Author Archives: WOJ@deborahsdescendants.com

Learn from Our Mistakes

Living in the Spirit

June 29, 2021

Scripture Reading: 2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27

Saul and Jonathan, beloved and lovely!
   In life and in death they were not divided;
they were swifter than eagles,
   they were stronger than lions.

O daughters of Israel, weep over Saul,
   who clothed you with crimson, in luxury,
   who put ornaments of gold on your apparel.

How the mighty have fallen
   in the midst of the battle!

Jonathan lies slain upon your high places.
   I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan;
greatly beloved were you to me;
   your love to me was wonderful,
   passing the love of women.

How the mighty have fallen,
   and the weapons of war perished!

The world has had too much death over the past year, and still, more to come. Our enemy is not a mighty military but a tenacious, tiny virus that will not give up easily morphing from one attack scheme to another. Well-trained armies envy such tenacity and cunning. We in the USA are particularly shattered by COVIDs strength unaccustomed to having the highest death rates among the nations from a virus. We have lost our sense of self as a nation if, indeed, countries can have a self.

David watched Saul fail in leadership, sometimes from afar, running from Saul’s anger. I sense that David knew he would outlast Saul. His relationship with Saul was tenuously tied to Saul’s mood and what David could do for Saul. Jonathan, however, was a dear and precious friend of long-standing.  Saul and Jonathan’s deaths marked a new beginning for Israel with the eventual reign of its greatest King, David. He was a mighty warrior, a keen politician, a musician, a writer, and all too human.

Our battle with COVID is not over, but I pray we learn the proper lessons from it. First, we must address our weaknesses and learn from our mistakes. To do that, we must face who we have become as a nation, as a world, and decide how we want to remold ourselves toward doing what is right and just. The last sentence of David’s poem quoted above gives us a good hint of the direction we must take. The weapons of war and the lust for power that engages them do not work.

Prayer: Lord, forgive us when we depend on the weapons of the world to protect us. Help us follow your model of love and caring for others. Amen.

Reconciliation

Living in the Spirit

June 28, 2021

Scripture Reading:
2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27

After the death of Saul, when David had returned from defeating the Amalekites, David remained two days in Ziklag.

David intoned this lamentation over Saul and his son Jonathan. (He ordered that The Song of the Bow be taught to the people of Judah; it is written in the Book of Jashar.) He said:
Your glory, O Israel, lies slain upon your high places!
   How the mighty have fallen!
Tell it not in Gath,
   proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon;
or the daughters of the Philistines will rejoice,
   the daughters of the uncircumcised will exult. –2 Samuel 1:2, 17-20

David was careful to protect Saul and Jonathan. He may have done it because it was the politically right thing to do as he wanted as few enemies among his nation as possible when he assumed the throne.  I think Jonathan was a genuine friend, and his death surely stung.

As an advocate, I regularly wade through politics. Most relationships in life are steeped in a bit of politics. This morning I joined the people of Surfside, Florida, in mourning the lives lost and forever changed by the collapse of their high-rise apartment. The scene was eerily familiar as it looked like the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing. Officials do not know and probably will not know for some time what caused the collapse. The building has been sinking a bit for a while because of the rising water surrounding Miami Beach. That may or may not have had anything to do with the collapse.

Both incidents bring our attention to practicing prevention. A disgruntled white supremacist blew up the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The water rising around Miami Beach is the result of climate change. What does it take for us to learn to share our concerns and work together to solve them? What makes us hold so tightly to our understanding of the world that we are unwilling to deal with other viewpoints?

I was struck by David’s final comments above. He did not want the enemy to know they had succeeded in killing Israel’s king and his son. That does not sound like reconciliation with a neighboring nation was going to happen anytime soon. Christ calls us to love all our neighbors and live in a just world. We can only do that through the power of God’s love.

Prayer: Lord, open our eyes to see ways of reconciliation toward all people. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Partnering with the Lord

Living in the Spirit

June 27, 2021

Scripture Reading:
Mark 5:21-43

And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him. Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for she said, ‘If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.’ Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?’ And his disciples said to him, ‘You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, “Who touched me?”‘ He looked all round to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.’ –Mark 5:25-34

I am not sure what Jesus was describing in these words:  Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?’ The closest experiences I have ever had to that was when I had run out of ideas or options to help someone. In my recognition of my helplessness, there was God. But, of course, God was there all along.

