Making Room
Daily Scripture Readings
Monday: Hebrews 10:19-25
Tuesday: Hebrews 10:26-31
Wednesday: Hebrews 10:32-39
Thursday: Hebrews 11
Friday: Hebrews 12:1-11
Saturday: Hebrews 13:1-2
Opening Prayer
Gracious God, Today, we thank you that you welcome us–you invite us into your presence. In your presence, we experience rest and peace–and nowhere else. Lord, let our witness to this world be that which we have experienced from you–rest and peace. In Jesus’ name, AMEN.
Devotional Thoughts:
Our house came with a couple of garden boxes. When we moved in there was an assortment of flowers and vegetables that the previous owners had planted. What a splendid surprise! The joy of harvesting inspired me to plant some seeds this year. Amazingly (to me at least) the seeds have taken root and started to grow…. And along with them a bunch of weeds.
Weeding and watering have become a ritual for me on as many days as I can manage. Over time, it has become increasingly apparent to me that weeds do not stop (especially in the Spring!). After some reflection, I realized that I planted seeds once. In comparison, mother nature and adjacent weeds and plants have been sowing their seeds in those same beds around the clock! I’m struck by how consistent this appears to be with life in our culture. We’re seemingly inundated with weeds and their seeds around most every corner: pushes and pulls, commercials and pressures in all shapes and sizes to conform (or buy into) the pattern of the world.
The readings this week come from the book of Hebrews, or the sermon-letter of Hebrews as most scholars would contend. The writer is encouraging the audience to stand their ground, to hold fast to the truth and promises found only in Jesus Christ and to not cave in to the pressures of the world. The call of the sermon writer is to cultivate–to remember and practice the habits that sustain us. He calls the readers to not stop meeting together (10:25), to reject sin and faithlessness, to remember the faith/faithfulness of our ancestors, to keep on loving one another, and to practice hospitality to those we don’t yet know.
As you read through this sermon, I invite you to think with me about the weeds and weed seeds you encounter in your life. What are the things that are pressuring you to conform to the pattern of this world? What are the things that are filling up space in your life where you would like something else to grow and thrive? What can you do to remove those weeds? What are things and practices you can commit to in order to cultivate the good seeds in your life?