Monthly Archives: June 2014

Third Sunday after Pentecost: The Anguish of a Parent

Reading

Genesis 22:1-14

Devotion

Peace be with you!

A few years ago, I came to the painful realization I would probably never be a mother in the traditional sense. Due to my physical limitations, I would not be able to have children of my own. Even if I could give birth, who would care for the infant while I spent time in rehabilitation to regain my strength? Even if rehab was not needed, my history of muscle spasms would put my baby in danger. One muscle spasm could kill an infant and that would destroy me. I debated whether adoption might be possible, but when you cannot drive, cook, or feed yourself, having a family is difficult. After many tears and arguments with loved ones, I conceded that having children of my own – adopted or biological –would probably not be in my or their best interest (though there is always a possibility with God in charge).

As I read the sacrifice of Isaac story, I resonated with Abraham as he walks up the mountain with Isaac. What pain Abraham must have felt when the Lord commanded him to kill his son (Genesis 22:2)! Abraham had already banished his first son, Ishmael, with his mother after Sarah, his wife, got jealous and commanded him to do so (Genesis 21:8-15). Now the Lord commands Abraham to kill Isaac, the son the Lord promised him. How was this fair?

I have often struggled to understand why God would let incompetent or reluctant parents to have several children – and not allow me just one. Why let a mother starve her child when I could feed him? Why let a child run around town naked when I could clothe him? Why let a father abuse a child when I could love him? These are the questions running through my mind when I watch the news at night. I can only imagine the questions running through Abraham’s mind. Abraham asks the young men following him to stay back with the donkey while he and Isaac go up the mountain to give a burnt offering to the Lord (Genesis 22:5). I am sure Abraham was screaming internally, “YOU PROMISED ME a son. YOU PROMISED ME many descendents. YOU PROMISED ME a great nation through ISAAC! WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO TELL SARAH? YOU PROMISED US!” Abraham must have been emotionally drained walking up that mountain. He must have been numb inside with barely enough strength to go through the motions of a burnt offering to the Lord.

 

Just as Abraham takes the knife to kill his Isaac for the burnt offering, the Lord calls out, “Abraham, Abraham, stop! Do not harm the boy” (Genesis 22:11-12). Abraham sees a ram in the brushes and offered it up as a burnt offering to the Lord (Genesis 22:13). The Lord provides for his faithful servant.

The Lord always provides what we need at the time we need it. The Lord may never provide me with my own children, but he has led me to be a strong mentor to young ladies. I am able to show these young ladies a different perspective on life and share experiences with them that make a lasting difference in their lives. I probably will never be a traditional mother, but God provides ways for me to still shape younger generations. I am blessed to be mentor to these young people.

Thanks be to God!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for keeping your promises to Abraham and Sarah. Help us to see how you provide what we need. Lead us to care for younger generations. Protect children who have no one to care for them. Wrap these children with your love and grace. Thank you for providing us with everything we need. Amen.

Reflective Questions

Please answer the following reflective questions in the comments below. Please agree to disagree and be respectful to each other. (If you have not already done so, please also take a moment, to sign the behavior covenant by commenting on it.) You can answer as many questions as you would like.

  1. How does the Lord provide you with what you need?
  2. How has the Lord blessed you?

Second Sunday of Pentecost: Seeds of Hope

Reading

Genesis 21:8-21

Devotion

Peace be with you!

Jealously gets the best of us in stressful times. Sarah has just weaned Isaac, and Abraham throws a great party for him. Sadly, however, Hagar’s son, Ishmael, makes fun of him (Genesis 21:8-9). Sarah realizes Hagar’s son is going to get half of the inheritance when Abraham dies, unless something is done to prevent it. Any parent can sympathize with Sarah waiting the very best for her son. Hagar is a slave with no rights of her own. Why should her son get any inheritance? Sarah asks Abraham to banish the slave woman and her son into the wilderness (Genesis 21:10), so he cannot inherit anything.

