The word from the Lord this weekend Is a sequence of truths that both leads us and challenges us to living a life of resurrection faith: Faith that loves from the heart: Faith that reflects God’s love for us and overflows into the world around us.
I believe through my experience and observation that when a person is blessed by someone, in turn, they will seek to honour the person who has blessed them in some way. This will be paid forward in the way they honour others in a similar manner in they have been honoured.
Have you witnessed or experienced this in your life?
This is what Peter is getting at in the first reading from acts 2 in verse 36 when he reminds the people in Jerusalem of what they had done to Jesus and of what Jesus is to them: Lord and Messiah!
In response, the people were moved to repentance and beyond: what can we do now that will honour a Lord and Messiah and what he has done for us?
1st Peter chapter 1 reminds us that what has happened here is the great rescue: Jesus has rescued us from the powers of sin and death and raised us up into a new way of life. We can call this resurrection faith : faith that loves from the heart. This love begins in the heart of God, flows into our hearts and overflows into the lives of people around us.
Psalm 116 asks: and what can I give to you Lord for being so good to me?
And so I ask that same question of myself and of you. What do we give to the Lord in response to all his goodness towards us? How do our lives reflect the love of God? What is it that makes our faith – resurrection faith?