Application: Growing up, using the Lutheran Book of Worship, I used these words every week for confession and forgiveness. I remember learning at the ripe age of 22 years of age, that these words were from scripture. In the context of this book, and this chapter, I am amazed at the depth that John writes in such few sentences.
Many Christians are wrestling with the recent Supreme Court decision to provide equal protection of marriage to include gays and lesbians. The arguments can be heated on both sides of the issue. yet John grounds us in these words to remind us that we are all beggars in the kingdom of God. How we talk about other people's sin is very different than how we talk about our own sin.
John's greatest emphasis is on providing fellowship with God and with one another. As a church body the ELCA is attempting to do the same with a response to this SCOTUS ruling. Our fellowship is commanded by our love for God and love for our brothers and sisters in Christ. This emphasis has the opportunity to be the game changer in a dividing world.
Prayer: Lord, in you there is no darkness at all, bring light into our lives and into our broken world, so that we may remain in fellowship with you and one another.