Whom will you serve?
When Joshua gathers all
the tribes of Israel at Shechem, he challenges them to decide whom they will serve, giving
them a variety of options. And, in the
presence of the Ark of the Covenant, the people do not disappoint: like Joshua, they choose the Lord, our God, who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of
Egypt, announcing their fidelity aloud as an act of promise In so doing, they choose to move forward as a
new people, a people defined by the experiences that have transformed them and by the name of the God they serve. Knowing, as Psalm 34 reminds them, that the Lord has eyes for the just, and ears for
their cry, they can find comfort in a God who saves.
In John's Gospel, Jesus likewise challenges his disciples to decide whom they will serve, to decide if they can believe only in what they can
see, or if their hearts are open to belief in the transcendent, the
intangible. This saying is hard; who can accept it?, they ask. But Jesus is calling them to recognize the Spirit and life that are his very words, and to respond to the love of God
that he himself incarnates. To do so, they must
follow the words of Paul to the Ephesians:
Be subordinate to one another out
of reverence for Christ. If we
recognize Christ in other, if we participate in the love that he shared, then
we can move beyond the limitations of this world, living our lives out in
response to Christ's sacrifice of love for us on the cross, defined by our
experience of Eucharist, transformed by God's love so that we live to serve
other, and, in so doing, serve the Lord.
Whom will you serve?
And how will that experience transform you?
This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.
Image source: Wordle
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