Romans 8:35-39 (NRSV)
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all day long;
we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
John 6: 47-51 (NRSV)
Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
Devotion
In both Paul’s letter to the Romans, and John’s gospel, we are reminded of the centrality, fulfillment, and unconditional nature of God’s love. This is both a comfort and a challenge to all of us as we seek to live simply in a world where distraction, anxiety, and even fear threaten to turn us from a path towards that love. Each day we are bombarded with news that brings concern. Our families, our friends, reach to us with their own concerns – and so of course we live with compassion for them. Our jobs demand our attention – many times, and for many of us, for good reason as we serve our communities. In addition to all of that, there is the societal pressure to achieve, to attain “more,” to have the very best. For me, I see that pressure even on our youth – their screens, social media, and expectations of friends (and sometimes even us as parents) to achieve and to fit in.
So how then do we find the space to live simply? I believe that it starts with the reminder in the gospel of John, and in Paul’s letter to the Romans — that Jesus is the living bread of life, and that belief in Jesus Christ is all that is needed to attain eternal life. That there is nothing, writes Paul, that can separate us from God’s love through Jesus. This is where the scripture passages are both a comfort and a challenge. It is a challenge to hold that belief that God’s love is not only enough, but it is also the only path to eternal grace — nothing we can collect or attain on earth will match it. That is far from an easy belief to hold when the world around us seems perilous, frightening, and tells us that we need more than that. But these passages are a comfort too — that even when we are distracted, even when we are not at our best in living simply, that God’s love is unlimited, and that we are always welcomed back to a place of love.
Prayer
Gracious Lord, help us to remember that we need no more than your love to sustain us, even in times of challenge. Thank you for always welcoming us back to your grace when we allow distraction to overtake us. Help us to discern distraction from the needs of our fellow neighbors, and to remember that living simply includes living with compassion for others, making time for them in the same way that you always make time for us. Amen.
Mike Zolandz