Links for today’s readings:

Read:   Genesis 15 Listen: (2:53), Read: John 14 Listen: (4:13)

Scripture Focus: Genesis 15.6

6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

Reflection: Righteousness On Credit

By John Tillman

Abram did things we’d call righteous.

Abram won a daring military victory that rescued kidnapped people who would have been enslaved. But bravery and fighting for a good cause didn’t make him righteous. Abram refused a financial reward from a corrupt leader. But refusing corruption didn’t make him righteous. Abram had a vibrant spiritual life and talked to God. But spiritual connection didn’t make Abram righteous. Abram obeyed God by abandoning his country and becoming a wandering migrant. But obedience and sacrifice didn’t make Abram righteous.

Abram also fell short of righteousness.

God told Abram to leave home with only his immediate family. Abram invited Lot, a source of conflict, foolishness, and sin. When entering Egypt as a migrant, Abram lied about Sarai being his sister and allowed Pharoah to take her as his wife. This deception enriched Abram while harming Sarai, Pharoah, and his family. Abram later repeated this behavior with Abimelech. Though Abram rescued Lot and others from slavery as war captives, Abram kept slaves himself. Although he was promised a son through Sarai, Abram had a child with Hagar, Sarai’s slave girl.

Abram’s righteous deeds did not outweigh his wicked ones to make him righteous and neither will ours. Adding “righteousness” to “wickedness” yields wickedness. You can mix milk into a gallon of poison, but if you eat cereal with the mixture, you’ll still be dead.

Righteousness is both a perfect thing accomplished for us by Jesus and an imperfect thing we strive for on Earth. There is righteousness that is a gift and righteousness that is a goal. There is righteousness that comes to us and righteousness we must pursue.

We access perfect righteousness by belief in God’s promise. We do not “deserve” this righteousness but it is “credited” to us as it was to Abram. The imperfect righteousness we strive for by obeying God’s calling to “establish righteousness.”

We have Christ’s righteousness on “credit.” Let’s put it to work and yield a harvest. (Romans 4.3-5, Galatians 3.6-9)

In a broken world, we are unworthy servants if we rest and ignore our tasks until Jesus returns. (Mark 13.33-37) We are unworthy servants if we bury our imputed righteousness in the ground without putting it to work in our master’s world. (Matthew 25.24-30)

Let us both accept and pursue righteousness. Let us show our faith by our deeds.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Jesus taught us, saying: “Whoever holds my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me; and whoever loves me will be loved by my Father and I shall love him and reveal myself to him.” — John 14.21

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Jesus taught us, saying: “Whoever holds my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me; and whoever loves me will be loved by my Father and I shall love him and reveal myself to him.” — John 14.21

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: The First Spirit-Filled Work

Whether with hammer and chisel or keyboard and screen, God’s Spirit longs to use your work to build sacred space depicting redemption.

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