Walking, Talking Thanksgiving

Scripture:

Colossians 3:17
"And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

Observation:

Whatever I do!?! Seriously?
Do you mean to tell me that God actually takes an interest in my mundane chores ... my leisure activities ... the tv I watch ... my work ... my family life ...?
If so, what does that look like? Is God a helicopter parent, always hovering within range for the divine approval or disapproval over my activities to register? Or, is God the boss that expects I am always working, always answering the phone and keeping up with emails? Or, might God be the curious type who is always ready to ask an extra question in order to find out more about me and what excites me?
As always, the type of God we serve makes all the difference to the ways we serve.

Now, let's just say I want to take Colossians up on its advice: how would I go about it? Do I put crosses on my shoes ... make sure I sign off my emails with a Pauline quote ... put a Jesus bumper sticker on the car? In answer to this question, I appreciate the proverbial wisdom of this quote (sometimes mistakenly attributed to Martin Luther), 

"The Christian shoemaker does his duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, 

but by making good shoes, 

and selling them at a fair price.”

Application:

I am challenged by this passage to deeper accountability for how I speak and act, especially during "my down time". I don't believe that being a follower of Christ Jesus means that I can only watch "christian movies" (whatever those are), but I do have the sense that some of what I watch would be awfully hard to watch "in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

I also want to share that I have been richly blessed by the Advent discipline I took up this year - walking home the long way from the bus stop, beginning by saying, "O.K. God, here I am, where are You?" This intensely simple practise - done in a spirit of hopeful expectation has provided me with so many clear experiences of God at work close-at-hand in mundane chores ... leisure activities ... in animals, people, and nature. The experience has been truly enriching. Today, it even led to me praying for my neighbours and our neighbourhood - something I've been told is a good thing to do, believed, but never did much about.

Maybe this is what Colossians 3:17 is about at its core. The point is not that we ought to bring God into our daily work, rest and play. Rather, we each enjoy a standing invitation to join God who is already at work, rest and play in, over and through us at all times.  When we accept that invitation we do so to the glory of God and the benefit of the neighbour.

Prayer:

Here I am God. Where are You? Amen.

Seeing Through God's Eyes

Scripture:

1 Samuel 16:7

7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

Observation:

In this passage, the LORD is correcting his prophet, Samuel, with respect to the selection of the one to be anointed king over Israel in Saul's place. Having seen David's oldest brother, Eliab, and noticing that he was tall and strong, Samuel thinks he looks like kingly material. However, the LORD is less impressed by Eliab's physical stature and more concerned about quality of character and the depth of his faith.

This passage makes me wonder about Samuel's process of discernment.

Did Samuel hear audible corrections from God?

Did Samuel know another discipline whereby he could test competing leadings or feelings within himself in order to determine the will of the LORD?

Do you and I know and practise skills for discerning when and where God is correcting and coaching us?

However it occurred, 1 Samuel16 tells the story of how David - the youngest and least outwardly impressive of Jesse's eight sons - came to be chosen by God to lead and to serve the people of God as their earthly king. Though not a perfect person, David came to be celebrated as the greatest king in the history of Israel because he learned to occupy himself less with appearing to be strong or competent in the eyes of others and more with aligning his heart to the Divine Heart. Thus, David came to be known by God as,

"A man after my own heart." (1 Samuel 13, Acts 13)

Application:

Today I take a step back to reflect on my actions, priorities and behaviours. As I do this, I am asking what motivations or considerations are rooting these actions, priorities and behaviours? At the most basic level, am I working to impress others with the appearance of my achievements and activities; or, am I propelled forward by seeking after God's heart of gracious justice?

Lately, I've been realizing that the way in which I draw boundaries around my work needs some attention. The pattern I have developed served well for a time. It helped me learn to draw some healthy boundaries between rest and work - between abiding in holy, playful relationships and bearing fruit in the world through the active use of my God given gifts. However, today that same pattern seems to have me more focussed on the hours I am putting in as opposed to the quality and anticipated outcomes of that work. Where I stand today, an hour spent filing or answering email is the same as an hour spent leading a bible study or preparing for worship. It seems the outward appearances of work have become more important than the heart of the matter. So, I am looking for a new way to set daily, long, and short term goals that focuses me more on the quality of the work being done than the quantity.

I wonder if you have any ideas? And, I wonder where the Lord is coaxing you to make a change in the interest of putting the things God is most concerned about first in your rest, work and play?

