Week 14—Friday Galatians 6:7-8
Week 14—FRIDAY
KARMA AND THE CROSS
If love is in God, if God is love, then what about the law side of things? Is law also in God? It is certainly in nature. A scientist has said: “Christianity is God’s method with man, and evolution is God’s method in nature.” Can these two come together? Do love and law meet in Jesus?
The Hindus stress the law of sowing and reaping—the law of karma. They believe there can be no forgiveness. “As a calf will find its mother among a thousand cows so your deed will find you out among a thousand rebirths,” say the Hindus. Whatever suffering you are undergoing is just. You are reaping what you have sown. This law of sowing and reaping, apart from the corollary of rebirth which is brought in to explain the inequalities of life, which can be explained on a better basis, nevertheless has a truth in it. Christianity also has this law of sowing and reaping: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows that he will also reap” (Gal. 6:7). This is a universe where you get results or you get consequences. If you work with the moral universe, you get results—you will have cosmic backing for your way of life. But if you go against the moral universe, you will be up against it—you will get consequences. You will reap what you sow. This is a half-truth, however. You alone do not reap what you sow—other people reap what you sow, for good or evil. A good father does not alone reap the good fruit of his good life and actions; others reap it too—his family, his friends, his community, and, faintly, the world. A bad father, on the other hand, does not alone reap the bad harvest of his life and actions; others reap it too—his family, his friends, his community, and, faintly, the world. This vicarious passing on to others the results of your karma has far-reaching consequences—very far.
O God our Father and our God, you are not alone bound up with our sin and our sorrow; we are bound up with one another for good or ill. This opens the way for your Everything. Give us eyes to see and hearts to accept this stupendous possibility for our redemption. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: This is a moral universe and I must come to terms with it—I reap what I sow.