by Rev Douglas Brauner

Evil has no foothold in God.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

A lot of garbage takes up residence in a drainage ditch near the church I serve. A cleanup crew had recently paid a visit to portions of this canal and pulled out some interesting stuff. At one time, most of this stuff took up residence in someone’s home or apartment. By now this garbage has been picked up and a new permanent residence assigned in some landfill.

What garbage do we Christians allow to take up residence in our relationships? What garbage sojourns in this “temple” as Paul calls the Christian community?

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
1 Corinthians 3:16 English Standard Version

Paul was referring to the Christian community that gathered around God’s Word and his sacraments in Corinth. “All you all are the temple of God.” The Corinthian Christians had allowed a bunch of garbage to build up and stink.

How about the group of Christians with whom we gather? Is there a stench of garbage that others smell? A stench of greed, gossip, and glory mongering? We are God’s church but being the church isn’t easy. We are both sinners and saints, redeemed and broken.

We ought to find comfort that God isn’t like us.

“You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness. Evil will never be your guest.”
Psalm 5:4 God’s Word to the Nations

Though evil might be a guest in our fellowships, it is never a resident in God’s person. And because evil doesn’t take up residence in God, he cannot be tempted with evil and he will not tempt us.

So what do we do with all this garbage? It has already been removed. Forgiveness is not only given to us as individuals, it’s the glue that holds the Christian community together. Christ’s death and resurrection have picked up our garbage and taken it to its new residence, a place where we can never find it again.

However, new garbage has a way of becoming our guest. With Christ’s words, we pray that God would not lead us back to the place where we’re tempted to let the garbage fill our fellowships…and he won’t!

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado