Do Not Judge Another 14 Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions. 2 Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. 3 Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat; for…

Love for One Another (Cp Mk 12:31; Jas 2:8) 8 Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed…

In the house of God, we first and foremost seek to love God and love each other with a profound yielding, mutual, supportive posture. This is challenging in a world of self-sufficiency and independence. And therefore, Christian love becomes all the more radical, subversive, and refreshing -- a balm that soothes the deep wounds of sinful division and evil.

On the Sabbath, we are instructed to "rest as if the work is done." True rest comes out of a posture of trusting in God's abundance. There is always enough...enough to eat, enough to sustain us, enough to bring healing. To rest on the Sabbath in the "enough" of God is also to participate in the opening up of rest for all who long for it, all who seek healing, justice, and peace. Our enough (found in Sabbath practice) allows the followers of Jesus to be liberators of those who do not yet have enough.

The powers of the world want to hold us back, to stop our movement home, to stifle our imagination for a world where God reigns and all is made right. But the Holy Spirit will not let this happen. Nothing can separate us from the love of God which is calling us forward into that new day. No power of hell, no scheme of man, no might of empire: when we are called home, we are called home.

We have been born into the empire, into the enslavement by the powers of sin. And yet we feel the groaning in our bodies, a longing and hope for what is yet unseen and promised. In this longing, we find a God who adopts us and calls us beloved, a part of a new family, set free to be a part of that coming hope.

Now that we have come to understand that our home is not found in the halls of the empire, come home to where you belong. Come home to your body, liberated by the Creator. Come home to your mind, renewed by Christ. Come home to the Spirit, indwelling you. Come home.

The language of the Empire and enslavement presents its adherants with a false choice: die or be enslaved by a life of sin. There is no other option than to simply play by the laws of sin and death that hold humanity in bondage. We journey towards another way when we see that Christ has broken down the law, broken down the sin structures, broken down the Empire who lumped upon us the false choice. Let a new kind of Freedom Ring!

When we are baptized, we pledge our allegiance to a leader who died before all the powers of the world. We align ourselves to a Risen Lord, who has overcome death. We are to sacrfice as well, put to death our sin, enslave ourselves to Christ so as to no longer be enslaved to the ways of the Empire. "The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God." So it is with those who follow him.

We thought we could stay comfortably in Rome (in the Empire) and set up our lives there. But we are (and have always been) invited to voyage to a different home, a home outside of empire's rule, a home where we belong in God's loving arms. To voyage there, we will endure hardship, persist through pain, and strengthen the bonds of friendship as fellow travelers.