Zeal

Psalm 31 • Psalm 35
Joshua 4:19-5:1; 10-15 • Rom. 12: 9-21 • Matt. 26: 17-25

I grew up in a semi-secular home in Lansing, Michigan. My mother was careful to explain to me that there could not be a virgin birth. I was about five to eight years old so it didn’t make any sense. I liked the stories of the church.

Lest you think I had a bad mother I did not. For example, when the four little girls died in Birmingham, Alabama because of a bomb my mother said at the time “Well, at least I know all my children are here with me and safe.” We were coming out of church at that moment. Later I heard Martin Luther King call it “one of the most vicious and tragic crimes”—and I realized that my mother had a beneficent world view.

Now here we are with the Apostle Paul and his letter to the Romans. God evidently had to work to get his attention and indeed Paul’s words are those of a man who speaks his mind. They have a rhythm. They are like a march of truth.  “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink” and “Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good…Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”

And here is the line I like especially because of its generosity: “If possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all.”

Written by Rebecca Newth

Rebecca Newth used to teach creative writing. At present, she watches birds and enjoys the breeze and the sky and clouds.