The Whole Kit and Caboodle

Weekly Devotion - November 13, 2011: Boldly Shaping Partners of God for the Transformation of the World

Theme/Title:  "The Whole Kit and Caboodle"

Scripture:   1 Samuel 2: 7-8; Psalm 24: 1-6; John 3: 16-17; Romans 12; 1-21;

Media:  

YouTube video: “We Are All Humans of Planet Earth (Song)” by ZiYuFilms

Reflection:

“For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and on them he has set the world.”  “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world and those who live in it; for he has founded it on the seas, and established it on the rivers.”  Creation, the universe, the world, the earth; they are God’s and God’s handiwork.  What is comes from what God has done.  But it hasn’t turned out the way God intended.

God created the world and then God placed within it humankind.  God did this because God wanted to have a partner, someone to be in a deep, intimate and life-giving relationship with.  In order to have this be a reality God had to give humankind freedom – freedom to choose to be in a relationship with God or to choose not to be in that relationship.  God had to set us free in order to see if we would return and do so of our own free will and choosing.  This is all well and good except that we humans make choices and then change our minds and then do things we regret and then try to get back into the relationship we turned down often without changing the habits or behaviors that caused problems for the relationship in the first place. 

God’s intention for the world has run up against the results of human choices and freedom and the world and its inhabitants (human and otherwise) are suffering for it.  But when people realize that a relationship with God fills the void they have in life, when they enter into a deep and intimate relationship with God they see the world that is and they come to know the world God intends and they see the disconnect.  The faithful also know that things can change. 

“For God so loved the World that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.  Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3: 16-17 NRSV)

In Romans 12 Paul spells out how citizens of God’s world are to live while being sojourners in the world that is.   He summarizes the entire chapter in one sentence: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”  Transforming the world begins when we start overcoming evil with good.  Living as the people of God is living in such a way as to help creation move in the direction of God’s intention for it.  The world is God’s, we are God’s children and if we truly want to live in the world God created we must strive to change the present course of human existence so that the universe may once again align with God’s intentions.

Meditation: Where have you struggled with being a citizen of God’s kingdom and a sojourner in the world that is?  What does it mean to have a deep and intimate relationship with God?  What choices have you made that have either pushed the world away from God’s intentions for it or helped to realign it with those intentions?

Prayer: Ask God to forgive you for those times and actions that pushed the world away from God.  Ask God to forgive others who have done the same thing.  Pray that all God’s people will find their way to God.  Pray that the faithful will join efforts to realign the world with God.  Thank God for those who are working on this realignment.