Evening Prayer 1-22-11

Reading:
Romans 11:1-24

You have been grafted in.

Israel is God's chosen people, throughout the Old Testament.  They were called by God to be a peculiar people, because they followed the One True God.  The other religions of that time were following after false gods, and many were polytheistic (believing in more than one god).  Israel was to be the fountain through which God was going to work and one day bring about salvation through the coming Messiah.  The Israelites were also supposed to be a witness to the One True God and by their witness bring others to Him.

However, Israel really did not work at evangelizing too much.  They were more concerned that they were the chosen people of God.  They were concerned more about keeping the Law to earn their relationship with Him, than they were with reaching others that were completely lost because they were following a false god.  Those outside of the Jewish faith were looked down upon as second class citizens and not really worthy of a chance at God.

It was because of the lack of faith that they were cut off from the tree.  Their branches were broken off.  And instead of them, God grafted in the Gentiles by faith.  The Gentiles knew that they had no claim to be in a relationship with God so they realized that it was by God's grace that they were grafted into the Church, the new Israel.  So it is with us today, we are grafted into the Church through God's grace alone.  He does this through the proclamation of the Word and administration of the Sacraments.  In Holy Baptism, God takes you and puts a new name on you so that you are born again from above.  You are at this point grafted into Christ and His life and Spirit flow through you.  Jesus does not stop there, but to keep His life coming into you, He has instituted the Lord's Supper.  It is here under the veil of bread and wine that Jesus Christ comes to you in His most Precious Body and Blood so that you can have His life, His forgiveness flow through you.  You stay attached to the vine by having the life of Christ flow through you by means of grace through preaching and the Sacraments.  Do not become proud that you did something to earn this, remember it is completely by God's act of grace and His instilling of faith in your life that you have this relationship with Him.  Now take this Good News out to others to bring them to the Savior and praise Him everyday for this great gift.