Scripture: Leviticus 19:18
You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
Thought for the Day: On Sunday, our three preachers started the service with a couple of scriptures, including this one from Leviticus. First, Leviticus has never got the recognition it deserves. Clearly it is difficult (even a little boring at times), but there are these very powerful statements woven into the fabric of the book. Now we tend to view these words as pretty tame through our 21st century Christian eyes, but they were pretty outrageous in ancient Israel and the surrounding cultures. The deity or deities were often thought of as distant, a bit uninterested in the day to day ethics and morality of people’s lives. Religion was mostly about placating and appeasing the deities. So it was a bit surprising to hear of a God who had a very strong opinion of how human beings were to interact, and even more shocking was how this God desired for people to work from the basic premise of love. The development of Judaism and early Christian thought was a dramatic shift away from religious placation motivated by fear -to- a life-giving relationship that encouraged human beings to seek healing and restoration within their own relationships. In every moment of history, God is doing what many would define as radical. What do you see God doing right now that pushes the edges of what we would describe as good old religious thinking?
Prayer: I give you thanks, Lord, for the incomprehensible character of your love. It continues to teach me new ways of loving others in this heterogeneous world. Amen.
WEDNESDAY
Noon – Study on the Trinity
6:30pm – Study on Islam
