Category: Devo180

“K” is for Kneeling (March 7, 2012)

Published on by Adam Thomas1 Comment

…Opening To…

So daily dying to the way of self, so daily living to your way of love, we walk the road, Lord Jesus, that you trod, knowing ourselves baptized into your death: so we are dead and live with you in God. (Thomas H. Cain, from The Hymnal 1982)

…Listening In…

Then he went a short distance farther and fell to the ground. He prayed that, if possible, he might be spared the time of suffering. He said, “Abba, Father, for you all things are possible. Take this cup of suffering away from me. However—not what I want but what you want.” (Mark 14:35-36; context)

…Filling Up…

This Lent, we are exploring our faith by running through the alphabet. Today, “K” is for kneeling. To be honest, I picked “kneeling” because I couldn’t think of any other good “K” words (and I used “kingdom” last year”). But then I thought more about it and realized that “kneeling” is a perfectly good word to use in a discussion about following Jesus Christ, especially during Lent.

Kneeling is something we do with our bodies. We bend the knee. We plant it on the ground. This is the position of the vassal before his lord. It is also the position of a parent tying a child’s shoe. And it is a position we sometimes assume when we pray. Think about the first two images in light of prayer.

The first shows displays fealty, the loyalty of a less powerful person to a more powerful person. When we kneel in prayer, we use our bodies to show that we understand our proper relationship to God, who is our sovereign, the one to whom we owe our allegiance.

The second displays service, the loving act of one giving of oneself to another. When we kneel in prayer, we use our bodies to show that our prayer is one way in which we serve God. Our prayer opens us up to God working in our lives. The act of kneeling shows that we are willing to get down in the dirt for God’s sake.

When we kneel, we show our loyalty and our willingness to serve. We don’t kneel in order to show off, but in order to remind ourselves of our right relationship with God.

…Praying For…

Dear God, when I kneel before you in prayer you are always ready to listen. Help me to be as open to listening to you in return and to living my life as if I am always kneeling in your service. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, thankful that you continue to shine your light in my heart and mind, that I may continue to know you better through every way that you choose to reveal yourself.

“J” is for Judgment (March 6, 2012)

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

So daily dying to the way of self, so daily living to your way of love, we walk the road, Lord Jesus, that you trod, knowing ourselves baptized into your death: so we are dead and live with you in God. (Thomas H. Cain, from The Hymnal 1982)

…Listening In…

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life. God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:16-17; context)

…Filling Up…

This Lent, we are exploring our faith by running through the alphabet. Today, “J” is for judgment. For starters, “judgment” is a scary word in our modern context. None of us wants to be judged because we know in our heart of hearts that we will be found wanting. She doesn’t wear the right shoes. He can’t jump high enough. She has trouble speaking publically. He gets really sweaty when he talks to girls. In each of these cases, we are vulnerable to “judgment,” and the outcome of the judgment is never going our way. Even in church we hear such pious rhetoric as as, “Judge not lest ye be judged.” Sounds bad, right?

Our society hardwires us to think that judgment always means something negative is coming our way. But let’s look at the word again: Judgment – oft misspelled as “judgement.” See the first syllable – judge. There isn’t a judge (or jury) in the land who, case after case, hands down guilty verdicts. The judge is not tasked with finding people guilty. The judge is simply tasked with choosing from alternatives. That’s what “judgment” is at the elementary level: choosing. “Good judgment” means “making beneficial and healthy choices.”

Okay, so let’s bring the word into its church context. We talk about Christ being our judge and about “the last judgment.” This could be really scary (and for much of Christian history, the church traded in on this fear). It could be scary because we are sinners, and thus our judge could could very well find us guilty. But that’s not what happened. Rather than finding us guilty, Christ the judge made a choice. And that choice wasn’t even one of the two alternatives on the table. Christ didn’t let it come to our guilt or innocence. Instead, Christ made the choice to soak all of our sins into himself. Christ made the choice to give us clean hearts and right spirits despite our sinfulness. Christ made the choice save the world rather than condemn it.

So whenever you think about being judged, know that our heavenly judge is full of compassion and abounding in steadfast kindness and mercy. And also know that the judgment has already been made.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you are the source of all wisdom. Help me to make wise judgments in my life, always relying on your Word and guidance to walk down life-giving paths. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, thankful that you continue to shine your light in my heart and mind, that I may continue to know you better through every way that you choose to reveal yourself.

“I” is for Idolatry (March 5, 2012)

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

So daily dying to the way of self, so daily living to your way of love, we walk the road, Lord Jesus, that you trod, knowing ourselves baptized into your death: so we are dead and live with you in God. (Thomas H. Cain, from The Hymnal 1982)

…Listening In…

You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 9You shall not bow down to them or worship them (Deuteronomy 5:8-9; context)

…Filling Up…

This Lent, we are exploring our faith by running through the alphabet. Today, “I” is for Idolatry. The first four letters of the word “idolatry” tell you what the word is all about. It has something to do with “idols.” But the concept of “idol” has changed very much recently due to a certain piece of pop culture that dominates the programming on the Fox broadcast channel. For nearly a decade the show American Idol has been propagating the notion that being an idol is something to be striven for, and, therefore, praising said idol is also a good thing.

