Giving Thanks

Psalm 107:11 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever

 

A brief study of the phrase “give thanks” yielded these results. Giving thanks was not carried out by merely speaking words of gratitude. It included physical acts as well. This reminds me of the saying, “Actions speak louder than words.” Perhaps this is why saying “thank you” seems so small, so pale compared to the abundance and richness of God’s promises to us, presence in us, and wonder-working power through us. Today, as always, when we give thanks, let’s make sure our words of gratitude are backed up with acts of gratitude.

 

Two Stewards

 

 

The Gospels of John and Luke recall two of my favorite stories about stewards. The first is about the wine steward at the wedding held in Cana. The wine steward presents the wines and recognizes that the wine offered at the end of the wedding goes against standard procedure, where guests at the end of the celebration receive cheaper wine. The wine Jesus transformed from water is the best wine of the evening. 

 

The second is the story of the faithful steward to whom the owner can leave his precious properties. The interpretations that lend themselves to our stewardship campaign include the following. Like the wine steward we receive, we give the world the best wine. That wine is Jesus' blood, which cleanses us of our sins and allows us to join the celebration. In our case, the wedding celebration will be between Jesus and the Church.

 

In Luke's parable, we are the stewards into whose hands God entrusts what is precious to him, the earth, and its inhabitants (human and non-human). The parable ends with the oft-quoted phrase, "To whom much is given, much is required." 

 

God gives us everything created that is perceived physically, known intellectually, felt emotionally, and experienced spiritually. Having been given all of this, it makes sense that we should be required to offer health, restoration, and the welcome to return to God and God's goodness. Let's be quick to roll up our sleeves and be the stewards of wine and care.

Have you ever done something for someone else and found yourself feeling good? This exchange doesn’t always occur, but when it does, it is reminiscent of Solomon’s words in Proverbs 11:25. “A generous soul is enriched. The one who waters will be watered.” A holy exchange occurs when we act on God’s will on another’s behalf. Be watered today by giving away the living water with which you have been made alive.

REMEMBER

This Sunday, we will spend some time as a community remembering and honoring those who have gone on before us. In Jewish practices, the act of remembering is a holy thing. In fact, their calendar is filled with remembrances. Our U.S. calendar has a couple of these like Veteran’s Day. The Sabbath (a day of rest) is something God told us to remember and to keep separate (holy). With each celebration of Holy Communion, we are reminded to remember Jesus and everything that accompanies remembering Jesus. 

Remembering is a two-edged sword in that remembering can bring joy and remembering can bring hurt. I, myself have felt both as I prepare for All Saints Sunday. I smile when I remember the family members, I have lost to death, but it also brings a tear to my eye. 

I pray that you will be gentle and kind to yourself as you remember this week. Allow yourselves to feel both the join and the pain. I also pray that at the end of it all, you will wrap yourselves in the promises we have from God that death is not the end and that there will be a glorious celebration in which we will all be reunited.

Peace be with you all.

Pastor Yolanda

Holy Breathing

The theologian Charles Spurgeon said prayer is breathing in the very air of Heaven, and praise is breathing it out again. Imagine seeing every breath you take as an opportunity to pray, even if that prayer is “Thank you, Lord” or “Help me, Lord.” That interaction, that exchange with holiness, revives your spirit, spurring you onward. Now, imagine your exhaled words of alleluia as the natural expression of having experienced that holy exchange. It puts a whole new spin on breathing, doesn’t it? Have a blessed rest of the week and weekend.

Pondering the Tasks of Educating and Learning; of teaching and being taught

 

Prayer: Dear Lord, as I approach today or any day, thinking about what needs to be accomplished, help me to settle my anxieties and center myself in you. Let me breathe in and breathe out these words. Your "grace is sufficient for me" (2Cor. 12:9). I know if I truly believe that knowing how overly abundant your grace is, I will walk through my days buoyed by that race, not weighed down by the cares of any given day. Amen.

