Devotion - Thursday, November 15

Luke 11:53 reveals the evil intentions of the crowd.  Luke tells us that among those who were hearing Jesus' speak were some who were trying to "catch him at something he might say."  They had already made their minds up about him.  They didn't like him.  They didn't like what he was saying.  So nothing he could say was going to be heard.  The only thing they were listening for were opportunities to trap him.

How hopeless a situation was that?

When Jesus tries to say something, to quell their fears or to address their issues, he is seen as two faced.  He points out that this is the crowd who considered John a lunatic because his disciples were so rigid and then they considered his disciples slackards because they were not fanatics.

We know the end of this story;  we know where this type of behavior leads.  Eventually, those who will not listen succeed in murdering the messenger.  But God will not allow the message to be silenced.

Sometimes the important lesson to be learned is the simple one:  prejudging and condemning places us on the wrong side of God's struggle to bring the world to the place where Jesus reigns.

Can we learn to hear and to listen?  Can we develop the ability to abide by Luther's explanation to the 8th commandment and "interpret our neighbor's actions in the kindest way"?

Let's hope so.  Let us make it so.

Devotion - Wednesday, November 14

It may just be a phase, and we will see how long it lasts, but these days I am continually struggling with the question of how Christianity has become something we think about as opposed to a way of life.

It may have something to do with the recent election cycle.  The talk of how a Christian should vote centered on which candidate one ought to vote for, rather than the issues which matter to the Christian community.  There are some hot button issues, but (in my opinion) far too little discussion about the way in which scripture speaks to issues of war, and oppression, and equity.

Christianity seems to have become an opinion we hold with regard to some particular questions; rather than a way of life.  "Are you for or against?"  "Don't you agree that this is right and that is wrong?" 

I was reading Luke 11:37-52 this morning.  Jesus condemns those who heap regulations on others, while ignoring those instructions which apply to their own lives.

How can we make blanket statements about the behavior of others when we fail to even be willing to examine our own failings?

I realize that we all do some of this, in our own heads or in the privacy of our own homes.  But the reason Jesus established the Church was so we would have a place to help one another in these discussions and decisions.  Yet, it is impolite to have these kinds of conversations.  So we show up on Sunday morning and ask, "How are you today?" without ever being prepared to hear the answer and discuss the response.

I don't mean to scold anyone.  Do not hear this as anything other than an invitation to more fully embrace the opportunity set before us to experience community and togetherness in a way which few (very few) can even imagine.

Jesus didn't come to the earth to change our minds.  He could have done that by dropping information bombs from heaven.  Jesus came so that we might lived changed lives.  Let us hope and pray that did not come in vain.

Devotion - Tuesday, November 13

I am feeling very blessed today!  Part of it has to do with it being Tuesday.  Tuesday is a very good day for us in LCM-C.  A group of us have lunch in Harcombe, there is Praise Band and handbells, and we round out the evening with our Bible study. 

But there are deeper and more substantial reasons for me to feel blessed.  The blessings which endure are those which do not depend on the waxing or waning of fortune.  Those blessings remain with us through all things and come to us from a source greater than our immediate lives.

In Luke 11, Jesus' is interrupted by a woman in the crowd.  She shouts, "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breast that you sucked!"  Her expression of admiration for Mary, the mother of Jesus, is repeated millions of times every day.  Surely, Mary was blessed by God and worthy of being honored.  What filled me with a sense of blessing this morning was Jesus' response to her shout.

Jesus says in reply, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"

The blessings which Jesus comes to share are given to me, to you, to all those who listen to him and live the life he makes possible.

Surely, Mary is blessed.  And, appropriately, the Church remembers her and her blessing.  And yet, the one whom she bore speaks of us as those whom he blesses.

May these words of scripture be a blessing to you.  And may you know this day (and every day) that you are truly blessed.

Devotion - Monday, November 12

Yesterday's LCM Sunday School Lesson continues to occupy my thinking and my prayers.  Session 3 in the "Animate" curriculum, the presentation was about living as Jesus lived.  It was about moving beyond boring Sunday morning sermons, and transforming Church into a place where we gather in order to practice what it means to be a disciple.

The materials spoke of the risky actions Jesus took; and encouraged us to think about the risk we might take - for Jesus.

In our conversation, we acknowledged the ever present danger of extreme thinking.  We think that the only options are to either continue living as we live, or to sell everything we have, give the money to poor, put on the robes of some begging order, and live off the good will of others.

"Wouldn't the whole economy collapse?"  Someone asked.

First, a few dozen of us making such a radical shift won't crash the whole economy.  If a few million of us began to make small steps in the direction of a risky following of Jesus, the economy would surely shift to meet the new market opportunities.  The folks who make Rolex watches might learn to also produce something less expensive but more useful to a wider range of persons.

The SCS lesson left me re-evaluating the choices I make every day about the life I live.  Have I become so comfortable in my lifestyle that I assume Jesus is comfortable with it, too. 