Of course, idols are actually things to be avoided altogether. Historically, idols were representations of gods crafted out of materials. The worshippers imbued with a pseudo-divinity the very things that they themselves had made. In this way, while they paid lip service to some semblance of religious observance, they kept the control of their lives at home. They did not seed their personal sovereignty to any sort of effectual deity.

In this day and age, idols are more subtle, and, I think, more powerful. We practice idolatry any time we worship something that is not God. This may be money or power or fame or any number of a host of abstract idols that pulls us away from focusing first on God. We tend not to use the term “idol” because that word has been co-opted by a television show. But even if we don’t name our worship of other things as such, it is idolatry nonetheless. And when we do put other things ahead of God, then we’re breaking one of the big ones, indeed the first commandment.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you are the only one who inspires me to true worship. Help me cast away all of the things that clamor for that worship so that may turn ever only to you. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, thankful that you continue to shine your light in my heart and mind, that I may continue to know you better through every way that you choose to reveal yourself.

“H” is for Hope (March 2, 2012)

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

Now let us all with one accord, in company with ages past, keep vigil with our heavenly Lord in his temptation and his fast. (Gregory the Great, from The Hymnal 1982)

…Listening In…

Therefore, since we have been made righteous through his faithfulness combined with our faith. we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have access by faith into this grace in which we stand through him, and we boast in the hope of God’s glory. But not only that! We even take pride in our problems, because we know that trouble produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope. This hope doesn’t put us to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5; context)

…Filling Up…

This Lent, we are exploring our faith by running through the alphabet. Today, “H” is for hope. First things first: hoping and wishing are two different things, though we tend to use the words interchangeably. “I hope it snows tomorrow” really means “I’m wishing for a snow day.” But the kind of hope we are talking about where following Christ is concerned is quite a bit bigger than simply “wishing.”

A wish is single, solitary thing. You wish for something to happen (or not happen). Hope, on the other hand, is the framework that supports the act of wishing. Hope is the expectation that the bounds of possibility are far wider than we can perceive. Hope is the act of trust taken out of the present and projected into the future.

The Outline of the Faith in the back of the Book of Common Prayer defines Christian hope in this way: “The Christian hope is to live with confidence in newness and fullness of life, and to await the coming of Christ in glory, and the completion of God’s purpose for the world.” Confidence here is another word for trust. When we trust, we make ourselves vulnerable. But hope gives us the courage to keep on trusting. Hope does this by wrestling vulnerability into a little box on the corner of the shelf. When trust shines out in our lives undimmed by things like vulnerability, we can invite God to cultivate within us that expectation about the bounds of possibility. We limited humans might perceive boundaries. But hope tells us that in God, the boundaries are so much more expansive than our perception allows us to see.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you are the source of all hope. Help me to trust you in the present so that I can rest assured in the hope that you fulfill all your promises. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, nourished by your Spirit and willing to open up a larger space within for you to dwell.

“G” is for Grief (March 1, 2012)

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

Now let us all with one accord, in company with ages past, keep vigil with our heavenly Lord in his temptation and his fast. (Gregory the Great, from The Hymnal 1982)

…Listening In…

When Mary arrived where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.” When Jesus saw her crying and the Jews who had come with her crying also, he was deeply disturbed and troubled. He asked, “Where have you laid him?” They replied, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to cry. The Jews said, “See how much he loved him!” (John 11:32-35; context)

…Filling Up…

This Lent, we are exploring our faith by running through the alphabet. Today, “G” is for grief. First off, let me get this out there: no one likes grieving. Grieving is not something we choose to do. Grief happens whether we are ready for it or not, and there’s really no way outside heavy prescription drugs to control it or take the edge off it.

That being said, Charlie Brown is on to something whenever he says his catchphrase: “Good grief.” Grief, in a sense, is good. Grief happens after loss – whether the loss of a loved one or the end of a relationship or a change in what you thought the future would hold. Grief is our body and our spirit’s way of confirming to us that we, in the case of death, truly did love the person who is gone from our sight. Grief can sneak up behind us, catch us off guard, dissolve us into puddles of tears, and then give us the gift of knowing in the depths of our souls that the deceased really did matter to us.

Grief gives us a way to stay connected to the newly deceased while we move to the new normal that our lives will enter sometime after all the events surrounding the death. Grief is love’s tether to the other person. But as grief fades, the tether remains because the relationship did not die with the person. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ points to this reality, the reality that relationships do not die; rather, through the love of God, they only change. Grief is the incubator for the change in relationships as people pass life through death to new life.

Grief is a gift. It may not seem so at the time of piercing, screaming, shattering loss, but in the end, as Charlie Brown says, grief is good.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you infuse every relationship with your presence. Help me to recognize that the love I hold for people who have passed is not negated, but changed. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, nourished by your Spirit and willing to open up a larger space within for you to dwell.

