1 Kgs 21:1-16 / Mt 5:38-42
Our access to the internet, cable TV, 24-hour-a-day news, and all sorts of print media has broadened our lives immensely and has expanded exponentially the boundaries of what seems possible. Indeed, we are more and more reluctant to use the word “impossible” for fear of seeming foolish. We are undoubtedly in an era in which limits and boundaries are disappearing.
The downside in all this is that a wholesome sense of limits of what is right and what is wrong is also getting fuzzed inside our own heads. Today’s dreadful Old Testament story about an evil queen who cynically arranges for the judicial murder of a decent citizen simply because she wants his vineyard shows us how easy it is to go over the edge while still looking quite respectable.
It’s so easy to doze off mentally and morally, and then to wake up in surprise at where we’ve got to and how far we’ve wandered beyond all boundaries of love and decency. Don’t let that happen to you. Don’t sleep walk in the dark. Stay awake and walk with Jesus our light. You’ll never lose your way or stumble across the borders of the kingdom of night.