Abraham has difficulty throwing his eldest son and the child’s mother into the wilderness (Genesis 21:11), even if she is a slave. The boy is still his son no matter what the circumstances are. How can he throw his son into the wilderness – the unknown? What kind of father would he be if he banished his son to the wilderness? However, God comes to Abraham and says, “Do not worry about the slave woman and your son. I will take care of them. I will give the boy his own nation. Listen to Sarah’s wishes. The nation in your name will be through Isaac” (Genesis 21:12-13). Although Abraham has a heavy heart, he prepares a pack with bread and water and sends the slave woman and his son into the wilderness (Genesis 21:14). Abraham may not agree with Sarah, but he trusts God will care for the slave woman and his son.

Once in the wilderness, Hagar and her son wander around aimlessly and are alone. The bread and water Abraham gave them only lasts so long before it runs out and Hagar becomes distressed. Hagar gives up hope and leaves her son in a brush to die (Genesis 21:15-16).

We have all felt hopeless at one time or another in our lives. In my head, I imagine a woman today who is an only child and an orphan. Left with no financial resources and no emotional support, the woman is hopeless and turns to things like drugs and prostitution to make enough money to eat. If this woman must support a child, how much more fear and desperation must she feel. This imaginary scenario provides us a window into the hopelessness Hagar feels in the wilderness.

God hears Hagar’s cries and sends an angel to tell her, “Do not be afraid. I will make a great nation from your son. Go and care for him” (Genesis 21:17-18). A well appears, and Hagar gives her son a drink. He grows up to be a bow hunting expert in the wilderness of Paran and marries a woman from Egypt (Genesis 21:19-21).

God takes a hopeless situation and turns it around. Where we see hopelessness, God sees opportunity and plants seeds for prosperity. Magdalene is a program for “women who have survived lives of prostitution, trafficking, addiction and life on the streets.” The women are “given a key and are offered the necessary resources to maintain recovery, heal from childhood wounds, become physically healthy and find employment.”At Thistle Farms, the women are able to learn skills to obtain employment, which increase their self-esteem and self-worth. These women are given a new in chance in life.

Thanks be to God!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for hearing both Abraham’s and Hagar’s cries. Help us to look to you when we feel hopeless. Tug on our hearts when we spin out of control. Lead us to new life in you. Thank you for the planting seeds of hope in our lives. Amen.

Reflective Questions

Please answer the following reflective questions in the comments below. Please agree to disagree and be respectful to each other. (If you have not already done so, please also take a moment, to sign the behavior covenant by commenting on it.) You can answer as many questions as you would like.

  1. When and how have you felt hopeless?
  2. When and how has God planted seeds of hope in your life?

Trinity Sunday: God the Artist

Reading

Genesis 1:1-2:4a

Devotion

Peace be with you!

An empty space and a few chosen colors allow an artist to tell their audience a story that could fill a whole novel. Artists take a void and fill it with meaning and a purpose. Artists can fill a space with bright colors to showcase a joyous occasion or dark colors to portray sadness. Red, orange, and yellow are warm and cozy, while blue, purple, and green are cold and uninviting. An artist can take the audience on a journey or tell a story from the past. As an artist, painting allows me to express emotions I cannot get out otherwise. Painting also gives me an opportunity to give order to one little space when I feel the world spinning out of control.

God has the imagination to create something out of a complete void. He literally takes nothing and makes everything you could ever need or want, where as human artists start with their chosen medium – paper or canvas with pen, pastels, chalk, crayon, markers, or paint. God takes a formless space and creates the world with a sky, water, light and darkness, plants, animals, sun, moon, stars, and even human beings. From the beginning of time to the present, God shows us that he can and will do the impossible. During creation, God takes a formless void to create the world we continue to live in today.

I am always criticizing my work and painting over areas that do not look just right to me. God creates light and says it is good; God creates sky and says it is good; God creates land and sea and says it is good; God creates sun and the stars and says it is good; God creates light and says it is good. Nothing God creates is bad or not good enough; everything is good and pleases God.

