Monday, June 23, 2008

Today’s text

Matthew 10:40

[Jesus said:] 'Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me; and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.

Prayer

Grant us hearts, Jesus, that welcome the presence of your kingdom. Too often our minds are more attuned to ugliness than beauty, quicker by far to see error and find fault than to savor stirrings of your Spirit.

We are more eager to criticize than to praise. Criticism puffs us up, assuring us that we are above the others. But a moment’s guilty pleasure erodes the heart ties you would weave, leaving us so terribly alone.

And it is clear that you are a weaver. In a simple act of welcome, you join our soul with another and your own heart. In a simple invitation, a blessed tri-unity of mutual sharing springs into being, and the holy heart of the Loving Mystery is as incarnate as my fingers on these keys.

So this is your purpose, Jesus. You join us with each other in you to know the heart of the All Loving.

So let us welcome each other, trusting that your gracious kingdom will spring from nothing into life in the simple hospitality of heart and hand.

Pr. David L. Miller