Daily Lesson for November 13, 2020

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from the book of Acts chapter 2 verses 37 through 40:

37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, “Brothers,[i] what should we do?” 38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.” 40 And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”

When I read the book of Acts I am struck by the early Church's insistence on redemption rather than revenge. Over and over again, the disciples are maligned, arrested, beaten, and even killed, yet there is at the heart of the movement a deep understanding that the Gospel of grace is to be made known to all people everywhere -- including, even the most vile and heinous.

Desmond Tutu, whom we named our first son Daniel Desmond after, wrote a book in the early aftermath of Apartheid titled "No Future Without Forgiveness". He knew that after all the evil of the Apartheid era, his nation could not proceed in a healthy and life-giving way if forgiveness was not the bedrock of its moral foundation. This was the essence of the country's establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

There is no future for our own country without forgiveness. This should not be cheap forgiveness -- there must be truth and reparation. But there must also be forgiveness. There must be a doorway to redemption.

God's will is that all should be redeemed. God's will is that this nation should be redeemed.

So let us commit ourselves to being about the redemption of this nation that we might live into the promise of our future.

For as Peter said, "The promise is for us, for our children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls . . ."

And the Lord does call us all.

NOTE: We are reading the whole Bible through this year. Over the weekend will read Acts chapters 4 through 10.