Thursday, April 7

Jeremiah 22:13-23
Psalms 69, 73
Romans 8:12-27
John 6:41-51

The Readings for today spell out one message to me – beware of arrogance and self-centeredness. Jeremiah warns of it in his passage – “I will build myself a great palace with spacious upper rooms.” The Psalms continue with the same theme – “You know my folly” – and “Therefore pride is their necklace.” In Romans Paul warns that – “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires.” John’s Gospel tells of Jesus being scoffed at by arrogant Jews – “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say ‘I came down from Heaven’?”

Arrogance is a deadly sin; it pits the arrogant against all that God created in the world for good. Its message is ME, ME, ME, it’s all about ME. Well, really it isn’t, the best one can ask for is to be used in all one’s ordinary and sinful self to do just a little of His work. Then one, perhaps, can have a quiet moment of the peace that passes all understanding.

John McGarvey