Saturday, March 10, 2018
Saturday, March 10, 2018
Commemoration of Harriet Tubman, 1913, and Sojourner Truth, 1883
Reading: Ephesians 2:1-10
“For we are what he has made
us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be
our way of life." (Ephesians 2:10)
During Lent, we
are all like catechumens, like those learning the Christian faith and its
aspects before baptism. The word "catechumen" is from the Greek kata - "down" and ekhe - "sound". In a sermon on
baptism, St. John Chrysostom taught that the word catechumen came from the word
"echo", and that what he was teaching them was to "echo
down" into their minds and into their lives. Here we read from the letter
to the Ephesians, with these verses instructing us that in Christ we have been
made a new creation by God, adopted and created for good works - it is God's
doing, we are admonished in 2:8. This is Luther's "faith active in
works". As he writes in his Introduction to St. Paul's Letter to the
Romans: "Faith is God's work in us.
It changes our hearts, our spirits,
our thoughts and all our powers. Faith cannot help doing good works constantly.
It is just as impossible to separate faith and works as it is to separate heat
and light from fire!"
God of all Wisdom, may your
Word echo down into our minds, into our hearts, and into our very lives. Amen
- · Light a candle and imagine ways that your life can bring warmth and light into the world.
