On the Way: with boldness

Scripture lessons:

Philippians 3.17-4.1

Luke 12.31-35

Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day, I must be on my way…

Luke 13.33 (New Revised Standard Version)

 

Words like faith, hope and love fall easily from the lips of preachers. But we do not hear as much about boldness, even though this is surely a word that characterizes the ministry of Jesus. It was the author of Second Timothy who reminded his readers that “we have not been given a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of boldness.”

Jesus spoke and acted with great boldness, particularly on behalf of the powerless. When a group of Pharisees warned him that his life was in danger as a result of his forthright concern for those on the margins, he neither thanked them for their concern nor changed the course of his ministry. “I must be on my way,” he said them. In other words,
“I have important things to do on behalf of others, and I will not allow concerns for my safety to distract me from my work.”

Jesus was bold because he enjoyed an intimate relationship with God, and because he was employed in the work of compassion. These two attributes—trust in God and love for others—are essential ingredients in the life of faith. May these qualities become as natural to us as breathing, so that we may also be “on the way” with the love and will of God.

 

Prayer: O God, grant us insight to know your will, and lavish upon us the strength to be faithful, hopeful and loving with unspeakable boldness, and boundless patience. Amen.

~ by Rev. Dr. Edward Horstmann on June 28, 2007.