Daybreak
Scripture selection: Luke 22:66
At daybreak the council of the elders of the people, both the chief priests and the teachers of the law, met together, and Jesus was led before them. “If you are the Messiah,” they said, “tell us.”
They thought this would be the morning to settle everything. They would finally take decisive action; finally do away with this Jesus who was causing them so much upset.
They demanded that he make the claim they saw as blasphemous. “If you are the Messiah, tell us.”
He wouldn’t play their game. He only reminded them of how they had already decided who he was and what he deserved.
So, they thought this morning, they would settle things once and for all.
They were only partially right.
On that morning so long ago – that morning when Jesus day of trial began – things were being settled once and for all.
But it wasn’t that Jesus of Nazareth was finally going to be out of their hair.
It was that the decisive victory over evil and death was soon to be won. They didn’t know it, but they were only actors in a much greater drama than they could imagine.
It is true for us too.
We are all part of the drama – all part of that great struggle – that great spiritual warfare underway.
And, like them, we must decide once and for all, which side we are on.
It’s daybreak again.
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By Paul Simrell
The Reverend Paul W. Simrell has served for over thirty years in a variety of congregational and institutional settings. He is a recognized minister with standing in the Virginia region of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada and is nationally endorsed by the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) for specialized ministry in both pastoral counseling and chaplaincy. Ordained in 1982, he has served congregations in Kentucky, Texas, Florida, and Virginia. He currently serves as the pastor of Elpis Christian Church, a small, historic congregation located just a few miles west of Richmond, Virginia. Elpis is the Greek word meaning “expectant hope.” He also serves on the associate clinical staff of the Virginia Institute of Pastoral Care, Richmond, Virginia, both as a pastoral counselor and a ministerial assessment specialist, specializing in executive, clergy and relationship coaching. He is a graduate of the University of Florida and Lexington Theological Seminary and has done advanced clinical training in chaplaincy and pastoral counseling at the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky, Children’s Medical Center and Parkland Hospital in Dallas, Texas and the Virginia Institute of Pastoral Care in Richmond, Virginia. He is a Certified Pastoral Counselor, an ACPE Practitioner, and a member of the American Association of Christian Counselors. He is a Certified Facilitator of the Prepare-Enrich relationship assessment and skills-building program and served as a volunteer chaplain for over twenty years with the CJW Medical Center campuses in Richmond, Virginia. His avocational interests include playing the piano and drawing. He is very happily married to his wife Elizabeth Yeamans Simrell, a free-lance writer, who is also a Certified Facilitator for the Prepare-Enrich program.
Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton
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