Today’s Bible reading
Read Romans 6
But thank God that although you used to be slaves of sin, you gave wholehearted obedience to the teaching that was handed down to you, which provides a pattern. Now that you have been set free from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness. — Romans 6:16-18
More thoughts for meditation
Are you tired of Romans 6? If you have been following along with Circle of Hope Daily Prayer at all during Lent you know that we have suggested you read it A LOT. It would be easy to skip over it at this point. That’s probably fine for some, but persisting in it is a real opportunity. Reading scripture again and again is a way to get beyond the words and their basic meaning and into a spiritual awareness. Trying again, after you have tried so many times before is a way to trust beyond your own understanding. That’s a good place to try to get, especially with Romans 6, because this passage can be hard to understand.
We keep working on that same old new pattern. The teaching that was handed down to us from Jesus, through Paul and others who shared the story and the Way. It was wholehearted obedience of the many who came before us which showed us what our new life might look like in Christ.
Keep at the pattern. Keep at the steps. Keep your bearing. Keep your company. Keep up with Jesus. Jesus is walking toward Jerusalem. We are walking with him. Through all the opposition — the oppression, the non-metaphoricall slavery, the addiction, the abuse, the trauma, the despair, the resentment, the obstacles, the weariness, the pain, the illness, the heartache, the powerlessness, the loss — through all of it we walk right next to Jesus, and He makes a way through. He makes a way through death. We have not been stopped, Even if slowed down, we have not lost our way completely — we can’t when the Way himself is with us. The New Pattern lives with us and we are righteous when we are walking with him.
Suggestions for action
Check back in on your intention for this week. What did you plan to do? Have you done it? Recalibrate as needed. Wholehearted obedience doesn’t happen in 48 hours. Starting again is the only way the pattern will ever persist. Staring over might mean starting at the beginning, or it could just be deciding to do again today what you did yesterday, and plan to do tomorrow what you did today. When you are walking free, unenslaved by sin, this repetition has more freshness to it than one might expect.
It’s Oscar Romero Day on Celebrating Our Transhistorical Body where we remember this beautiful champion of love and justice.
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