Daily Lenten Devotions: March 2

Daily Lenten Devotions throughout Lent 2017.  

(from "free indeed", Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis, 2017)

March 2 

The First Commandment:You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God.

What is this? or What does this mean?

We are to fear and love God, so that we do not curse, swear, practice magic, lie, or deceive using God's name, but instead use that very name in every time of need to call on, pray to, praise, and give thanks to God.

To ponder:

The collapse of the World Trade Centre brought me to my knees.  I prayed, like so many Muslims ... that one of us wasn't responsible for that heart-stopping catastrophe.  Twenty misguided men became fused with more than a billion others in the heat of a single conflagration, and we were left to eat the soot of their sins.  That's the problem with tasking any one of us to represent all of us.

- Beenish Ahmed, Learning - and Unlearning - to Be an Ambassador for Islam

In God's name:

A group of clergy sat around a table debating whether it was necessary for Muslim leaders to apologize for or denounce a recent terrorist attack.  One pastor said, "I'm not expected to defend Christianity every time a Christian does something terrible or violent in the name of God."  "Aren't you?" said another.  "I get asked to do that more and more."  The pastors wondered if mainstream voices of love would get more air time than voices of extremism, fear-mongering, and hate.

Eventually, a rabbi, who had been listening quietly, cleared his throat.  "I might have something to add to this," he said, "being a religious minority in America; and, part of a group that has some experience with anti-defamation work."

The consequences when God's name is used wrongfully are real.  For religious groups who are the targets of that violence, it is a matter of life and death.

Prayer:Gracious God, we call on your name in love, in hope, in thanksgiving, in supplication.  When your name is used to promote hatred, use us to enact love.  Amen.