Lent 5
Devotional
Water From the Well
Lectionary Devotional For Cycle A
Object:
To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
-- Romans 8:6
Paul's contrast between flesh and spirit might be illuminated by thinking of flesh as an earthly, strictly material perspective and spirit as a more godlike perspective. If your mind is focused on the finite framework of the earthly life, then much of your energy is directed toward the power that death has over your decisions. The phrase "where there is life there is hope" is a very pragmatic, materialist perspective. If that is true, then one must avoid death at all costs because unless there is a physical life, there is no hope. Death becomes people's god to whom they give full attention and obedience. In contrast, the Spirit opens the parameters in which hope can be experienced. If God, not death, has the final word, then the faithfulness of God, revealed in the death and resurrection of Christ, can provide a deep peace.
When the Spirit of God dwells in you (recall Genesis 2:7), your perspective enlarges. Measuring your life from God's viewpoint, as Jesus did in his life, brings you into conflict with the strictly pragmatic perspective of the materialist. "For this reason, the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God...." Your reason for living is not confined to what is best or immediately most rewarding for you personally. Rather you see your life in terms of the way in which it corresponds to God's purpose for the whole world. Since Paul was addressing the church, and not just individuals, the challenge for the church is to make decisions not according to the survival mentality of the flesh but according to what is most in accord with Christ who dwells within us.
-- Romans 8:6
Paul's contrast between flesh and spirit might be illuminated by thinking of flesh as an earthly, strictly material perspective and spirit as a more godlike perspective. If your mind is focused on the finite framework of the earthly life, then much of your energy is directed toward the power that death has over your decisions. The phrase "where there is life there is hope" is a very pragmatic, materialist perspective. If that is true, then one must avoid death at all costs because unless there is a physical life, there is no hope. Death becomes people's god to whom they give full attention and obedience. In contrast, the Spirit opens the parameters in which hope can be experienced. If God, not death, has the final word, then the faithfulness of God, revealed in the death and resurrection of Christ, can provide a deep peace.
When the Spirit of God dwells in you (recall Genesis 2:7), your perspective enlarges. Measuring your life from God's viewpoint, as Jesus did in his life, brings you into conflict with the strictly pragmatic perspective of the materialist. "For this reason, the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God...." Your reason for living is not confined to what is best or immediately most rewarding for you personally. Rather you see your life in terms of the way in which it corresponds to God's purpose for the whole world. Since Paul was addressing the church, and not just individuals, the challenge for the church is to make decisions not according to the survival mentality of the flesh but according to what is most in accord with Christ who dwells within us.
