DEVOTIONS - PENTECOST - WEEK FIFTEEN - 2006

Sunday, September 17, 2006

“Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7

With Autumn kicking into high gear, it’s time once again to move through the alphabet in our devotions, beginning this week with “A,” as we look at some of the more memorable passages from scripture. This week we hear again Jesus’ promise to those who seek after God – all we need to do is ask, and it will be given unto us. Seek, and ye will find. Knock, and the door will be opened. It doesn’t always seem this way, does it? I’ve spent the better part of the past six months uttering fervent prayers to God that the Kansas City Royals might win their division this year. Or a few games, even. But that prayer seems to have gone unanswered, as my beloved boys in blue suffer another season at the bottom of the American League (case in point: this is basically the same devotion I used for the letter A last year; the Royals are once again awful, so no changes required). So it goes. One might answer that God has better things to worry about than baseball teams, and I’m sure that is true. But there is something else going on, too. Jesus is not simply giving us a recipe for prayer – ask and receive. He is calling us into the relationship of prayer with our God, who will always listen, and who will always answer, even if it’s hard for us to see or understand. But in asking, searching, knocking, we do instantly receive, as we feel once again the blessing of a relationship with our God who calls us into conversation and assures us of his promise that we always will receive what we truly need: the grace of our Lord Jesus. And as for the Royals? Well, there’s always next year, isn’t there? Or maybe the year after that ...

Monday, September 18, 2006

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” Matthew 5:9

On September 18, 1961, while violence raged in what is now Zambia, Dag Hammarskjold was killed in a plane crash. Hammarskjold was a Swedish diplomat and humanitarian. At the time of his death, he was serving as Secretary General of the United Nations. It was on behalf of the U.N. that Hammarskjold was traveling to Africa, in the hope of negotiating a cease-fire between the U.N. and the Katanga forces. Although Hammarskjold’s faith was largely a private matter, his journal “Markings,” published after his death, revealed a great depth of Christian faith. The book revealed a life based on the combination of diplomatic service and personal spirituality. His mediation and private contemplation of the meaning of Jesus Christ in his life lead directly to his actions of behalf of peace in the world. Hammarskjold is one of many “peacemakers” that the world has known through the centuries, one of many “children of God” whose inner faith has sparked a passion for peace and justice throughout the world. God has need of more children to serve as peacemakers, to denounce the continual cycle of violence in which we live and to creatively seek alternatives to the violence that rips apart so many lives. The call is there. Like Hammarskjold, we must root our attempts at peace in the inner life of the Spirit. And like Hammarskjold, we must allow this Spirit to drive us forth to serve the God of peace at work in this world.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

“But you, O Lord of hosts, who judge righteously, who try the heart and the mind, let me see your retribution upon them, for to you I have committed my cause.” Jeremiah 11:20

Jeremiah’s life and career were marked with the kind of inner struggles that would give Dr. Phil enough material to last for years. The prophet wasn’t always too happy about the role God had given him, and it certainly didn’t help that a lot of people weren’t happy about his role, either. To make matters worse, many of the people who were most upset about what Jeremiah had to say were from his home village, even from his immediate family. And no, this wasn’t simply some mother who wished that her son would have gone and made good at medical school instead of prophet camp. These were people – relatives – who attempted, from time to time, to kill Jeremiah! Not surprisingly, Jeremiah is not thrilled with these folks, and he cries out to God to try their hearts and minds and, having found them presumably lacking, bring retribution upon their heads. Talk about family of origin issues! But God isn’t that interested in fixing Jeremiah’s hometown woes. Indeed, in just a few verses God will answer that not only are things not going to get better, they’re going to get worse – and that this new low will be proof of Jeremiah’s success as a prophet! We would all wish the same as Jeremiah: that we would be successful and that our family and friends would support us no matter what. But sometimes that’s not what happens, and God does not promise otherwise. God simply promises to journey with us no matter what, that we may continue to be faithful witnesses to those around us.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

“With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you; I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good.” Psalm 54:6

