²⁷ And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, ²⁸ so also Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him.

Hebrews 9:27-28

Dear God, it is interesting that this is the verse of the day for Bible Gateway while it is close to the New Testament reading for the Catholic church (Hebrews 9:11-15). For the Catholic church, today is the Feast of Corpus Christi, the Body of Christ. All of their verses of the day tie in Exodus 24 when Moses is talking about the blood of the sacrifice covering the Israelites, the Hebrews passage, and then Mark 14 when Jesus talks about his body and blood in the bread and the wine. I don’t know how the Bible Gateway people pick their verse of the day, but I noticed this one actually lined up pretty closely.

I prayed about this yesterday, but it’s still been on my heart. I just don’t know so much. One of the reasons I decided not to be confirmed Catholic was because I did not believe in the act of transubstantiation. And maybe I’m right. And maybe I’m wrong. And maybe I just hope that this isn’t one of those dealbreakers over which I will find myself on the other side of the cutline from fellowship with you. I want to be in communion with you. I want to experience communion itself. But if I do not believe the same thing about the Eucharist that Catholics believe then I know that they do not want me to take the sacrament with them. And that makes sense to me. I respect that.

I guess I’m saying all of this because I’m about to go and visit that mainline denomination church this morning that is going through the conflict over LGBTQ+ ordination I mentioned yesterday. I feel compelled to be there. Mainly to show love. I guess, in some way, I am passively lending my opinion that it’s not important we agree on this one issue anymore than it is important we agree on pre-marital sex, the ordination of women or divorced people, etc. There are only really a few things in Christianity, as far as I can tell, are definitely non-negotiable. The rest is working our faith out with you with fear and trembling, asking you to examine our hearts and purify us, and bring us to both repentance where needed and then complete worship of you and love for others.

Father, I honestly don’t know what Jesus would do if he were here this morning. I’d like to think he would be comfortable in any worship environment that elevated you and Lord of all. I’d like to think he would be comfortable at the Catholic church, the mainline church I mentioned, the new church that is starting today, or any other Christian church in town. He might even be comfortable in some of the churches that aren’t Christian, but they think their hearts are earnestly pursuing you. I don’t know. Help me to be Jesus this morning to the world around me. Help me to treat everyone with love.

I offer this prayer to you in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen