Sights and Insights
Devotion for April 4, 2023
As we work together with him, we entreat you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says, “At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you.” Look, now is the acceptable time; look, now is the day of salvation! – 2 Corinthians 6:1-2 (NRSVUE)
The time has arrived. Now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation! We have entered Holy Week. We have heard the story of Christ’s Passion in worship this past Sunday. We will gather on Thursday for Maundy Thursday, a day to remember Jesus’ commands to wash one another’s feet and to share in the bread and the wine. We will then gather on Friday to hear again the story of Jesus’ crucifixion. This is the week to enter into this central story of the Christian faith.
I use the word “story” not to suggest it is something made up, but rather to emphasize the power of telling. We recount the events again and again, and each time there is a power not just in the events themselves, but in the telling of the story – both the telling and the hearing. In telling the story of Jesus, we participate in it. We become part of the fabric of the telling; the story of Jesus becomes interwoven with our story of our lives. Our lives are shaped by the Good News of Jesus. In telling the story of Holy Week and in hearing that story again and again, our lives become opened to that story. It becomes not just a central story of the Christian faith, but a central story of our lives.
Come and hear the story; come and join in telling the story. As the story of Jesus becomes our story, we become part of the salvation narrative. God’s salvation comes to us as we become part of the ongoing story of Christ at work in the world. That makes now the acceptable time to receive this story of God’s salvation come to us in the events of Jesus’ life, death, crucifixion, and being raised.