2 Easter, Year One
[Go to Mission St Clare for an online version of the Daily Office including today’s scripture readings.]
Today’s Readings for the Daily Office:
Psalms 16, 17 (morning) // 134, 135 (evening)
Daniel 3:1-18
1 John 3:1-10
Luke 3:15-22
Many Christian writers have attempted to find words and images that describe the relationship between the life we live now and the life that is to come, or between the body we inhabit now and the resurrection body. For example, in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul writes that our current life and body are related to our future life and body as a seed is related to the plant it will become . . . that is, radically transformed but still connected to its roots.
In today’s second reading, the evolution from our current state to our future state is a bit less drastic. In fact, it’s almost as straightforward as growing up. As the letter states, “Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do now is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.”
Right now, we are children. When we grow up, we’ll look more like our Father. And we acquire this likeness by seeing God more clearly.
How does this image of resurrection life help to move us through our day? What if living the resurrection life is as gradual and continuous a process as growing up? Sure, growth will be more abrupt in some stages, but the overall process might have a steadiness about it. We’ll grow up a little more today, and every day, by straining to see God as God is.
Lora Walsh blogs about taking risks and seeking grace at A Daily Scandal. She serves as curate of Grace Episcopal Church in Siloam Springs and as director of the Ark Fellows, an Episcopal Service Corps program sponsored by St. Paul’s in Fayetteville, Arkansas.