Friday, August 22, 2012

Today’s text

John 6:56, 67-69

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in that person.

Then Jesus said to the Twelve, 'What about you, do you want to go away too?' Simon Peter answered, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe; we have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.' and we believe; we have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.'

Reflection

Where do you live? We ask this question when first meeting someone, trying to place them in their state or neighborhood, thinking about how their life is similar or different from our own.

The biblical word is menein, abide. It asks, where do you live? Where does you heart dwell? Where are you at home? Where does your soul rest?

Where does peace appear, bubbling from depths of being even in surprising moments?

Where does the feeling of being wonderfully, beautifully alive, loved and wanted wash through you--even amid your brokenness, despite the pain or challenge of the day?

So many times we dwell in the land of our failures, or we abide and make our home in our anger and frustration over how life has gone for us.

Our minds and hearts travel well-worn roads back to the voices that diminished and defined us as unwanted and unworthy. We make our home in moments we felt judged. We dwell in the land of the lost, despairing beneath the weight of our brokenness, believing we can never be good and whole again.

We make our home in inhospitable lands that diminish our souls and wither the love and grace that is in us.

Jesus comes to us and all who need him bearing a land in which he bids us dwell, a land in which the love that fills him flows from his pores and every word telling us the truth and wonder of who we are.

We … you … are beloved and known, wanted and cherished, amid all your human imperfections and the wounds from the past and present.

“Come, to me,” he says. “Come and abide in me. Dwell in the circle of my nearness. This is your home. So come, receive and eat the truth. Take it into your body. Chew on it until it becomes part of your DNA.

“For what is in me is love without limit, a river of grace that never runs dry. Taste what is in me. Beauty and the joy of life will flow from your soul, and you will know, truly know, the life of eternity, right here and now.’”

Pr. David L. Miller