When God creates the living creatures of the sea and land, he says it is good. He also blesses the creatures to be fruitful and fill the sea and land. He gives the living creatures purpose in the world.

When God creates human beings, he again says it is good and blesses them to be fruitful and fill the earth. God also blesses human beings with the responsibility to rule over the living creatures of the land and sea. God creates the sky, land, sea, and living creatures and gives the human beings the opportunity to use his creation to live and strive. God gives everything that is good to the human beings.

As an artist, I am struck by how God is pleased with what he creates. He does not mash it up and start again. He is deliberate about when and what he creates. God separates light from darkness and land from the sea, and he creates the sky for the birds, the sea for the fish, land to grow vegetation, and human beings to give his creation purpose. And he says it is good.

Thanks be to God!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for creating the earth with the sky, land, and sea with living creatures. Help us to tend to your creation. Thank you for giving us purpose in your creation. Amen.

Reflective Questions

Please answer the following reflective questions in the comments below. Please agree to disagree and be respectful to each other. (If you have not already done so, please also take a moment, to sign the behavior covenant by commenting on it.)  You can answer as many questions as you would like.

  1. God says you are his good creation. What does that mean to you?
  2. How do you carry out the responsibility to tend to God’s creation?

Day of Pentecost: #TheHolySpiritInMe

Reading

Acts 2:1-21

Devotion

Peace be with you!

With Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Pinterest, and other social media sites, the world is quickly becoming smaller as communication barriers become a thing of the past. The hashtag #BringBackOurGirls caught hold on social media sites on April 24, 2014. A militant terrorist group to undermine education for young girls kidnapped 276 girls at a Nigerian school on April 14. Their mothers held “Bring Back Our Girls” signs at a rally on their capitol steps. The world joined the outcries of the girls’ mothers.

For weeks, the disciples have been in limbo – unsure of where to go or what to do. The disciples have been praying for guidance. Jesus Christ has gone to God the Father after promising to send an Advocate to lead the disciple into the unknown wilderness. The disciples wait in Jerusalem to be led by the Advocate. He seems to never come. The disciples wait and wait for something to happen.

Finally, when the followers of Jesus are gathered in one place, there is a violent wind from the heavens filling everyone with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-2, 4). The disciples, Galileans, start speaking foreign languages to share the good news of God’s power and grace (Acts 2:9-11). Jews from other nations gather around the disciples, confused by how they could hear the Good News in their own languages (Acts 2:7-8, 12-13). There were Parthians, Medes, Elamites, proselytes, Cretans and Arabs, and Jews from Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome (Acts 2:9-11). Somehow, all of these individuals were hearing the Good News in their native language.

The Holy Spirit fulfills Jesus’ promise of an Advocate to come and gives the disciples a way to communicate with other individuals who speak different languages. Although Jesus Christ is not physically presentthe Good News builds momentum throughout the world with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives within each of us. We are marked by the cross and led by the Spirit. Because the language of the flesh has its limits and cannot properly explain God’s love, we, as his disciples, must speak the language of the Spirit, even if it confuses us at times. The Holy Spirit breaks down barriers and gives way to unlimited possibilities. Our relationship with God the Father dramatically changes with the Holy Spirit’s presence in the world. We all become children of God when the Holy Spirit translates the Good News into our own language and capability to understand. We come to see that our God is an inclusive God who welcomes all into his kingdom.

God the Father surely must cry out every time we turn our backs away from him. God the Father took dramatic actions to call us, his children, back to him by sending Jesus Christ, his only begotten son, to suffer and die on a cross for our sins. The cross quickly became the universal sign of forgiveness and grace. Even before hashtags, the good news of Jesus Christ spread throughout the world once the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit. What if we start a campaign using the hashtag #TheHolySpiritInMe to share the Good News? How many people would hear the Good News?

