Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Commemoration of Perpetua and Felicity

Reading: Romans 5:12-19

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned…”  Romans 5:12

A look at the fossils embedded in limestone quarries shows that thousands of species of animals lived, died, and became extinct before humans ever developed in the Great Rift Valley of east Africa. Stars that are 10 million light-years from earth need 10 million years for their light to reach us, in which time they may have died, far before humans ever walked the savannahs. Everything in creation comes into being, lives, and dies – mountains, deserts, brachiosaurs, galaxies, humans. It is a part of the great becoming of the universe. So what do we do with a statement like Paul’s, who alone among Biblical writers seems to regard death as the result of human sin? Better, perhaps, to focus in on what Thomas Long calls “big ‘D’ Death,” rather than “little ‘d’ death”: that is, death as spiritual separation from all that gives us life and wholeness and joy.

Surround us with your steadfast love, O God, that we may be glad and rejoice. Amen

• Create a small Lenten group to study together: perhaps one book of the Bible, a novel, a devotional …