Devotion for Saturday, March 21

Lessons from the Daily Lectionary – Saturday, March 21, 2009

Psalms 60, 148; Jeremiah 13:1-11; Romans 6:12-23; John 8:47-59

Meditation: Recently, a little questionnaire has circulated among pastors on Facebook. If you fill it out, it will tell you which well-known theologian you are most like. Mine turned out to be Karl Barth, but I was half-hoping that it would have come up, John Calvin.

Calvin, quite deservingly, has a very stern reputation. And sometimes his theology can get a bit stark. Mostly, his bark is a lot worse than his bite, and if one scratches the surface one finds a great deal quite likeable and wise about his theology. 2009 is the 500^th anniversary of his birth, so he is in the Presbyterian news this year. Our heritage goes back to his writings, The Christian Institutes being his most important contribution to the church.

Some of Calvin’s wisdom from the Institutes comes to mind today in connection with our reading from Romans, today. The passage talks about “sanctification,” which is that journey we take to mature and grow in the ways of Christ through our lifetimes. For Calvin, sanctification fit under the category of “the third use of the law.”

Calvin was adamant that we must see our relationship with God defined by God’s grace. God is the initiator of the good relationship. When we fall back on making ourselves good enough for God to love us, then we both miss out on the great love of God and we start to make distinctions which will set us up for false pride and the arrogance of comparing ourselves over and against other “children of God.”

But this leads to the question which Paul asks in Romans: “Shall we sin more so that grace could abound?” Here’s where Calvin’s third use of the law comes in. The first use of the law is to set a level of expectation of how we might live. By the second use of the law we are shown to fall short of the divine standards. (I’m talking about God’s law here, not our society’s.) Because we fall short we are shown to be in need of God’s grace and forgiveness. But when the grace is given, when we are found to be children of God not by our merits, but according to God’s love for us, what comes next? For Calvin, the answer is that we keep the law of God as well we can. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Honor God in your life and speech. Don’t abuse others by violence, through infidelity, gossip, theft, or oppression. Care for the creation, which has liberty as its divine birth rite, while we have a call to be stewards of the earth.” Grow in the way that you pursue these standards, but not so that you forget the grace and mercy as fundamental underneath.

I hope you are having a great weekend. I’m fasting with our youth in the 30 Hours of Famine. Fasting is like that, a third use of the law. It doesn’t make me more acceptable to God. It’s just a way to think about God and others by the intentionality in the practice.

Prayer: You go easy on us, God. When we fail you, you extend mercy. Accepted by your grace, let us live in thanksgiving to you, imitating Jesus, who shows your love. Amen.