Prayer:      (John of the Cross)

O blessed Jesus, give me stillness of soul in You.

Let Your mighty calmness reign in me.

Rule me, O King of Gentleness, King of Peace.

Amen.

Voyage of a DawnTreader

Scripture:

1 John 1:5-10

5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; 7 but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Observation:

At first blush it sounds like the writer is saying that unless our lives are perfectly "light" then we must not be in fellowship with God through the actions and abiding presence of Jesus Christ with us and the Holy Spirit within us. In my experience, that kind of "black-or-white" faith doesn't hold up to well when it gets out of the church building and into the world. That kind of thinking about our faith usually leads to either direct confrontation with the world, or retreat from it. It leads to a church whose mission is either about conquering the world or about creating a disengaged alternative to the world.

In the Christian tradition in which I grew up (Lutheran), these words from 1 John are used as part of the introduction to Public Confession and Absolution that is said at the outset of worship services with the congregation as a whole. Specifically, we say together, "8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." We do not say this once and for all; rather, we say this together on a regular basis - meaning, we acknowledge that while we may not be "of this world" we are most certainly "in this world", and being in this messy world has a way of making us dirty.

It is not by accident that we worship this way. It is a conscious acknowledgement of our understanding of being a people called to be "in mission" for and with the world in all its complex messiness.

Application:

I experience some correction and challenge in this scriptural passage today. I am thankful for the blessings the Lord has poured over me through the particular (...some might even say, peculiar...) tradition in which I was raised. I have been emboldened by it to engage the world without being over fearful of becoming sullied by influences or experiences sometimes labelled as "not of God". That being said, sometimes the grace I have been taught slips  

(...dare I say "backslides"...) into the "cheap grace" of moral relativism.

The question I am left to ponder upon today is, "How do I hold together the seemingly paradoxical challenges to 

"walk in the light" as a sign of my "fellowship" with God while also and always acknowledging the truth of my sins and of my sinful nature?" Put another way (...in churchy language that is perilously loaded..) I hear the Lord challenging me to demonstrate a sanctified life that flows out of the justification I have received

(and continue to receive) by the Grace of God through faith in the righteous love of God.

Is it enough to begin and end each day with a knowledge that the light comes and goes unbidden and unearned?

Would it make a difference to take time and make space to turn and face the Sun twice each day and be intentionally bathed in this free and beautiful gift?

Prayer:

Speak Lord, your servant is listening ... (also, grant your servant grace to listen for more than a moment or two...) Amen.

Is it ever a cop out to "leave it all in God's hands"?

Scripture:

Psalm 119:105-109

105 Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.
106 I have sworn an oath and confirmed it,
to observe your righteous ordinances.
107 I am severely afflicted;
give me life, O Lord, according to your word.
108 Accept my offerings of praise, O Lord,
and teach me your ordinances.
109 I hold my life in my hand continually,
but I do not forget your law.

Observation:

Thanks to a popular worship song, verse 105 is the best known verse in this passage; but, it is verse 109 that demands my attention today.

It brings to mind the phrase, "taking matters into one's own hands". As such it seems to indicate a tension alive in the experience of the psalmist. On the one hand, the viability of possible actions and choices are illumined by the word and law of God. On the other hand, there is a tendency to want to "take matters into one's own hands" thus exercising will and control over the situation.

There is a simplistic interpretation to be had here about, "letting go and letting God." It wants to squash the tension in the interest of a straight forward, once-for-all answer. I do not find it very compelling, perhaps neither does the psalmist.

What if verse 109 is less a confession of failing to "let go and let God" and more a resolute statement of faith on the part of one who is determined to practise the agency that is the birthright of a free will? "I will and must decide where to place my next step, Oh Lord. In doing so, I shall not forget your law."

Application:

One of the benefits of this discipline (daily bible devotions) is that my memory is constantly challenged and refreshed with respect to God's law and will. As a result, the 1000's of decisions - small and large - that I must make each day are far more likely to be made "in the light" of a conscious effort to hear a word from the LORD and do something by way of responding to that word.

Today, I am learning that it is God's will, and an amazing privilege, to hold my life in my hand. Today I am learning to grip my life a little more loosely exercising less control and more guardianship over all God has seen fit to bless me with.

