Living in the Spirit

July 10, 2023

Scripture Reading: Genesis 25:19-34

Once when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was famished. Esau said to Jacob, ‘Let me eat some of that red stuff, for I am famished!’ (Therefore he was called Edom.) Jacob said, ‘First sell me your birthright.’ Esau said, ‘I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?’ Jacob said, ‘Swear to me first.’ So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank, and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright. Genesis 25:29-34

I am a fan of some of the English mysteries available on PBS, particularly among the wealthy. They often portray family intrigues like the one described in the above scripture. The tribe of Abraham had a very well-defined culture regarding families. The firstborn was the heir apparent to take over as head of the family when the father died. This story, however, is the first one outlining the sly ways Jacob soon mastered to enrich himself. Conning his brother out of his birthright was just the first of many.

We live in a different culture at a different time, but we remain as human as Esau, Jacob, and their parents. As Christ-followers, we are challenged not to think in terms of hierarchies of people but that we are to love all people for who they are and who they are becoming.  Still, we differentiate among people for their wealth or their talent. I read a book a few years ago that made a compelling argument that the USA operates in a caste system, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, by Isabel Wilkerson. I cannot envision a world where we are all the same. We need to work toward a world where everyone has enough and feels loved and cherished.

Prayer: Lord, help us guard against being caught in the clutches of greed and enable us to build the beloved community to support that vision.  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.

Living in the Spirit

July 9, 2023

Scripture Reading: Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

At that time Jesus said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’ –Matthew:11:25-30

What criteria did Jesus use to determine anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him? Jesus said he revealed God’s truth to infants. What are the characteristics of infants? My sister told me about her great-granddaughter’s visit to my sister’s house on the 4^th of July. The great-granddaughter turned one year old a couple of weeks ago, shortly after she had taken her first steps. It took the whole family to keep an eye on her. She was everywhere at once, curious about everything. MedlinePlus.gov describes infants thusly, The infant prefers the human voice. Touch, taste, and smell, mature at birth; prefers sweet taste. Vision, the newborn infant can see within a range of 8 to 12 inches (20 to 30 centimeters). Color vision develops between 4 to 6 months. Infants start life with a clean slate.  

Infants have the, sometimes dangerous, enthusiasm to learn uncluttered by previous experience. We cannot claim such innocence by the time we are two years old. I was a cradle Christian, so I have no idea what it feels like to never have known about God. That was true about the cradle Jews Jesus was trying to reach with a new approach to a relationship with God. The last piece of this scripture is one of my favorites. We are assured that God is always with us as we grow in faith, just like my great grand niece, who was allowed to explore under the watchful care of loving relatives.

Prayer: 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.

Living in the Spirit

July 8, 2023

Scripture Reading:

Romans 7:15-25a
I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.

Laws are needed to bring about order. For example, that is the purpose of stop signs. Laws are helpful in that accord and are malleable to change as situations in societies change. Our driving rules changed when we switched from horse-drawn vehicles to cars and trucks. As traffic increased, stoplights were installed. The Torah, the first five Bible books, is described as God’s laws. They are a combination of what we practice today as rules related to our relationship with God, civil rules, and even etiquette. Civil rules and etiquette change over time. In the USA, we are more precise in indicating the differences in these rules. The Bible describes a similar separation as the Israelites advanced from wandering in the wilderness where they developed a system of judges to mediate differences to eventually recognizing a government ruled by a king—we call it separation of church and state. From the beginning, the two communicated. The Prophet Nathan was not hesitant to call King David out for his sins as did Martin Luther King Jr. when he organized the first Poor People’s Campaign.

Fast forward to the first century when Paul and others mingled Greek philosophy and their Jewish background to help spread the teachings and example of Jesus.  So, we get the language of flesh and spirit doing battle with each other. Why do we do what we know better than to do? Jesus, himself, said that the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. (Matthew 26:40-43) I think that is why we were given an overriding law that does not change from one generation to another; God commanded us, and Jesus repeated it just to make sure we understood that we are to love God above all others and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves (Leviticus 19.18 and Matthew 19.19)

Prayer: Lord, help us get our priorities straight if we live in the Spirit daily. 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.

Living in the Spirit

July 7, 2023

Scripture Reading: Psalm 145:8-14
The Lord is gracious and merciful,
   slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
The Lord is good to all,
   and his compassion is over all that he has made.

All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord,
   and all your faithful shall bless you.
They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom,
   and tell of your power,
to make known to all people your mighty deeds,
   and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
   and your dominion endures throughout all generations.

The Lord is faithful in all his words,
   and gracious in all his deeds.
The Lord upholds all who are falling,
   and raises up all who are bowed down.

