Living in the Spirit
June 13, 2017
Scripture Reading: Genesis 21:1-7
The Lord dealt with Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised. Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to his son whom Sarah bore him. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Now Sarah said, ‘God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.’ And she said, ‘Who would ever have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.’
Sarah named her newborn “He laughs” for that is what Isaac* means. Perhap she was recognizing that God got the last laugh enjoying Sarah’s being dumbfounded that what the messengers had promised came true. Life does not always come out the way we want it as it did in Sarah’s case. As Paul says in Romans 28:8, We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.
The USA is critical of our fellow NATO members who have not yet reached their goal due in 2024 of spending 2% of their gross national product on defense. The USA contributes 3.6% of its GNP to NATO. Our total defense budget in 2015 was $598 or 54% of our total budget far exceeding the expenditures of other nations. While I think we all could agree that a good defense is necessary, perhaps we should look at what those NATO countries are doing that works not related to defense. The homicide rate in the USA is 16.3 per 100,000 in Europe it is 3**. Most of these countries assure an adequate level of health and mental health care for their citizens, most provide excellent public education system to prepare their children for work. If the USA had even an adequate mental health system would we have lost the 9 killed in a Bible study at church in Charleston; would all those children and teachers have died at Sandy Hook?
Peace through power enforced by violence was the ancient Roman way. When greed and power get entangled even great empires fall. The man called Jesus, born near Sepphoris, one of the cities overrun by Rome about the time of his birth, had a front row seat to seeing the results of peace through power and taught a different way. Those of us who follow him today need to consider carefully the wisdom of his way. Perhaps our NATO partners have something to teach us.
Prayer: Lord, forgive us when our lust for power and greed overtake our way of being. Teach us how to love each other. Amen.
*http://biblehub.com/hebrew/3327.htm
**https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate