WEEKLY DEVOTION BY VICAR MELODY SIMPKINS
Vacation Bible School is going strong this week at Redeemer. The main verse for VBS is Mark 12:29-31, "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," and "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
One of the scribes asked Jesus, "What is the greatest command?" The first part of Jesus' response comes from the Torah and it's called Shema. For Jews this was an important part of who they were. They would put this on their doorposts and put it on cloth and wrap it around their hands and heads. So, Jesus' first part of the response was what a typical Jew would expect him to say but Jesus goes on and adding, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
Jesus meets us in the intersection between God coming down and us going out. What I mean by that is the first part of this command talks about our relationship with God. God wants our whole self and our whole devotion in response to what Jesus has first done for us. Jesus, our God has come down to be with us. There is nothing that we can do to go up to God. We have a God that has come down. A good image of this is a vertical line, starts at the top and comes directly down to us.
One of the scribes asked Jesus, "What is the greatest command?" The first part of Jesus' response comes from the Torah and it's called Shema. For Jews this was an important part of who they were. They would put this on their doorposts and put it on cloth and wrap it around their hands and heads. So, Jesus' first part of the response was what a typical Jew would expect him to say but Jesus goes on and adding, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
Jesus meets us in the intersection between God coming down and us going out. What I mean by that is the first part of this command talks about our relationship with God. God wants our whole self and our whole devotion in response to what Jesus has first done for us. Jesus, our God has come down to be with us. There is nothing that we can do to go up to God. We have a God that has come down. A good image of this is a vertical line, starts at the top and comes directly down to us.
Jesus expands this command and says that we shall love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus calls us to respond to his love with love of our own. Jesus calls us to go out and serve others. That is what we find ourselves learning about in this week's VBS, how we go and serve others. Monday we learned about serving family,Tuesday friends, Wednesday neighbors, Thursday community andFriday Jesus. Remember the vertical line as our relationship with God? Now add a horizontal line that represents the relationship we share with those around us. These relationships together make a cross. It is at this intersection that Jesus meets us, in our relationship with God and in our relationship with others.
This week we've had the opportunity to explore with the kids this intersection of love and service. We have served our family, friends and neighbors by making sack lunches for children that don't get lunch because school is out for the summer. We're made necklaces to share with a friend and so much more. This week God has met us at that intersection and revealed God's self to us through the songs, games, crafts, and the laughter of the children.
Prayer:
God of love, Come down to meet us. Reveal your presence in our lives. Send us out filled with your spirit to serve our family, friends, neighbors, community and Jesus. AMEN
This week we've had the opportunity to explore with the kids this intersection of love and service. We have served our family, friends and neighbors by making sack lunches for children that don't get lunch because school is out for the summer. We're made necklaces to share with a friend and so much more. This week God has met us at that intersection and revealed God's self to us through the songs, games, crafts, and the laughter of the children.
Prayer:
God of love, Come down to meet us. Reveal your presence in our lives. Send us out filled with your spirit to serve our family, friends, neighbors, community and Jesus. AMEN
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