4-27-2024

Good Morning All,

             Galatians 2:20; “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

        I always remember the line about how “there is no such thing as bad press.”  This usually pertains to entertainers and to the idea that as long as your name is in front of the people, as long as they think about you, then you are still famous.  The public may hear that you were picked up for drunk driving but at least you are still in the public eye.  This is especially true for the not so famous anymore who grasp past glory.  “No such thing as bad press.”

     You and I may scoff and snicker at that but to a certain extent we are the same way.  We like people to think that we are important.  We like for people to seek us out and “need” us.  We may even harken back to previous experiences to remind people that we are important.  This is partly why people refer back to “scoring the winning point in a crucial game in high school” when they are 40 or 50 years old.  It is why people refer back to a time when they were on a board or served on some committee a few years back; we want people to think we are important and that we matter and that our opinion matters as well.

    We may even shape our relationships around the idea that we are important.  We may attempt to control relationships in this fashion.  When someone threatens to “leave” a friendship or other relationship unless their “needs” are met; they are saying to the world, “I am the important one here.”  These relationships are often toxic and seldom last very long; for when we take the attitude that any relationship is about “me first;” that relationship will suffer greatly.

    Here we need to see that a truly successful relationship has both parties “crucifying” the old selfish self and being reborn, through Baptism, as the new creation that is in Christ.  We see our relationships as Christ does and that is to look to love, to comfort, to aid others more than self.  We live, not to feed the selfish nature, but to be in Christ holy presence and to be Christ to the world; to be his hands and arms, to be his voice and his ear, to be his shoulder and arms.  We are to be the personification of Christ to the world.  We are to place Jesus first in all of our doings, in all of our actions, in all of our relationships.

    So, as we go forward, let us remember that we have crucified the “old me;” we have drowned the me that demands to be first and God has given birth to the new me which is filled with the desire to serve Christ and him alone.  It is not “me first” but “Jesus first.”  

Father of love and mercy, in you we have hope.  Lead me to see that the old me is crucified and that the new me is in Christ’s image and in his Spirit.  Lead me to love and not demand.  Lead me to love and not require others to serve me.  Lead me to be your servant by serving the needs of others.  In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret