You Are Our Letter: Pentecost Thursday

LOOK: Living Epistle, Steve Prince - Source

READ: Psalm 37:1-18; Psalm 37:19-42; Deuteronomy 4:32-40; 2 Corinthians 3:1-18; Luke 16:1-9

PRAY: Prayer to the Holy Spirit

Come, Holy Spirit,
fill the hearts of your faithful,
and enkindle in us the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and we shall be created,
and you shall renew the face of the earth.
Amen.

DO: Throughout the first week of Pentecost, I'll be sharing excerpts from my upcoming book, The Spacious Path: Practicing the Restful Way of Jesus in a Fragmented World. In Part 2 of the book, I invite us to consider Jesus invitation in Matthew 11:28-30 to “walk with him” as an invitation to walk with his church. Today, I’m sharing two small excerpts from the chapter “Centering in the Beloved.”

THIS IS MY BELOVED

Jesus began his public ministry on earth centered in the belovedness of God. And the thing we often forget is that, at least publicly, Jesus hadn’t done anything yet. His first act of public ministry was stepping into baptism and hearing the Father speak his identity: “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17 NRSVue).

Every time I read this story, I think of the old Sunday school song, “His banner over me is love.” The song is based on Song of Songs 2:4, which the NRSVue translates, “He brought me to the banqueting house, and his intention toward me was love.” Thinking about it now, that’s probably the best Sunday school song ever. In our congregation, the children spend the first and last part of the service in the sanctuary with us adults. During the sermon, they go to Sunday school, but we always want them to know that we’ll miss them while they’re out of the room and that we’re all one church together, so when it’s time for them to leave, we sing a special song reminding them they are children of the living God who loves them very much.3 This love that sings over beloved children is the same spirit we witness at Jesus’ baptism: This is my beloved Son, my intention toward him is love. Sing to the living God.

…

The rest that comes from being loved

Our parents name us at birth, and God gives us our forever name at the second birth of baptism. In baptism, we step into the water of death with Jesus and are raised with him, the beloved. Because belovedness begins in God, we do not name ourselves beloved; instead, we receive the name—the reality of ourselves, fully seen and loved by God—as a gift. We accept beloved as our name, and we accept ourselves as being loved. Our temptation is to live as if we are beloved without letting the truth sink down into the true state of our souls. We may believe God loves us, but we haven’t allowed that love to help us discover the truth about ourselves. Any rest we feel that doesn’t help us discover the truth about ourselves is a false rest. Since you are reading a book about spiritual disciplines, I’d guess the religious false self might be a temptation for you, too; the one often tries to tag along with the other. May I invite you to drop the old names, come out from under the shame that tries to hinder your intimacy with God and others, and step onto the spacious path. Child of the living God, sing to the living God.

—from Chapter 7, “Centering in the Beloved” pp. 121-123

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As we consider our true name as Beloved, how would it feel to pray the following prayer:

“God, help me become more like Jesus and more like the beloved person you’ve always imagined?” 

Read, reflect, journal, and share your own responses with the rest of us in the comment section below.