I was raised by a good Methodist who practiced what John Wesley preached.

“Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.” ― John Wesley

My mother’s training is still with me today, although I have not attained her level of service. As the song goes, we are called as partners in Christ’s service*.  Being such a partner requires constant communication with the Lord. As people reach out to us for help, we must reach out to God, our source of strength and courage.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for loving us in all our circumstances. Guide us in your ways as we seek to be your service partner. Amen.

*Called As Partners in Christ’s Service by Jane Parker Huber, John Zundel see at https://digitalsongsandhymns.com/songs/6113

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Jesus, the Healer

Living in the Spirit

June 26, 2021

Scripture Reading: Mark 5:21-43

When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered round him; and he was by the lake. Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet and begged him repeatedly, ‘My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.’ So he went with him.

While he was still speaking, some people came from the leader’s house to say, ‘Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?’ But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, ‘Do not fear, only believe.’ He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. When he had entered, he said to them, ‘Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping.’ And they laughed at him. Then he put them all outside, and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, ‘Talitha cum’, which means, ‘Little girl, get up!’ And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with amazement. He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat. —Mark 5:21-24, 35-43

Trying to assure affordable, accessible health care for all is a significant part of my life and has been for years. Health care in rural Oklahoma is near crisis. I talked with a friend yesterday trying to help someone find a doctor for the woman’s mother moving to live with her daughter in Oklahoma City. She keeps finding notices that many doctors are not taking new patients. The problem with a profit-based health care system is we can profit ourselves right out of business for those who cannot afford the rising costs. COVID has proven that we all need to support affordable, accessible health care. For one thing, viruses do not differentiate by wealth the people they infect. If all the working-class and middle-class people are forced into poverty because of health care costs, there will be no customers left for the businesses.

The above story illustrates that Jesus reached out and cured people of all walks of life and did not conclude that we cannot save everyone. When I hear of the death of anyone who died from a lack of proper and timely health care because they could not afford it, I wonder if the person who died was one whose gifts would have positively changed the world, and we lost that person before they could reach their potential.

Prayer: Lord, help us to care for the sick following your example. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Finding a Fair Balance

Living in the Spirit

June 25, 2021

Scripture Reading:
2 Corinthians 8:7-15

Now as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in utmost eagerness, and in our love for you—so we want you to excel also in this generous undertaking.

 I do not say this as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your love against the earnestness of others. For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. And in this matter I am giving my advice: it is appropriate for you who began last year not only to do something but even to desire to do something— now finish doing it, so that your eagerness may be matched by completing it according to your means. For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has—not according to what one does not have. I do not mean that there should be relief for others and pressure on you, but it is a question of a fair balance between your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance. As it is written,
‘The one who had much did not have too much,
   and the one who had little did not have too little.’

Jesus did say the poor will always be with us* in a discussion about doing the right things in the right times. What Jesus did not say is true: the rich will always be with us, too. Variances of wealth have always existed. Thus, the terms “poor” and “rich” are relative to place, time, and economy. What we consider poor in the USA is wealth in countries where starvation is rampant. Paul argues that the issue is finding a fair balance between abundance and the needs of others,
As it is written,
‘The one who had much did not have too much,
   and the one who had little did not have too little.’

If this quote sounds familiar, it is from the story of God providing Manna for the Israelites after they fled Egypt. Found in Exodus 16:18 reads:

But when they measured it with an omer, those who gathered much had nothing over, and those who gathered little had no shortage; they gathered as much as each of them needed.

I call that everyone having at least enough of the necessities of life. Paul calls it a fair balance. The USA economy is out of balance and even more out of proportion with many parts of the world.  The Poor Peoples Campaign estimates that over 140 million people in the USA live in poverty or just one major setback like a health crisis or job loss from living in poverty**.  Now is the right time to end poverty.  

Prayer: Lord, help us find the right way to find a fair balance of incomes so that everyone can have enough. Amen.

