Devotion - Thursday, April 11

My trip out of town is to assist a family in placing husband/father/friend into God's eternal care.  It is an opportunity that I appreciate, even though it means I have missed (and will miss) some of our student events this week.

 

This sort of thing is one of the reasons why I am such a proponent of parish-based campus ministry.  Just as a parish is made stronger by the questions and the excitement of disciples in their early adult years, so also are the students made stronger by the realities of illness and death.  Our faith sustains us through all such times, or it doesn't sustain us at all.

 

The  college years are enough of a ghetto without church life becoming another experience of the same.  To see how faith becomes active throughout careers and life's events is an important part (in my eyes) to developing the relationship with God which Jesus hopes.

 

I am grateful for the chance to be with the Hegg family for these days.  I miss all of you, but believe that our time together will be stronger because of this unavoidable reminder of God's presence in our lives through ALL things.

Devotion - Wednesday, April 10

We concluded our study of I & II Samuel this week.  When the group asked to study these books, I was a bit doubtful.  But it proved to be a great experience, and one from which we learned much.

These books of the Old Testament expose us to the establishment of the Davidic Kingdom.  David is not Israel's first king; nor is he the one under whom Israel reaches its peak.  But to David the promise is given that God will establish a never-ending dynasty.

We are too easily lulled into thinking that God's faithfulness is tempered by our own.  We are too quick to fear that our lack of being consistent means that God won't be - either.  But this is not the story of the Bible.  God makes promises and holds to them.

In I & II Samuel we are allowed to see David as a real person.  He has his good points; he does some things which are clearly not pleasing to God.  But, regardless of how David acts, God is faithful and never does God withhold his promise.

The same God promises us to love us and accept us and claim us.  Nothing - nothing - can temper that or call it into question.

Devotion - Tuesday, April 9

There are 40 days between Easter and Ascension.  40 days between the time that Jesus is resurrected from the dead and he is taken up into heaven.

There aren't that many stories from these 40 days.  The one we read for this past Sunday occurred no more than a week and a half after Easter morning.  Stretch it out as far as you can, and you still have 30 days during which Jesus is resurrected but not ascended.  And few instances of what he was doing during that time.

I want to suggest that what he was doing that time was reinforcing the importance of being "in the world."  Being "in the world" is very important.

First, let's not forget that the whole Jesus event is a demonstration that God would set aside the heavens in order to make His home with us.  We are Christian not because of philosophical school of thought or some sign in the heavens.  Rather because we see in Jesus the incarnation of God.

In today's reading from John 17, verse 19 says, "As you did send me into the world, so I now send them."  Jesus' disciples are to be in the world, in the same way that Jesus was in the world.

I realize that I reinforce your being "in the church" more than your being "in the world."  I am more likely to form a relationship with you if you are at worship or the Wednesday meals.  That is unfortunate.  From the witness of scripture, we should be strengthened in our common bond when we are out in the world - when we are doing God's will among those whom God came to speak the Good News.

If I fail to acknowledge, please remind me.  If we all fail to encourage, then expose our limitations.  Our time together should buffer us from the harshness of the world, but it should not take us out of the world.  It should move us to the places and opportunities where God's Word can speak healing and wholeness and restoration to a world in which there is too much hurt and hardship and isolation.

Jesus spent 40 days reminding us that his Resurrection was not a quick pass into heaven; it was an opportunity to come to the earth and affirm the care and love God has for all those whom God has made.

Devotion - Monday, April 8

The study guide we have been using for Sunday mornings got me thinking about how we do "church."  One of the ramifications of that has been my encouragement of folks to actually bring their bibles to worship.  So many of our fellow Christians already to this - what have we Lutherans not done so?

Bringing our bibles to worship aids us in seeing the wider context of the verses being read.  It also allows us access to footnotes and marginal comments on the text.

This was the benefit for me yesterday.  I was following along yesterday as Pastor Hartsell read the Gospel text.  It is the story from John 20 of Thomas and his asking that he too be allowed to see the imprint of the nails in Jesus' hands before he will believe the account told by the other disciples.

As Pastor Hartsell pointed out, the story of "doubting Thomas" is the appointed text every year for the Sunday after Easter.
We seem to know and to understand that this story (of Jesus' resurrection) will be difficult to accept.

As John is concluding the story, he addresses the importance of what he has just told us.  The trouble is knowing exactly what John is trying to say.  As I was following along yesterday, I saw in the footnote that there is an alternative interpretation of his what he wrote.  

The line to which I refer is verse 31.  The NRSV from which we read, has it this way - "These are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah."  But other ancient authorities include the line this way - "These are written so that you may continue to believe."

