Peace and Purpose

  Readings: Hosea 9-10; John 11:54-12:19 There are times where the Old Testament speaks to our need for the Gospel. Usually for me, this is highlighted when we see a particularly violent passage in the Old Testament or one that draws particular attention to the brokenness of the world. Today’s readings from the Daily Office are an example of this. There is a lot of darkness in the words of Hosea.   You may know the story of Hosea and how the prophet’s life is analogous to the unfaithfulness of God’s people: Hosea’s wife is unfaithful to him, just as the people of Israel have been unfaithful to God through their idolatry and reliance on foreign powers for their safety. Hosea prophesies to the northern kingdom of Israel, the 10 tribes that split from the original 12 after the death of Solomon, and his message is that destruction will come. And indeed, he is the last prophet to prophesy in the north before the conquest of Israel by the Assyrian Empire in 722 BC. In Hosea 10, the ...

Reading: Romans 6 How many times have you heard it said? “I just can’t wait for things to get back to normal.” And of course, we all have felt that way at one point or another, but I wince a little bit every time I hear someone say that, because things may never be exactly like they were before we began dealing with the pandemic. Even if nearly everything practically goes back to its former pattern — work, school, church, our social lives — we will still be living with a world full of people who have been changed by what we have all experienced. There will be a new normal. There is no going back to the way things were before, because we live in the reality of the present moment. To go back is against the very nature of reality.   We as Christians have had the very nature of our reality changed and upended by the work of God in us through Jesus Christ. We deny the reality of that change when we continue with the patterns and sins of our former lives. Paul uses a phrase twice in Roma...