The scriptures are all too human, and that is a good thing. I think, though, that we must read scripture as God’s gift to us through humans. Yesterday I was caught up in my dislike of war with which Zechariah was dealing. I follow a lectionary to guide my writing of these devotions because it forces me to read parts of the scriptures that I might never read otherwise. It stretches my faith beyond what is comfortable for me. Makes me consider ideas that are uncomfortable. I could read scriptures like the one above and rejoice in God’s greatness without ever straying into the Zechariah-type stories. Still, thousands of years later, we are still dealing with Zechariah-type stories. While we long for the kingdom of God, we must never forget that that vision is our mission in the world today and always until the Kingdom of God is a reality.

Prayer: Lord, never let us lose sight of what still needs to be completed in working toward the Kingdom of God, and thank you for the Psalmist who gives us strength to carry on our work toward the Kingdom’s fruition. 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.

Living in the Spirit

July 6, 2023

Scripture Reading:

Zechariah 9:9-12
Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!
   Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!
Lo, your king comes to you;
   triumphant and victorious is he,
humble and riding on a donkey,
   on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
   and the warhorse from Jerusalem;
and the battle-bow shall be cut off,
   and he shall command peace to the nations;
his dominion shall be from sea to sea,
   and from the River to the ends of the earth.

As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you,
   I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.
Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope;
   today I declare that I will restore to you double.

The world has always been at war. When I read the final verses of this scripture, the furrowed brow of a beautiful little Ukrainian girl peeking out from among the shambles of a damaged door frame popped into my mind. On the news, I just heard how many Palestinians had been killed the previous day by the Israelis and how many Israelis had been killed in retribution. We in the USA are killing ourselves. According to Forbes, as of July 1, 330 mass shootings have occurred this year, resulting in 21,042 deaths with others injured. We are being controlled by the same idols our ancestors in faith worshipped Greed and Lust for Power. We may not erect statues to worship but our intent is the same. Many of our wars are carried out in the name of God. We try to divide and conquer in the name of God whose Son instructed us in Matthew 11:28-29: ‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Prayer: Lord, help us. We are so very tired of war and other killings. Plant in our hearts the ability to love as you love and shield us from bowing to the idols of our day. 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.Tired of

Living in the Spirit

July 5, 2023

Scripture Reading:

Song of Solomon 2:8-13
The voice of my beloved!
  Look, he comes,
leaping upon the mountains,
   bounding over the hills.
My beloved is like a gazelle
   or a young stag.
Look, there he stands
   behind our wall,
gazing in at the windows,
   looking through the lattice.
My beloved speaks and says to me:
‘Arise, my love, my fair one,
   and come away;
for now the winter is past,
   the rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth;
   the time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtle-dove
   is heard in our land.
The fig tree puts forth its figs,
   and the vines are in blossom;
   they give forth fragrance.
Arise, my love, my fair one,
   and come away.

I blame it on the Puritans, the rather odd views we citizens of the USA have regarding sexuality. We function in polar opposition. We are caught between being Puritans or hedonists. We cannot seem to appreciate the gift of Eros as something to cherish and carefully tend.  Solomon’s poem above is filled with the true essence of Eros.

English uses the word love rather loosely, from describing our relationship with God to bragging about our favorite ice cream. The Greeks used at least three definitions of what we call love. Eros is sexual or passionate love and is most akin to the modern construct of romantic love.  Philia is usually translated as “friendship” or affection or sibling-like relationships. In Christianity, Agape is “the highest form of love, charity” and “the love of God for man and of man for God.” (Wikipedia)

Eros is the most individual and private of these three loves. It is the very source of our being and is a blessing when it results from deeply shared commitment. Love spreads from that start to loving others in community, Philia, and ultimately comes into full bloom when we experience loving God and loving our neighbors as we love ourselves. Love is powerful and we separate ourselves from God when we misuse our love in all its forms to our own detriment and the detriment of others.

Prayer: Lord, bless us with your guidance as we seek to love one another. 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.

Living in the Spirit

July 4, 2023

Scripture Reading:

Psalm 45:10-17

Hear, O daughter, consider and incline your ear;
   forget your people and your father’s house,
   and the king will desire your beauty.
Since he is your lord, bow to him;
   the people of Tyre will seek your favor with gifts,
   the richest of the people with all kinds of wealth.

I must confess I do not ever remember reading this scripture. I have because, in the distant past, I read the Bible from cover to cover at least twice sans the Apocrypha. I have since read the Apocrypha. I think the first time I knew the Apocrypha existed was when I bought my first NRSV Bible, published in 1989. The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in 1947. The RSV Bible was the first Bible that I read that began to update with the revelations that were brought forth in the Dead Sea Scrolls. I say all that to say that the Bible is at the top of my list for guidance in living as a God-believer and a Christ-follower. I also know that I am reading stories that record 4000 years of history, largely from oral tradition.