Thanks be to God!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for the Holy Spirit to share the Good News in our own languages. Help us to welcome all people to hear it. Lead us with the Holy Spirit to be your disciples in the world. Thank you for welcoming everyone into your kingdom. Amen.

Reflective Questions

Please answer the following reflective questions in the comments below. Please agree to disagree and be respectful to each other. (If you have not already done so, please also take a moment, to sign the behavior covenant by commenting on it.)  You can answer as many questions as you would like.

  1. Who welcomed you into God’s family?
  2. How does the Good News speak to you?
  3. How do you plan on sharing the hashtag #TheHolySpiritInMe?
Photo Credit: Amber Sue Photography, www.ambersuephotography.com

Ascension of the Lord: Wait for my Timing

Reading

Acts 1:1-14

Devotion

Peace be with you!

In the world, we are not accustomed to waiting. The internet and smartphones have created instant communication. Just today I approached two potential personal caregivers through Care.com and corresponded with both three or four times in the matter of minutes. I sent an email to a wheelchair dealer about test-driving a few power wheelchairs and got an immediate respond. Personally, I get frustrated if someone does not reply to an email within twenty-four hours, excluding my editor and a few friends. I expect an immediate response, which I recognize as one of my many flaws.

Like myself, the disciples are looking for an immediate answer to their prayers. The disciples act like pleading children by asking Jesus, “Isn’t it time for us conquer the Roman Empire and take over the kingdom of Israel? You came back from the death. Surely it is time take back what is ours” (Acts 1:6). The disciples think they know what is coming next. However, Jesus says, “Hold up; we are not conquering any empires. You cannot imagine what God the Father has planned or how he plans on using his authority, but you will receive power through the Holy Spirit soon and you will be sent all over the world” (Acts 1:7-8).

It is easy to speculate what we should do next. You graduated from high school, so you should go to college or get a job. What about spending a year volunteering through Lutheran Volunteer Corps or the Red Cross? Not knowing your next is scary and not something you feel comfortable with.

The limbo state exposes your vulnerable side. You are constantly justifying your in-between status to people you meet and hang out with. You are constantly asking God questions regarding the next phrase in your life. You are constantly pleading with God to give you some kind of direction. Not knowing leaves you scared and uncomfortable.

It is in this confusing limbo state that Jesus pleads with you to be patient and wait for him to reveal his plan. Jesus asks you to sit in steadfast prayer by finding a quiet place talk with him. Prayer invites you into a relationship with God the Father and allows you to reflect on what really matters and where God is leading you next. Being in limbo takes patience, perseverance, and prayer. It takes being vulnreable in the presence of others to find your footing in the world. One person you can be vulnerable with is God the Father who will always lift you up and show you where to go (on his timetable).

Jesus never promised following in his footsteps would be the easy road. Rather he promised just the opposite: the road would be steep, curving, off cliffs, over strong currents of waters, and through dense fog. The road would be poorly-marked and would often feel like a dead end. However, Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit, an advocate, to lead us through the difficult terrain. The Holy Spirit will be here with us as we go out into the world.

For the most part, we do not like to wait. Our societal norms are geared toward a fast-paced world. Yet Jesus pleads with us to slow down and find time to pray. Jesus is inviting us into a relationship with him. Jesus promises us the Holy Spirit will lead us to go out into the world to share the good news. Jesus promises something more is coming; we just have to be patient.

Thanks be to God!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for the promise of the Holy Spirit. Help us to be patient as we wait for you to reveal your plan. Give us quiet spaces to be in conversation with you. Lead us along the dangerous road in the world. Thank you for hearing our prayers. Amen.

Reflective Questions

Please answer the following reflective questions in the comments below. Please agree to disagree and be respectful to each other. (If you have not already done so, please also take a moment, to sign the behavior covenant by commenting on it.)  You can answer as many questions as you would like.

  1. When and where do you pray?
  2. Where is God leading you today?