Psalm 54 is a psalm of David, a song in which the king prays for vindication against those who have done him wrong. Aside from the fact that David was quite a sinner himself – we remember his seduction of Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah – this psalm is a powerful recognition of God’s work in the life of the believer. Perhaps it was the very fact of David’s own sin that made him aware of both God’s judgment and the grace that follows. So David knows that for both his enemies and for himself, the present situation is not the end of the story. The goodness of the God who called and chose David will prevail. So it is with a thankful heart that David declares his joy in making a sacrifice to the Lord, a sacrifice accompanied by verbal thanksgiving to God’s good name. This is the model of our own thankfulness, which springs from the simple fact that we have seen God’s abundant goodness at work in our own lives in a multitude of ways, both large and small. In what ways has God been good to you lately? What blessings have fallen upon you? To which enemies have you been reconciled? Give thanks to the Lord with an open and free heart, sharing richly what you have, for we know that our God has been good to us.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

“As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him.” Matthew 9:9

In the gospels, we often hear of “sinners and tax collectors.” The tax collectors are obviously related to sinners, yet they are singled out as somehow being a special class. Why? Because they were Jews who had taken up with their Roman occupiers for their own gain. The Roman government essentially sold the right to collect taxes, setting fixed rates of income. The collectors had to give that amount back to the Romans, but were free to collect as many taxes as they saw fit, keeping the extra for themselves. Thus they were not only betrayers of their own people, but men who did so for nothing other than personal gain with minimum effort. So the gospel writers singled out men like Matthew as being particularly sinful. But more importantly, the gospels also relate Jesus’ special attention to these sinners. One of them, Matthew, was even singled out and called to be one of the 12 disciples. And look how Jesus makes the call. He doesn’t demand that Matthew come to him, leaving behind his tax collecting ways first. Instead, Jesus walks right up to the tax booth, right into the very symbol of Matthew’s very real sin, and calls him out of this and into a life of faithful service. Jesus confronts us not at those places where we are at our best, but in the very deepest reaches of our sinfulness – it is there that we find our salvation, at our worst moments. And like Matthew, we hear the call to bring this gospel of forgiveness to those people who, like Matthew and you and me, need to hear it the most.

Friday, September 22, 2006

“For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind.” James 3:16

The cover of this week’s “Time” asks, “Does God Want You to be Rich?” The picture is of a Rolls-Royce with a Christian cross as the hood ornament. The cover article explores the re-emergence of Prosperity theology, particularly in the form of Joel Osteen’s recent book, “Your Best Life Now” and the ministries of Joyce Meyer. Prosperity, or Prosperity Lite as the current movement is known, teaches that if you commit your life to God, God will bless you abundantly with material possessions, better jobs, bigger homes, and all kinds of goodies. In the words of Rick Warren, author of “The Purpose Driven Life,” such thinking is “baloney.” I can think of other, stronger words. The simplest thing to do is to name Prosperity for what it is: a lie, and probably a heresy against our Lord Jesus Christ. The simple fact is that while God wishes “prosperity” for his people, he’s not spending his time dreaming up ways for me to get a raise. The prosperity God envisions is for all people (one must assume that Osteen believes God hates Africans; why else are they so poor?). God’s blessings lead us away from envy and ambition, away from concern about our individual success. As people of Jesus Christ, we cannot and must not fall into thinking that our faith is a means to an end: If I believe, then God will bless me. Our faith is the end, the purpose for which we were created and redeemed. Be thankful for your material blessings, and use them for the good of others. But remember that God’s ultimate desire for us is to know him. This is the abundant richness of God, that he would graciously know and love us. Even without a cent to our name.

Saturday, September 23, 2006

“Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, ‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.” Mark 9:36-37

It occasionally occurs to me – as it probably does to you – that the gospels tell us little about Jesus’ childhood. Aside from the incident in the Temple, there’s not much there. While we may be curious about this period of his life, the simple fact is that it just doesn’t have too much to do with God’s plan of salvation for his people. So it gets left out. But reading today’s passage, I have a fanciful thought: in some ways, Jesus never did grow up! Even as an adult, he refused to get caught up in all the things to which adults succumb. He retained his wonder of the world. He remained completely dependent upon God his Father. He didn’t try to go it alone. And he pointed to children as the model for what true discipleship means. In such innocence, we see what God wants for us. In Jesus’ words, we remember how much we have to learn from children. Not just cute moments, but how God wishes us to be.

Devotions - Year Three - Week Thirty-five

Pastor Lyle