Prayer:

Dear Jesus, You have called me to repent and believe. I repent of actions and choices that can only be made out of a willful ignorance of your law. I believe you have freed us to be free and to take our lives into our own hands not in order to squander them, nor to horde them, but to share them in ways that wage peace and increase justice even as we thrive upon love. Thank you for illuminating my path and for walking always with me. Amen.

The company is great, and the conversation is divine!

Scripture

Ezekiel 34:15-17
15 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. 16 I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice. 
17 As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord God: I shall judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and goats: ...

Observation

The connection between this passage in Ezekiel and Matthew 25 is what grabs me today.

Matthew 25:31-46
The Judgment of the Nations
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33 and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. ...

Lately I have been marvelling at the many interconnections within scripture. It is amazing to me that these similarities arise in books written across hundreds of years and in widely different social situations.

I don't take this to be miraculous, nor am I satisfied by any explanation that amounts to God speaking through different people in different times and places as puppets with no brains or voices of their own.

I see these similarities as the product of faithful attendance by people like you and I to the living and ever-reforming Word of God and to the weight of testimony of our ancestors in faith. This is what I am marvelling at: when I study and dialogue with scripture I am diving deep into a process that has been ongoing for several millennia now! Not only that, but it is a process that the heroes of our faith have themselves been engaged in. So, when we do these devotions we come to hear a word from the Lord our God, and we do, and that is amazing. But, to top-it-all off, if we listen carefully, we can also hear the likes of Isaiah, and Ezekiel, and Calvin, and Luther, and Augustine, and ... Wow!

Application:

Maybe you have been previously asked to imagine you had the opportunity to sit down for a conversation with any person from history and then to decide who you would choose? I have always thought that was a cool scenario to imagine. Today's devotion helps me to see that the simple discipline - which the tempter would have me believe is boring and mundane - of entering daily into scripture can be just such an opportunity.

Prayer:

Thanks God! You are such a great host! You convene these amazing parties, where all are invited, and everyone gets to be in on the conversation. You have so much to say and so much to teach me, and yet, You patiently listen too. Help me to follow your lead, and join the unending conversation (and hymn). Amen.

Turn Back!

Scripture:

Ezekiel 33:11
"Say to them, As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel?"

Observation:

This little gem is hidden in the midst of the bigger passage, Ezekiel 32:17-33:20. The amazing thing is, the first section of that passage is a taunt song aimed at some of the enemies of Israel. 

The main take away today is that, although God does bring judgement and punishment at times, these are never God's first action not are they God's final word. For God, judgement is not meant primarily to achieve justice through the doling out of just deserts. Rather, God's righteous acts of judgement and punishment are always and only tools of last resort through which to guide us into repentance and re-entrance into the reign of God. 

Application:

It is too easy to come to snap judgements over people. It is too easy to write people off. 
Today I hear God asking me to see my "enemies" as God does. 

Prayer:

Give us this day our daily bread; and, forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. 

Lord grant me the grace to love those who are hard to love and to be bolder about sharing my faith with those you raise up to me as Persons of Peace.

Putting the U in Christ

Scripture:

1Peter 2:9

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people,[c] in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Observation:

My study bible uses this verse as a jumping off point to talk about "the priesthood of all believers." Here's what it has to say:

"This is a key concept for Martin Luther and other reformers, who insist that all Christians are priests or God's messengers. Proclaiming God's mighty acts is not a job reserved for only a few people. God calls all believers - no matter what their vocation or standing - to share the gospel and serve their neighbours so that others come to know Christ."

(Lutheran Study Bible, Augsburg Fortress, 2008.)

One of the main themes of 1 Peter is that the faithful are "living stones" meant to be fitted together to form a "spiritual house".

Together these two ideas beg the questions:

1) "How am I responding to the call to be a priest (one with access

to God who works to help others access God too) ?"

and,

2) "How sturdy will this house be, if a bunch of us stones fail to

perform the task we have been laid in place for?"

Application:

Surely there are loads of ways I can lean further into the privilege of being a part of the priesthood of all believers. That said progress doesn't usually come from a desire to to better or more in general. Today, it has been placed before me that I can do a better job of asking people to pray for me and asking them if I might pray for them in some specific way.

Prayer:

Lord, thanks for guiding me back to the life-giving disciplines of abiding in You! Continue the work you have begun in me and bring it to completion in the fulness of your time. Grant that all along the way I might become bolder, and bolder still to share this faith you have given me through word and action. Amen.