In the Present

Psalm 105:1-22 • Psalm 105:23-45
Mal. 2:1-16 • James 4:13-5:6 • Luke 17:20-37

Our reading today from James and Luke emphasize what Richard Rohr calls “The Naked Now.” James warns us against storing up “treasure for the last days,” and in Luke Jesus tells his disciples, “For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you” and that “those who try to make their life secure will lose it but those who lose their life will keep it.” The focus is on the present, and those who yearn for the kingdom should seek the moment.

The inclination to live for an unpredictable future keeps us outside the gates of the kingdom. Gabriel Marcel, a 20th Century French Christian existentialist thinker, argues that the kingdom is personified by “the available soul,” that friend who will drop everything, who will cancel plans, who will risk her own security, who will seize the moment to come to the aid of a fellow being in need.

Written by Grimsley Graham

...who every day is thankful for St. Pauls.