The God Pause Daily Devotional of The Luther Seminary in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States for Sunday, July 30, 2017 “Tree of Life” (ELW 334)

The God Pause Daily Devotional of The Luther Seminary in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States for Sunday, July 30, 2017 “Tree of Life” (ELW 334)
“Tree of Life” (ELW 334)
1. Tree of Life and awesome myst'ry,
in your death we are reborn;
though you die in all of hist'ry,
still you rise with ev'ry morn,
still you rise with ev'ry morn.
2. We remember truth once spoken,
love passed on through act and word;
ev'ry person lost and broken
wears the body of our Lord,
wears the body of our Lord.
3. Christ, you lead and we shall follow,
stumbling though our steps may be;
one with you in joy and sorrow,
we the river, you the sea,
we the river, you the sea.
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There is no life without death. Everything that dies gives its tiny life to a plethora of interconnected lives. This is how ecosystems work. Today we feast, tomorrow, we are the feast. Halleluiah! And just as this is true of our physical bodies, which die and return to the living soil, so also with what is most precious to us--our God, the crucified one (present tense!). Jesus is always crucified, always becoming death, always dying as an idea, as a story, as a theology, even as a church, so that a new kind of life, a new creation, has space to become real--in who we are, in how we live with one another, and in the encounter with life as an awesome and terrifying mystery beyond all concepts and expectations. Though we may try to hide it, nothing can un-crucify Jesus (including the resurrection!) for it is God who embraced death to release the power of life.
God of untamed life, teach us how to live lives worthy of following Jesus Christ crucified, who ceaselessly shows us how to take death into himself so that God’s life may eternally sprout anew. Amen.
Ryan Pusch, '17
Awaiting first call in the Southwest Pennsylvania Synod

The Luther Seminary

2481 Como Avenue

Saint Paul, Minnesota 55108, United States

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