Lisa Bowden
(Hebrews 10:1-10)
Dear Friends,
“Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who approach.”
The Greek word for perfect is teleióō: to complete, make perfect by reaching intended goal, accomplish, bring something to its full development.
The scene in Hebrews is Jesus standing before God in the profound moment when the final act of *perfection*—of love and grace—happens. Jesus lays down his life, which brings about a *complete* forgiveness of sins (past, present and future) and life eternal. The extent to which he willingly sacrificed himself to ultimately and finally reconcile our humanity to God brings an end to a world in which such sacrifices (“year after year”) were necessary, let alone imaginable as something “good.”
Writing during MLK weekend, I focused on *the magnitude of God’s love for us.* The strength and peace that surpasses all understanding, that which can make us fully awake and alive rather than despairing. While God’s love is a daily, felt thing for me, it is profoundly private and deeply vulnerable, therefore also difficult to put into words. I look to Catholic priest, author James Alison for help.
In Eucharist, Sacrifice, and Meaning, Alison says “meaning is discovered in those who are chewed over by the grinding down to the old sacrificial world run by death, and who yet find themselves taken to a place where they can begin to bear witness to what it is like to recognize, and then refuse, its meanings, to discover what Jesus made available in going to his death, and has been making available ever since through the Holy Spirit: the Creator sharing with us the making new of all things through our own invited participation into being signs of new life.”
Approaching God, I practice open heartedness—humility, gratitude, less self. I try to deepen my understanding (or sometimes just grasp) the 100% love and grace extended to me, reflexively. That grace is for everyone. . . both mark missers and saints. I work to acknowledge failure and shortfalls, seek forgiveness without pretense, and strive sincerely to be transformed by “the good things to come.”
How do you reflect back the *perfect* self-giving of Jesus? How can we together create legacies resonate with love, compassion, and grace?
In community,
—Lisa
