A Curious Pilgrim Daily Office Reflection
Daily Office Readings: Psalm 107, Ezekiel 43:1-12, Hebrews 9:1-14, Luke 11:14-23
One verse stood out to me in today’s readings:
“How much more will the blood of Christ… purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God.” (Hebrews 9:14)
For much of my life, I understood this verse to mean that Christians should stop doing bad things and start doing good things. There is certainly truth in that. Yet as I have grown older and reflected more deeply on Scripture, I have come to see that the writer of Hebrews is pointing us toward something far greater.
The contrast is not merely between good works and bad works.
The contrast is between dead works and the living God.
That changes everything.
Dead works are not simply sinful actions. They are all the ways we attempt to find meaning, security, identity, and acceptance apart from God’s life within us. Dead works can even be religious. They can be rituals performed without love, duties carried out without joy, or beliefs defended without compassion. They are the endless efforts of the false self trying to earn what can only be received as grace.
The writer of Hebrews reminds us that Christ came to free us from this exhausting cycle so that we might worship the living God.
Psalm 107 echoes this theme beautifully. Again and again, the Psalmist tells stories of people who become lost, imprisoned, sick, or overwhelmed by life’s storms. In every case, they cry out to God, and God responds with mercy.
The lesson is not that some people are good while others are bad.
The lesson is that all of us need mercy.
The wise person is the one who remembers.
“Let those who are wise consider the steadfast love of the Lord.”
Ezekiel’s vision takes us even deeper. The prophet sees the glory of God returning to the Temple. Earlier in the book, God’s presence had departed because of Israel’s unfaithfulness. Now God’s glory returns.
The story is not about punishment.
It is about restoration.
God desires once again to dwell among God’s people.
In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus confronts those who accuse him of casting out demons by the power of evil. Jesus responds by declaring that a divided kingdom cannot stand.
The issue is not tribalism.
The issue is alignment.
Are we participating in the healing work of God or resisting it?
Are we moving toward love, mercy, and wholeness, or toward fear, division, and destruction?
These readings brought to mind something Richard Rohr writes in The Divine Dance. Rohr describes the Trinity not as a theological puzzle to be solved but as a relationship of infinite love into which we are invited. He speaks of the contemplative mind as the ability to see beyond dualistic thinking—the constant dividing of reality into winners and losers, insiders and outsiders, good people and bad people.
The Trinity reveals something deeper.
Reality itself is relational love.
God is not distant. God is not a solitary monarch ruling from afar. God is a communion of love—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—continually pouring life into creation and drawing creation back into divine fellowship.
Perhaps that is what Hebrews means by worshiping the living God.
Worship is not merely attending church.
Worship is awakening to the divine life already flowing through creation.
It is letting go of the dead works that keep us trapped in fear, shame, performance, and separation.
It is allowing ourselves to be drawn into the eternal dance of divine love.
As I reflect on today’s readings, I hear a simple question:
What in my life is dead, and what is truly alive?
The Living God is always calling us beyond fear, beyond religion as mere obligation, beyond the false self that strives and struggles for approval.
The invitation is not simply to become a better person.
The invitation is to become fully alive.
And perhaps that is the deepest meaning of salvation—to be drawn into the life, love, and communion of the Trinity itself.
Prayer
Living God, free us from every dead work that keeps us from Your life. Open our eyes to Your mercy, our hearts to Your presence, and our souls to the eternal dance of Your love. Draw us beyond fear and performance into the freedom of communion with You and with one another. May we become living temples of Your presence, reflecting Your grace in a world longing for hope. Amen.
The Curious Pilgrim 
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