe, to point to a different manner, ordering, and structuring of life.
For today . . . consider one person in your life with whom you need to be reconciled. As you think of that person, identify honestly the hurt that has arisen between the two of you. (Notice that you feel hurt or anger, but also be honest about the hurt or anger that she/he feels.)
In your prayer, what would you say to God about this relationship? What does God say to you?
Are there any practical steps God invites you to take today with this relationship?
“So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God."
Honestly, I read these words about leaving the altar to be reconciled with another person, and the petulant little child within me screams, "BUT I DON'T WANT TO!!"
If stepping toward another person reconciliation is the first step toward offering our lives to God at the "altar," the "altar" will be a pretty desolate place.
So few of us have healthy patterns of dealing with anger, forgiveness and reconciliation. And few of us sense ourselves so solidly connected to God in our interior that we are willing to step away from our ego to extend generosity toward another.
Yet, Jesus gave us this picture of the kingdom of God, the radical reorienting of life whereby we are not paralyzed by our own tendency to anger, nor by the hardness of another person. This is a kingdom where relationships are radically reordered, leveled, and where "community" means more than living in the same geographical space with another.
Life within this kingdom has a structure about it that is fundamentally different from the cultures, societies, and mores by which we typically order life.
These words of Jesus are not meant to frustrate us. They are meant, I believe, to point to a different manner, ordering, and structuring of life.
For today . . . consider one person in your life with whom you need to be reconciled. As you think of that person, identify honestly the hurt that has arisen between the two of you. (Notice that you feel hurt or anger, but also be honest about the hurt or anger that she/he feels.)
In your prayer, what would you say to God about this relationship? What does God say to you?
Are there any practical steps God invites you to take today with this relationship?
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