Everyone is reevaluating their priorities. With all the upheaval in society, we have to ask, “What matters most?”
For us, Jesus Christ is the paramount priority. Our first desire is to know and be known by him. “To live is Christ . . .” Paul says (Phil. 1:21). In a time of resignation and reluctance, we enter a season of Recommitment in November.
Invocation
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Jesus, you said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). I know, and you know better, that my love for you has faltered. My heart and soul are bent toward self. My mind is easily distracted and my strength fails. But I know you are gracious. Forgive me. Show me loving kindness. Reform my heart and soul, mind and strength, that I may be fully devoted to you. Amen.
Word: Mark 12:44
“Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”
Meditation
There’s a sentiment among us that says, “I’ll show up . . . unless a better offer comes along.”
There is a sentiment that says, “If it’s too hard, quit. If it takes too long, find something else.”
There is a sentiment that says, “Live for the moment. YOLO. You only live once. Check all those things off your bucket list before you die.”
But the sentiment of the day seems plastic. Such commitments are hollow, and it only makes me long for a more substantive commitment. In a world of flaky non-commitment, is there anything worth dying for? The widow’s pennies are jingling in the offering box still today. Klink. Klink. I’m confronted with my own apathy and selfishness.
About a week ago, the Christian church marked All Saints Day. We are given a picture of the saints of God who have gone before us. It’s helpful to remember that the word “saint” in the Bible means “holy one.” It doesn’t refer to a narrow category of super-Christians. It is used inclusively to describe all those who are in Jesus Christ. He makes them holy. They wash their robes clean in the blood of the Lamb, not by their own laundering.
The saints are a beautiful picture of God’s grace for us who are struggling in an age of non-commitment. We have stories and pictures of faithful Christians who demonstrate herculean faith. Like the “poor widow,” they go all in. But we also see the same saints trip and stumble. The David who slew the giant is the same David who committed adultery. The Peter who confessed Jesus as Messiah is the same Peter who denied him.
We are modern saints. We push back against a malaise of flaky non-commitment. We also recognize the limits of our human commitment. Ultimately, we don’t claim perfection, but redemption. We live with grit, and we also live by grace.
We pray: Lord, grant me grace and grit. Forgive my apathetic tendencies. Continue to lift up your cross before my eyes. Remind me of a faith worth dying for. Amen.
Prayer
Into your hand, Father, we commend our spirits; our minds to know you, our hearts to love you, our wills to serve you, for we are yours. Receive us and draw us after you, that we may follow your steps. Take us and fashion us after your image. Into your hands, O Lord. Amen.
Benediction
May the grace of the Lord Jesus sanctify us and keep us from all evil; may he drive far from us all hurtful things; may he bind us to himself by the bond of love, and may his peace abound in our hearts. Amen.