Scripture: Ephesians 4:22-25
You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another.
Thought for the Day: Yesterday, our worship services felt more like a Cher Concert. With everything happening, I had three separate costume changes… well they weren’t actual costumes. I wore my clerical robe at 8:15, changed into casual jeans at 9:30, changed into my swim suit and baptismal robe to begin 11:00, and then back into my clerical robe after the baptism. Let me be honest with you, I have a little anxiety at the thought of coming into worship with the wrong outfit or with my fly down or with two different shoes. I doubt the Apostle Paul had these concerns, though he did talk a lot about changing clothes. He wanted people to clothe themselves in the likeness of God, and though none of my costume changes made me look anything more like God, I did have the opportunity to share in a baptism where a young lady clothed herself anew with true righteousness and holiness. Like all of us, she will – in time – come to learn how better to wear these new garments of grace. Baptism is God changing our outfit from the old-self to the one that more reveals the image of God that exists within us.
Prayer: Help me to shed those things that do not allow me to be your disciple, O Lord. Clothe me in the new self that seeks righteousness and holiness for the sake of all. Amen.
