Saturday, April 16, 2016

Daily Meditation for April 16, 2016

From Forward Day by Day

Matthew 4:18 As Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers.

In the gospel stories, Jesus spends a lot of time out in the world. He is not sitting with the scribes and priests in the temple, waiting for God or for people to come to him. He is out in the boundless temple of God’s creation, initiating others into the presence of the kingdom of God.

As a modern-day “temple keeper,” I bump into the kingdom of God again and again. I love our beautiful church, and it is important to have that gathering place to return to for weekly worship. But one of the most important parts of our worship service is the very end, when God sends us out into the world. We are sent out to walk by our local Sea of Galilee, whatever its expression may be, out to that place in our world where people do their work, gather their food, and enter into the kingdom of God.