*Mark 14:7
**For more information, see https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/resource/factsheets/

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Heading for a New Beginning

Living in the Spirit

June 24, 2021

I do not say this as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your love against the earnestness of others. For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. And in this matter I am giving my advice: it is appropriate for you who began last year not only to do something but even to desire to do something— now finish doing it, so that your eagerness may be matched by completing it according to your means. For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has—not according to what one does not have. I do not mean that there should be relief for others and pressure on you, but it is a question of a fair balance between your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance. As it is written,
‘The one who had much did not have too much,
   and the one who had little did not have too little.’

Several years ago, I drove 35 miles from my home to the small rural community where one of my nieces played basketball.  I enjoyed the game but was startled upon leaving the gym to discover a blizzard in full force. The one good thing, ice was not sticking to the road. The unbelievably lousy result was my inability to see more than a few feet in front of my car on a winding rural highway. That was the most harrowing 20 or so miles I have ever driven. The interstate and street lights of the city were terrific reprieves even though conditions were still bad.  I thought of this when I weighed my response to COVID was. I believe we have reached at least a somewhat lighted path. My daily life during the pandemic was nothing to compare to that of health care workers and other essential employees. I felt rather helpless as the only thing I could do was stay home otherwise, wear a mask, socially distance, wash my hands, and pray. I also develop skills regarding Zoom meetings.

We are at the threshold of a new beginning. As we now deal with where we go from here, we must do so by carefully examining what we have learned about ourselves and how we share our love with others. In the first verse of this scripture, Paul describes most of the Christians with which I have contact. We speak well, study and learn, and devote time and energy to our churches. How do we love, and are we hitting the mark with our love?

Prayer: Lord, thank you for dwelling among us during these trying times. Grant us the courage to learn from this experience and reshape the world in your model of love. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Dealing with Our Foes

Living in the Spirit

June 23, 2021

Scripture Reading: Psalm 30

I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up,
   and did not let my foes rejoice over me.
O Lord my God, I cried to you for help,
   and you have healed me.
 O Lord, you brought up my soul from Sheol,
   restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit.

Sing praises to the Lord, O you his faithful ones,
   and give thanks to his holy name.
For his anger is but for a moment;
   his favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may linger for the night,
   but joy comes with the morning. –Psalm 30:1-6

I do not think about having foes. I certainly know people who disagree with me on many things. Foes, though, seem to suggest some enemy that wants to harm me. My primary foes are part of me. The simple ones are the voices that whisper just one cookie will not make any difference. Or they highlight my sins of omission. Maybe I do not need to write my representative this time. Many other people are doing that, and he or she never pays any attention to me anyway. Or sitting in a meeting thinking somebody should say something because what is suggested is wrong and I sit there in silence.

I have noted a trend in our society that what we classify as the worse sins in the world are the things most of us would never do or have any reason to do. Many are not mentioned in scripture. While we ignore or at least readily assume forgiveness for us and the others in our circle, sins that are clearly articulated in the Bible are accepted as the way things are now. Of course, judging others and forgiveness of sins is not our work anyway. That assignment went to Jesus. Our task was and is to love one another no matter what. If we think about it, the people we need to love the most are those who the world considers the least of these.

What is our responsibility toward attaining reconciliation among those with whom we have markedly different understandings of God’s purpose for us? Much of Paul’s ministry was dedicated to answering that question. He sought to find the things on which they could agree and move forward from there.

Prayer: Lord of Love, forgive us for creating our misery as we try to serve you in the most convenient ways for ourselves. Guide us in stepping forth in faith to perform the way you set forth. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

God’s Tears

Living in the Spirit

June 22, 2021

Scripture Reading: Lamentations 3:22-33

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,
   his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
   great is your faithfulness.
‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul,
   ‘therefore I will hope in him.’

For the Lord will not
   reject forever.
Although he causes grief, he will have compassion
   according to the abundance of his steadfast love;

for he does not willingly afflict
   or grieve anyone. –Lamentations 3:2-24, 31-33

God could be considered guilty of causing grief because he gifted us with free will. People cause grief on themselves and others. I watched the movie Selma recently and was surprised to hear the actor playing Martin Luther King, Jr. says God was the first one to cry for your son. I first heard that phrase following the Oklahoma City Bombing when it was significant to a whole community and the families directly involved. I do not know who said it first, but its original source might have been the scripture above when that author states for [God] does not willingly afflict or grieve anyone. How hard being God must be when he trusts us to do justly and practice righteousness.

