Daily Office Readings — Psalms 83, 116, 117, 85, 86; Esther 7:1–10; Acts 19:11–20; Luke 4:14–30
As I read today’s Psalms, I keep coming back to relationship.
Psalm 83 cries out to God during adversity. Psalm 85 remembers God’s restoration and warns God’s people not to return to their foolish ways. Psalm 86 prays, “Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth.”
There is something corporate about these prayers. They concern God’s people and their relationship with God.
But a community is made up of individuals, and eventually the question comes home to each of us: How will I respond to God?
That does not mean a faithful individual automatically creates a faithful community. Scripture is much too honest for that. Faithful people have often lived within communities that chose another direction. Nor can we force another person—or an entire community—to respond to God.
We can choose our own response.
Psalm 116 makes that intensely personal.
The psalmist remembers calling upon God during suffering and discovering that God heard him. He asks, “How shall I repay the LORD for all the good things he has done for me?”
This isn’t someone trying to earn God’s love. God’s love came first. God’s mercy came first. Now the psalmist wants to respond.
That is grace.
God loves us. The Holy Spirit woos us. We respond.
Then Psalm 117 suddenly opens the doors:
“Praise the LORD, all you nations; laud him, all you peoples.”
God’s unfailing love isn’t restricted to one nation or one people. I cannot read those words without thinking about John’s vision in Revelation of that enormous multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language standing before God in worship.
God’s grace reaches farther than the boundaries we create.
But what does responding to that grace look like?
Esther gives us one answer.
She stands before the king and finally tells him the truth. Her people are facing destruction, and Haman is responsible. Esther cannot remain safely silent. She risks herself by speaking on behalf of others.
She cannot control what the king will do.
She can only decide what Esther will do.
That reminds me of Jesus telling his followers that we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.
For much of my life, I thought Christian witness meant making Christianity visible. I began preaching when I was fourteen. In high school, I gave a morning prayer and devotion over the school intercom. It was permitted then, and I sincerely believed in what I was doing.
At this point in my journey, however, I see something more.
I would rather be salt and light.
There is a difference between displaying the Ten Commandments on a classroom wall and living the commandments of God. There is a difference between broadcasting a prayer and living a prayerful life.
A religious symbol does not make a community Christian.
A Christian label does not make a nation Christian.
Jesus said people would see our good works and give glory to our Father in heaven.
Salt does something.
Light does something.
Esther did something.
She spoke when remaining silent would have been safer.
Acts 19 gives us another side of the same lesson.
God performed extraordinary miracles through Paul. Even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were carried to sick people, and they were healed.
But the grace was not in the apron.
God was doing the healing.
The seven sons of Sceva discovered the danger of confusing relationship with a religious formula. They attempted to use the name of Jesus almost like a magical incantation: “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.”
They had the words, but words are not magic.
Jesus’ name is not a formula. Anointing oil is not a magic potion. A Bible is not an amulet. A prayer is not an incantation.
These things may become means through which we encounter God’s grace, but God is the source of the grace.
And when people in Ephesus genuinely responded to the Gospel, something changed. They confessed what they had been doing and turned away from their former practices.
That is repentance.
Confession says, I was wrong.
Repentance says, I want to change direction.
And sanctifying grace says, Keep walking. One day at a time. One step at a time.
Then we come to Jesus in Luke 4.
Jesus has just returned from the wilderness, where he experienced temptation. Now, filled with the power of the Spirit, he returns to Nazareth—the place where he grew up.
He announces good news to the poor, release to the captives, sight to the blind, freedom for the oppressed, and the year of the Lord’s favor.
And his hometown rejects him.
That is another lesson about being salt and light.
Faithfulness does not guarantee acceptance.
Esther spoke and risked her life.
Jesus spoke and the people of Nazareth attempted to throw him from a cliff.
Neither could control the response of the people hearing them.
Neither can we.
I cannot make another person follow Jesus.
I cannot make my community follow Jesus.
I cannot make my nation follow Jesus.
But I can answer when Jesus says:
Follow me.
And perhaps that is what I understand differently now than I did when I was fourteen years old and speaking into that school intercom.
Then, I wanted people to hear me pray.
Today, I want people to encounter the love of God in the way I live.
I want to be salt.
I want to be light.
Not because I am trying to make God love me.
God already loves me.
Grace comes first.
The Holy Spirit continues to woo, teach, correct, encourage, and draw me toward God. And every day I am given another opportunity to respond.
Sometimes I get it right.
Sometimes I return to my foolish ways.
Then I pray again:
Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.
And:
Lord Jesus Christ, teach me to see.
Then I take another step.
That is the journey of sanctifying grace.
God calls.
Grace woos.
I choose to answer.
And tomorrow, by God’s grace, I will choose again.
Open Heart. Open Hands. Clear Boundaries.
—The Curious Pilgrim
The Curious Pilgrim 
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