Scripture: John 4:19-24
The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Thought for the Day: Yesterday, along with a number of Cypress Creek Christian Church staff and church members, I attended the annual Spring Interfaith Breakfast. It was very enjoyable, moving and heartbreaking. I believe it makes God smile when people of different faiths come together in a spirit of respect, seeking God’s guidance in the pursuit of understanding and truth. There were two representatives of the Yazidism tradition, a religion currently experiencing great persecution in northern Iraq and other places in the world. Thousands of the Yazidis have been killed, and thousands of women and young girls have been sold into sex slavery. We spent time in prayer, praying for one another. A female representative of the Islamic faith prayed a beautiful prayer for healing in our world; a jewish representative prayed as one who came from a faith that has known great suffering, but was also not innocent of bringing suffering upon others; a Christian prayed for God’s love to lead us into a place where every human being is treated with dignity, but he also prayed confessionally in recognition that Christian history is marked by times when the name of Christ was used to justify hatred. Afterwards, there were more beautiful words of friendship spoken. It was a good way of spending the morning.
The news is always trying to portray people – Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Yazidis – in very narrow terms, often exaggerated caricatures of the truth. None of the religions mentioned truly prescribe violence or hate as a method, yet ideologies of greed, bigotry and narcissism will often co-opt a religion’s name and holy writings as a way of giving divine legitimacy to what could never be justified. Christianity has its own list of such folks who have attempted to commandeer the name of Jesus, and in the process, the ways of Jesus were lost amidst their exploitation of the name. May we always seek the truth behind the narrow caricatures used to define our sisters and brothers of other faith traditions.
Prayer: O God of all people, let us seek out others so that the barriers created by fear and misunderstanding will cease to exist. Amen.
WORKDAY
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This Sunday
11am – 2pm
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