The Noontimes

Tuesday, December 11, 2012 – Deuteronomy 6 – Fidelity

Today’s readings are all about fidelity.  Isaiah 54:1-10, Psalm 19, Psalm 30, Psalm 113, Hosea 2:21-22, Luke 7:24-30.  In DAILY REFLECTIONS FOR ADVENT & CHRISTMAS: Waiting in Joyful Hope 2010-2011, Robert Morneau writes about these readings: We need blessed assurance, an anchor that provides stability in a turbulent and changing world.  Is there anyone or anything that we can count on, especially when trials and tribulations fall upon us?  Isaiah the prophet provides an answer: God’s love will never leave us nor can the great covenant of peace be shaken.  The blessed assurance of love and peace flows out of God’s immense mercy . . . When this divine friendship is offered, people must make a decision to accept or reject it.  And even if it is rejected, God’s love and mercy is still available and is given as soon as an individual or community turns back to the Lord. 

In Deuteronomy today we hear the wonderful Shema of the Jewish people, the beautiful center of morning and evening prayer: Love the Lord with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength.  Drill this into your children.  Keep this attitude about you at all times.  Identify your home and family as ones who remain in God.  This is also the lesson that Jesus comes to enact among us.  How well does the world know that we are Christ followers?  By the fidelity with which we live our lives. 

What we want is blessed assurance, and yet we have it shown to us constantly in the thousand little ways that God intercedes for us each day.

What we want is peace and joy, and yet we have it given to us in the small gestures and large actions the Spirit brings to us each day.

What we want is justice and mercy, and yet we are given it in the thousand little and big ways that Jesus awaits us, calls us, and redeems us.

We look for something we already have.  All we need do is turn back to God in the fullness of body, mind and spirit.  All we need do is rest in God . . . in trust, in hope . . . in fidelity.

Written on December 16, 2010 and posted today as a Favorite.