Our closet human experience in emulating God is raising children, which is similar to forming Christ-followers*. Hebrews 5.12-13 states For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic elements of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food; for everyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is unskilled in the word of righteousness.

Our faith growth must be pursued intentionally. We watch our children struggle to roll over, crawl, and walk while they explore, constantly making sense of the world around them. With toys and games, loving hugs, and redirection to safety, they learn the art of being an individual capable of self-care. Most of us were introduced to God by other people. As we mature, we establish our relationship with God based on our experience and study. Paul dealt with the faith growth of adults all the time, often adults who grew up with the concept of many gods. In 1 Corinthians 13:11, he writes, When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.

Today we struggle with varied theologies of God and the influx of many gods we do not even recognize as gods. I thank God for the gift of God’s Son, who dwelt among us and shared his wisdom and truth. We would do well to enrich our connection to his way of being and his teachings.

Prayer:  Eternal Parent, guide us back to the fundamentals of faith taught in word and in deed by Jesus. Amen.

*For a rather technical description of faith-development see James Fowler’s book Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for Meaning

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

King Solomon

Living in the Spirit

June 21, 2021

Scripture Reading: Wisdom of Solomon 1:13-15, 2:23-24 
because God did not make death,
and he does not delight in the death of the living.
For he created all things so that they might exist;
the generative forces of the world are wholesome,
and there is no destructive poison in them,
and the dominion of Hades is not on earth.
For righteousness is immortal.

for God created us for incorruption,
and made us in the image of his own eternity,
but through the devil’s envy death entered the world,
and those who belong to his company experience it.

I have trouble imagining a world without death. Life and death, creation and re-creation are the norms of the plant world—plow, plant, water, harvest, collect seeds, plow, plant, and so forth. This scripture begs the question of who created the devil? I usually do not invest much time in the theoretical. Reality is challenging enough.  When I started these daily devotions, I committed to delving into the scriptures provided in the Lectionary because I think we need to study the whole Bible. Thus, I reread this.

I realized that if these words originated with Solomon, they were written a thousand years before Jesus came to the earth. Yet the words immortal and eternity are words we relate to Jesus the Christ. On the other end of the spectrum, we have the devil corrupting Adam and Eve. And we return to the idea of free will and God’s desiring that we choose to do righteousness.

I must say I do like the phrase the generative forces of the world are wholesome. There is much hope in those words, and our world needs hope right now.

Prayer: Lord, forgive me when my mind just does not get the truth of the scriptures. Help me discern what is essential for me to serve you the way you want me to serve. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Seeing as Jesus Saw

Living in the Spirit

June 20, 2021

Scripture Reading: Mark 4:35-41

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great gale arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he  that we are perishing?’ He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’ And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’

In grade school, I had to memorize Rudyard Kipling’s poem, If. The first line skittered through my mind as I read the scripture quoted above:

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

I no longer can quote the whole poem, but that part stuck with me. Our society has wasted a lot of energy in recent years, losing our heads and blaming the problem identified on someone else, not ourselves. The effort that should be targeted at problem-solving is lost to deadlock. We are stuck in a societal gridlock like a traffic jam that does not move. The Beatles’ Nowhere Man also comes to mind.

He’s a real nowhere man
Sitting in his nowhere land
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody. . .

He’s as blind as he can be
Just sees what he wants to see*

Jesus modeled in his life stepping out of deadlocks, analyzing problems, and addressing them. He called us to continue this work. Jesus never lost his head, nor did he just see what he wanted to see. He did get angry at least once when he drove the money changers out of the temple. That anger was targeted at people who claimed to follow God and reaped profits from their temple work. Greed always seems to be lurking around every corner.

We do not have either the time or energy to get caught in gridlock or losing our heads. We are in the fragile early stages of recovering from a pandemic in our country that is still raging worldwide.  A third of our nation is suffering from severe drought and a depleting water supply. An estimated 1.4 million people in the USA are classified as living in poverty or just one emergency from poverty. Now is the time to seek God’s guidance in responding and investing our time and energy in addressing the challenges we face.

Prayer: Lord, forgive us for not seeing what we need to see and not addressing what we need to address. Direct us in loving as you modeled love in the world. Amen.

*See at https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/887/

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.