Gleanings from the Daily Office – The Boss of Me

Graham turns 4 today. Thanks be to God for our Graham Finale!

GLEANINGS (from the Daily Office) – The Boss of Me – Year One, Proper 20, Thursday, September 24, 2015, 1 Corinthians 6:12-20

“You are not your own; you were bought with a price.”

Every fiber within me fights against this. I am my own. Certainly I built this. With Henley I declare, “I am the master of my destiny. I am the captain of my fate.” Not only am I unconquered. I am unconquerable. Invictus! Or in the words of those with little filter, “You’re not the boss of me.”

I am not alone in this battle. Perhaps it is presumptuous to say the fight is universal but not at all to say it is nearly. Almost all of us an area of our lives to which we allow no one to speak.

And to us all, Paul says you are not your own. You may have been or at least you may have lived as if you were your own. But things have changed. You have been bought.

Being bought is not so good in our day. Routinely politicians are bought off. Scientists fake research for a price. Sadly even some clergy allow themselves to become beholden to their benefactors. It is difficult to say no to someone who has paid for daughter’s wedding or your son’s college education. I’ve never seen a tombstone that proudly says, “I’m owned.”

But the translation “bought” veils what Paul is saying. A great price was paid to redeem us from the kingdom of death. We had no future. God in Jesus purchased us one. Consequently, the thoroughgoing freedom we enjoy is submitted to the One who bought us life. Our values have not been compromised in the transaction. To the contrary they have been restored. We are to use these frail vessels which house our eternal lives to His glory. Ours is a freedom for obedience.

–Frodo: “I wish none of this had happened.” Gandalf: “So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”–