I have lived through many years of misogyny in the workplace, having years of experience and appropriate education only to be supervised by younger men who have little or no experience or related education. I have yet to understand why people think that getting a law degree prepares one to be an administrator.  I worked for the government. Those men had good connections. The scripture above also made me remember some of the women I competed with for advancement who slept their way to promotions. That is what I picked up in the above scripture.

I write all that to say we need to respect the Bible for what it is and not worship it for what it is not. It is a history of the faith lives of the people who are identified as followers of the God first introduced to us by a man named Abraham. It was recorded in the context of its time and place culture. Its truth is in the threads of God with us that run through its entirety. Each day we live in our relationship with God, we could create a journal that would explain our circumstances in time and place and provide witness to the acts of God. The fact that slavery was taken for granted throughout the Bible does not make it right. Nor is it just that women who largely remain nameless in the Bible served subservient roles.

Prayer: Lord, help us glean the truth provided for us from the scriptures we study and not get caught up in the cultural realities of its time. 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.

Living in the Spirit

July 3, 2023

Scripture Reading:

Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67

Now Isaac had come from Beer-lahai-roi and was settled in the Negeb. Isaac went out in the evening to walk in the field; and looking up, he saw camels coming. And Rebekah looked up, and when she saw Isaac, she slipped quickly from the camel, and said to the servant, ‘Who is the man over there, walking in the field to meet us?’ The servant said, ‘It is my master.’ So she took her veil and covered herself. And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. Then Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent. He took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death. –Genesis 2:62-67

The story of Isaac’s employee traveling to find him a wife from relatives far removed is difficult for us to imagine in our times. Still, that was the way things were done in those days. I cannot imagine doing the routine chore of fetching water, a girl meeting this employee, agreeing to leave her family and everything she had ever known, and traveling with him to marry a man she had never met. She had obviously been raised to understand that was the way her life was to go.

There is a message of faith in this story. Faith that the culture and training she had received were to be trusted. Are we modeling a way of being in which our children and youth can trust? Are we training them in a way that will give them the confidence to enter adulthood ready for whatever they may face?

Prayer: Lord, help us raise our children to know your love and the faith to live your calling. 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.

Living in the Spirit

July 2, 2023

Scripture Reading: Matthew 10:40-42
‘Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.’

John 13:34

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.

John 15:12-13

‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

Romans 13:8

Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

There are no conditions placed on any of the recipients of our love–no skin color, no sexual identity, no level of financial worth, no nationality, and no age.

The hardest challenge in living this commandment is dealing with people with whom we not only have nothing in common, we totally disagree with how we understand God’s love.

Strongs* indicates that the word love used in the scripture above is agapáō which means embracing God’s will (choosing His choices) and obeying them through His power. And actively doing what the Lord prefers, with Him (by His power and direction). Christ living His life through the believer.

Thank God for grace because I am unsure I ever love as fully and completely as Jesus. We must understand that we must allow the Lord to love through us. I heard a songwriter being interviewed on TV recently when asked where he gets his words for his songs. He replied that he did not know. They just came to him, and he sometimes wonders from where they came. When we have trouble loving another person, we need to open our hearts to let the Lord love through us. The results may indeed surprise us.

Prayer: Lord, create clean hearts in us so we can transmit your love appropriately. Amen.

*https://biblehub.com/greek/25.htm

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.

Living in the Spirit

July 1, 2023

Scripture Reading:

Romans 6:12-23
What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.

When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. –Romans 6:15-23

I do not like the word slave linked to the one we obey. In my mind being a slave is never a choice.  I have difficulty envisioning that same situation describing my relationship with God. My understanding of slavery is drawn from the history in our country of bringing Africans here against their will and forcing them into slavery. I do understand the idea of being a slave of the many enticements in our world that we choose. God is the one I choose to obey, although I have not perfected that obedience. Being a slave to anything other than God seems to be the result of falling down slippery slopes that land us in the mire of addiction or hate or being overtaken by something that we were enticed to choose. Avoiding the slippery slopes is our greatest challenge.

The Greek word for grace is xáris and is preeminently used of the Lord’s favor – freely extended to give Himself away to people (because He is “always leaning toward them”*).

I like the imagery of the Lord always leaning toward us. He is readily available but loves us enough to let us choose to follow his guidance and accept his love.

Prayer: Lord, lift us up and let me stand on your higher ground. Amen.

*See at https://biblehub.com/greek/5485.htm

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.