Forward Movement is an official, non-profit agency of the Episcopal Church whose mission is to create compelling content for Christian living. Since 1935 we have published the quarterly devotional Forward Day by Day, as well as pamphlets, booklets, and books that encourage and nourish people in their lives of prayer and faith.
FRIDAY, June 5 (Boniface) Ember Friday
Luke 18:9-14. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
Did Jesus ever tell any easy parables? Here, the tax collector, an enemy collaborator, finds favor with God; the righteous Pharisee does not. How can this be?
Although it's been fourteen years since I've fasted, I'm a Pharisee. I read my Bible, attend church faithfully, tithe. Why should God prefer the extortioner to me? I even volunteer in prison!
What our prison chaplain finds most rewarding is "seeing the light go on as someone gets it, something you rarely witness in the parish pew." Her "congregation" consists largely of abused women who turned to drugs to alleviate pain and then to crime to finance addiction. "Light" is the reality of God's love piercing self-hatred.
It is hard for someone who has lived up to society's expectations to grasp that God loves us not because of our successes, but unconditionally. Inflated self-image clouds comprehension. We laugh off gluttony, are blind to greed, compare ourselves not to Jesus, but to neighbor.
Jesus loves us exactly as we are. To see ourselves as we are is humbling, but it is only in humility that we can come before God.
PRAY for the Ministry of Deacons
Ps 40, 54 * 51; Deuteronomy 26:1-11; 2 Corinthians 8:16-24
View the daily Lectionary Readings at Satucket.com.
Or view the Bible passages at Biblegateway.com.
A Meditation for Pentecost
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