Do you know where the local free-food distribution center is?  Have you ever been there?  Or given two hours to re-stock food on the shelves?  One of the questions we asked yesterday is how many persons can we name who live below the poverty line.  One in eight Americans do.

Some analysis of Christianity suggests that it is dying.  The warning signs are pretty dire.  It is easy for an idea or a philosophy to be replaced by something different.  The reason the early Church could not be stopped is that the followers of Jesus knew that Christianity was a way of life.

Let's talk together about how we can make it our way of life.

Devotinon - Thursday, Nov 8

Luke 10:25-37 contains the parable typically referred to as the Good Samaritan.  This parable is so popular that even those of no faith tradition will speak of being a "Good Samaritan."

The parable arises out of a challenge to Jesus.  "A lawyer stood up to put (Jesus) to the test, saying, 'Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?'"  This "lawyer" should not be confused with our understanding of a lawyer, one who works in courtrooms and such.  This lawyer would have been an expert on the religious laws of the day.  He was probably in one of the groups which opposed Jesus' words on the will of God. 

Jesus allows this lawyer to repeat for him the laws.  Jesus asks, "What is written in the law?"

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with  all your mind;  and your neighbor as yourself."

The lawyer tries to justify himself, by asking "Who is my neighbor."  And Jesus tells the parable.

But there is one more line, in this exchange, which I would like to call to your attention.

When the lawyer gives his answer, Jesus says to him, "You have answered right; do this and you will live."  This morning, this is what stuck with me.  The lawyer asks what he must do to inherit eternal life.  When Jesus replies he omits the word "eternal."  Jesus speaks directly about living.

The preoccupation with eternal life sometimes encroaches on living.  When we become fixated on life after death we forth how important life is.  And, this comment from Jesus may suggest to us that to be truly alive is live as a Good Samaritan. 

One of the catch phrases of my young adult years was this:  "Don't be so heavenly minded that you are of no earthly good."

Eternal life begins when we start to live eternally.  Living eternally means to live in such a way as to link ourselves with the One who is eternal.  The path which leads to eternal life is a life lived well here, now.  This is reinforced for us in that when God sought to make salvation real he left behind the heaens in order to dwell among us.

Pastor Chris

Devotion - Wednesday, Nov 7

My devotional guide has me reading Micah.  Today I read Micah 3.9-4.5.  Like so many books of the Bible, Micah addresses the issue of how we care for the least among us.  It speaks of the ever present danger that we will fail to realize how our faith informs and directs our life together.  The word preferred by the Bible is "justice."

I have written of justice before, and been challenged on what justice means.  Those challenges fell along political lines.  Political ideology has the potential to alter our perception of what is just and fair.  This is one of the blocks which we must get around. 

Micah warns:  "Hear this.... you .... who abhor justice and pervert all equity, who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with wrong.  Its heads give judgment for a bribe, its priests teach for hire, it prophets divine for money."

Translating these words into contemporary life takes some work.  But I think we can do it.  It begins with looking to the word and the ways of God, and judging our actions.  It means having our membership in the Kingdom supersede our participation in the state.

Micah continues:  "Yet they lean upon the Lord and say, 'Is not the Lord in the midst of us?'"

It is much easier to say that God is with us than it is to live the life which acknowledges God's presence.  Being a follower of Jesus may begin with a verbal confession of him as Lord, but it finds its life in caring for those who are loved by God.

Join me in reading Micah.  It is a short book.  Yes, there are names of cities and such which will cause you to get confused.  But don't let that stop you.  You will understand what is being said.  When we understand, then will come to pass the words of the prophet:

It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as he highest of the mountains, and shall be raised up above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it, and many nations shall come, and say: "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and we may walk in his paths."

Devotion - Tuesday, Nov 6

While some might shy away from mixing religion and politics, I do not.  Our faith, and our life in the community must intersect - they overlap.

What I reject is the mixing of religion and partisanship.  There is no one candidate or one party that can be equated with God, or God's purposes.  But then, I reject partisanship itself.

This is not to say that I am independent, or a member of no party.  I am.  And I am firmly committed to the platform of the political party with which I am affiliated.

But I reject (and am calling on all of you to reject) the partisanship which refuses to allow any movement unless that movement advances one party over the other, unless that movement can be seen as a victory for one side.  We must move beyond such bickering.

As God's people, we ought to be able to lead in learning to compromise.  We know that as important as this political point may be, that there is a Kingdom which matters more.  We understand that no human is wise enough to know the limitations of every action.  It is when we work together that we are most likely to get things right.

The serpent waited till Eve was alone to convince her to eat of the tree.

Jesus made sure that every disciple had a traveling companion as they went out to preach the good news.

We need others.  We need the wisdom of those who lost the election (when did a 4% advantage become a mandate?)

When this day is over, let's not be a part of the discussion of who won and why; let's be part of the conversation about how we will put aside the hurtful things said during the campaign in order to work cooperatively on the issues before us.

As Christians, we are trained in this kind of work.  Let's offer it to the world.