 

Devotion: As the week turns me toward a new month, my mind is filled with planning, the start of new activities, and of projects which have now become due. As it is the beginning of not only the secular academic year but of the sacred academic year of Sunday School, Confirmation, and Bible Studies, I have needed to ponder the role of the teacher and the act of teaching; and the role of the student and the act of learning. As a teacher in both worlds, reflection is critical on these topics. While carried out in some form or another all summer long, the conclusions based on reflection become more pointed as summer ends because it is the conclusions from those reflections that will guide the planning and the assessment process. Assessment activities should not be designed until I have decided what it is I am teaching and what it is I want to observe as learned.

 

    The teacher King David wrote Psalm 119 to teach his son Solomon the alphabet (abc's) and also a way to learn about God and how to live within God's law. The fifth stanza includes what we might call the alphabet E (verses 33-40) begins "Teach me, Lord, the way of your decrees, that I may follow it to the end (or the appropriate rewarding outcome)." As a teacher, David is teaching Solomon (1) who to ask for help, (2) what help to ask for, and why this teaching should be requested. Ask Yahweh for help. Ask Yahweh to teach the ways of God's laws, statutes, decrees, rules, principles. Ask Yahweh to teach His principles so that they can be followed to their rightful conclusion. The rightful conclusion spelled out throughout the Psalm is being in a state of blessedness.

    It is undoubtedly a simplistic teaching pattern, but it is this simplicity that makes the lesson easy to learn, memorize, practice, and embody. Would that all teachings were so clear and so precise! I can well imagine that this way of teaching that raised the type of man who would ask God for wisdom when offered anything. I could go into David's harmful teachings and those effects, but I will leave that for another devotion.

 

    God teaches us through the written word, through the spoken word of prophets, ministers, teachers, parents/guardians, friends, neighbors, and members of our worshiping community. God also taught and teaches us through modeling, whether it was through the life of Jesus or his disciples or those listed in the earlier sentence. 

 

    We are all teachers, whether we want to admit it or not. Ask yourself this week; what am I teaching by my words, activities, or lifestyle? What am I learning from those around me? Is there anything I should change so that the end product is being in the state of blessedness?

 

Prayer: Lord, there are many paths offered to me. Help me to hear and to embody the teaching that will lead me to your blessed side. Amen.

Being a Sacrfice that Brings Life

 

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."

Romans 12: 1-2

    Most sacrifices are viewed as having to do with death rather than life. And, this view is rightly so, sacrifice in the Hebrew Bible involved the killing of an animal. In modern day language, the word sacrifice at the very least means something that is painful. "Give until it hurts" is the age-old moniker. It was at some point changed to "Give until it Helps." The good news is that being a sacrifice in Paul's mind and in Jesus' theology is that sacrifice of our bodies or our essence or substance should be life giving....life-giving to you and to those around you.

    The elements of this living sacrifice that is us, is described as "holy, and pleasing to God." What is holy and pleasing to God? Jesus summed it up like this in Matthew and in Luke. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself." The sacrifice of our substance and our essence should be based on, filtered through, and motivated by agapé love. This is the love spoken of in the familiar 1Corinthians verses read now primarily at weddings.

 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails I Cor. 13:4-8a

    I must confess when I look at agapé love as the kind of love God has for me and therefore, the love I give back to God, to myself, and my neighbor I am a big staggered by the immensity of the responsibility. But it is in understanding this that I can understand how something once considered unto death becomes something unto life. It is now clear how living a life in which agapé is the essence of motivation, the filter, and the foundation is not only "holy and pleasing to God" but will bring about "true and proper worship."

It becomes easier to be transformed because my mind is continually renewed as I progress in aligning everything in my life so that it expresses the agapé with which God approaches me, so that I can in return approach God, myself, and others in the same way.

    Finally, transformed, I can "test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."

This process is slow and is not always completely forward moving. As human beings there are certainly going to be times when we fall backward, or stand still. This is normal and is to be expected. It is our desire to move forward, closer to God's love. It is our desire to develop the discipline of seeing, hearing, acting, and believing using God's love that is important.

Prayer: Lord, I know you are with me. As your child I come to you both humbly and boldly seeking your help that I may experience your love and in turn use that experience of love to love you, myself, and others. I offer all that I am as a living sacrifice that transformed by your love, I may grow to agapé myself and others. Amen.