If I stick with the NRSV interpretation, then I get the message that I am to "come to believe" and never doubt.  The other ancient interpretations allow me to understand that there is no black/white conflict between believing and having a desire to see Jesus' hands.  John tells this story so that Thomas might have a bit more of the witness he desires, but always with the affirmation that Thomas is among those whom the Gospel considers a "believer."

My prayer and my work is to encourage you to "come" to believe more confidently.  But I live among you and understand you to be those who need encouragement to "continue" to believe what has been given to you.

John seems to have understood it that way, too.

Devotion - Thursday, April 4

We continue our reading from John 15.  In this "Farewell Discourse," Jesus says some pretty amazing things about how he sees his disciples.

Yesterday, I commented on his referring to us as the "branches," attached to himself as the vine.  That designation means he depends upon us.  The branches cannot live without the vine; but the vine can produce no fruit without the branches.

In today's section (verses 12-27) he makes this comment:  "No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends."

We must never cease to act like servants, in our relationship to Jesus.  We will forever serve him and be prepared to offer him our heads and hearts and feet.  But our service is not to an over-lord who could just as easily replace us with another gofer.  We serve a master who has entrusted us with his own thoughts and intentions; a lord who has placed his hope in us.

This is why we are free to love and serve him with a pure and honest heart.  We are not slipping around the edges hoping to obtain from him that which he would rather deny us.  We are his friends, we are those whom he invites into an intimate circle of companionship and care.

Devotion - Wednesday, April 3

Our Gospel reading for today is from John 15.1-11.  It is Jesus' statements about the vine, the branches, and the vine-dresser.

Few of us have tended a vine; our only significant exposure to these concepts may be our reading of scripture.  What we come to know about vines and branches and vine-dressers we learn as a result of Bible Study.  This is one of the reasons why some find the Bible difficult to read - it's cases in point are no longer experiences we share on a daily basis.

The vine is the part of the plant connect to the ground.  The vine is the only part of the plant which can pull in the water and the nutrients.  Unless the vine does this, the branches are hopeless.

But the vine has no leaves.  So, without the branches work of converting the water and nutrients through photosynthesis, the vine would wither and disappear.  

Jesus says that he is vine, we are the branches.  Think about what he is saying:

1. He is the one connected to the source.  He is the one through whom we get the stuff we need to live.
2. He collects all the water and stuff and then rapidly and readily passes it on - to us.  He does not sink his roots into the earth and horde what comes to him - he passes it on.
3. We are the ones who do the work of converting the raw materials into the usable form.  It is up to us to make the switch between the raw materials and the finished product.

In some religions, the subjects are little more than divine play things.  The Divine toys with the subjects and subjects them to all sorts of things.  No so with us and our God.  Our God relates to us in the way that a vine relates to the branches.

My teacher in seminary liked to use this phrase to describe us - "Created co-creators."   We owe our existence to God;  God has entrusted to us a place in the continual unfolding of what is being called into existence. 

Devotion - Easter Monday

My Easter Sermon (following closely on the heels of my Good Friday
Sermon) must have set a tone that was a bit too drear.

After the service, I was asked, "Are you okay?"  Several offered hugs
and words of encouragement.  More importantly were the comments in
which folks said that they, too, understood the weight of the stone
which blocks our vision of the empty tomb.  "I have my stone to move,
Pastor." was the linking of my life story with their life story with
The Story which both sermons were intended to establish.

Easter is a wonderful celebration.  It is the best possible news.  It
is the antidote for all that threatens us and would attempt to undo
us.  But it can only have that effect if we expose to the Easter
morning light the hurts and the pains and the deaths which prevent us
from fully living the post-Easter life.

The Easter promise makes everything okay.  But the Easter promise does
not remove the Good Fridays in our lives.

I am writing this from the hospital.  I got a call around 12:30 am to
come and be with the family as they wait and watch and pray.  The
Easter message is being tested.  This is certainly more like Good
Friday, once again.

How many cycles will we go through, in our life times, between the
two?  How heavy will the stone become?  How confident can we be of the
emptiness of the tomb?

My experience yesterday affirmed for me that it is when we are the
most honest that we are the most likely to experience the assistance
of others in carrying our burdens; we are in the best position to hear
with confidence the Easter proclamation.  My hope, as your pastor, is
to assure you that I never look casually at the hurts you share with
me. My promise, as your pastor, is to be the reminder that in all
things God is steadfast and true.

May the Easter promise take firm root in your life.  Affirm it in
every way you can.  And never neglect speaking of it to those around
you.  We never know when we will be the one to offer the word which
comforts or the confidence which sustains the weary heart.