Good Old Days
A reading for Tuesday, May 31, 2016: 2 Corinthians 3:1-18.
We live with the temptation of believing things were always better in the past. There is a romantic ideal of our history. We are convinced that if we could just return to our "glory days" then all would be right again with the world... Remember the "good old days?"
There were other missionaries traveling the world of Paul. Often they were faithful Jews, like Paul, who demanded that followers of Jesus also be practicing Jews. They believed a follower of Jesus must maintain the traditions of the past in order to embrace the God of the future. The "good old days" were the way into the future.
However, Paul has a different idea. Paul believes that it is the Holy Spirit that provides for the future that God intends. Opening ourselves to that Spirit is the way into new life. In today's lesson, Paul writes about what is new and different when it comes to practicing a faithful life. Jesus' followers must be open always to the Spirit of God.
It is still the Spirit that opens us to new life. Sometimes that Spirit calls us to ancient practices of devotion and prayer. Sometimes that Spirit calls us to embrace faith in a new way, opening ourselves and our lives to new experiences. It's not the "good old days" but the Spirit who invites us into the future that God alone intends.
"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit."
We live with the temptation of believing things were always better in the past. There is a romantic ideal of our history. We are convinced that if we could just return to our "glory days" then all would be right again with the world... Remember the "good old days?"
There were other missionaries traveling the world of Paul. Often they were faithful Jews, like Paul, who demanded that followers of Jesus also be practicing Jews. They believed a follower of Jesus must maintain the traditions of the past in order to embrace the God of the future. The "good old days" were the way into the future.
However, Paul has a different idea. Paul believes that it is the Holy Spirit that provides for the future that God intends. Opening ourselves to that Spirit is the way into new life. In today's lesson, Paul writes about what is new and different when it comes to practicing a faithful life. Jesus' followers must be open always to the Spirit of God.
It is still the Spirit that opens us to new life. Sometimes that Spirit calls us to ancient practices of devotion and prayer. Sometimes that Spirit calls us to embrace faith in a new way, opening ourselves and our lives to new experiences. It's not the "good old days" but the Spirit who invites us into the future that God alone intends.
"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit."
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