“F” is for Freedom (February 29, 2012)

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

Now let us all with one accord, in company with ages past, keep vigil with our heavenly Lord in his temptation and his fast. (Gregory the Great, from The Hymnal 1982)

…Listening In…

You were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only don’t let this freedom be an opportunity to indulge your selfish impulses, but serve each other through love. (Galatians 5:13; context)

…Filling Up…

This Lent, we are exploring our faith by running through the alphabet. Today, “F” is for freedom. When you first think about “freedom,” I would hazard to guess that you think about it in its patriotic habitat. We talk about the United States of America being “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” We see bumper stickers that read, “Freedom isn’t free.” To Americans, “freedom” means something akin to “getting to do what I want.”

However, this definition is faulty. If everyone got to do what he or she wanted, we would reach a state of chaos pretty quickly. 17th century political scientist John Locke called this kind of absolute freedom the “state of nature”; in it, he argued, there really is no opportunity to exercise one’s freedom because of the constant need to protect oneself from other people’s exercise of their freedom. And so governments are instituted to protect rights. This paradoxically creates freedom by curtailing it.

In the same way, as followers of Christ, we are at our freest when we surrender our personal freedom to God; when we follow the path Christ walked; when we don’t do what we want but what we discern God wants of us. At first blush, this sounds far from freedom. But the paradox holds – the more we turn away from God and follow our own desires, the more we enslave ourselves to them. The more we allow God to lead us, the more freedom we find.

…Praying For…

Dear God, in your service is perfect freedom. Help me to recognize when I have enslaved myself to the false gods of this world so that I can turn to you, let go the shackles of sin, and be free. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, nourished by your Spirit and willing to open up a larger space within for you to dwell.

“E” is for Eucharist (February 28, 2012)

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

Now let us all with one accord, in company with ages past, keep vigil with our heavenly Lord in his temptation and his fast. (Gregory the Great, from The Hymnal 1982)

…Listening In…

Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass there. They sat down, about five thousand of them. Then Jesus took the bread. When he had given thanks, he distributed it to those who were sitting there. He did the same with the fish, each getting as much as they wanted. (John 6:10-11; context)

…Filling Up…

This Lent, we are exploring our faith by running through the alphabet. Today, “E” is for Eucharist. This word is used in several church contexts and can be a real barrier to entry for newcomers because it doesn’t really look like any other word they might recognize. We use it as a synonym for “Communion,” which is a word that has “union” in it and sort of looks like “common,” so newbies to the faith could get an inkling of what it means. But Eucharist? Yikes! The word just looks tricky.

So if you or someone you know has been wondering about this one, let me break it down to two simple English words: Eucharist means to “give thanks.” It is an ancient Greek word that was essentially ported into English unharmed by the ravages of time and language (which is why it looks a bit funny). When Jesus gives thanks before breaking and sharing the loaves and fishes with five thousand of his closest friends, he is Eucharist-ing.

With this simple meaning under our belts, we can look at how we use this word in church. First, we use it as a name for the service: the “Holy Eucharist,” which encompasses the parts of the service that surround both the Word and the table. We use it as the name of the sacrament of Holy Communion and for the prayers we pray when we consecrate the bread and wine. And we use it to name these two elements after the prayer when they have become for us Christ’s Body and Blood.

Because we use the word “Eucharist” in these several contexts, the definition of the word can get lost. But if we remember that the word means to “give thanks” then those contexts blossom with new meaning. The service as a whole becomes one we enter into with an attitude of thanksgiving. The prayer and the communion become our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. The elements of bread and wine become nourishment of God’s abundance, for which we give thanks.

Eucharist is not just an old word that is difficult to understand. It is the entry point to a new outlook on the world – one in which abundance trumps scarcity, generosity defeats greed, and thanksgiving wins the day.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you are the source of every good gift. Help me to nurture within myself a generous heart that is always on the lookout for blessing, for which I can give thanks. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, nourished by your Spirit and willing to open up a larger space within for you to dwell.

“D” is for Desert (February 27, 2012)

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

Now let us all with one accord, in company with ages past, keep vigil with our heavenly Lord in his temptation and his fast. (Gregory the Great, from The Hymnal 1982)

…Listening In…

The desert and the dry land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom like the crocus. They will burst into bloom, and rejoice with joy and singing. (Isaiah 35:1-2; context)

…Filling Up…

This Lent, we are exploring our faith by running through the alphabet. Today, “D” is for desert. The desert plays a big role in the Bible. Quite a bit of it is set there, though sometimes our translations use the word “wilderness” interchangeably with desert. The people of Israel wander in the desert for forty years between fleeing Egypt and arriving in the Promised Land. Jesus spends forty days in the desert after his baptism. There he fasts and resists the temptations of the devil.

Perhaps you live near a real desert – out in Arizona or California perhaps. I don’t, so when the Bible talks about the desert or wilderness, I place myself not in a literal desert but a figurative one. You see, the desert is all around us. We live in the desert. Sometimes through our actions and inactions, we contribute to expanding the desert. The desert exists anywhere that we feel isolated or afraid or tempted or lost. And let’s be honest – we are feeling at least one of those most of the time.

But just because we find ourselves in the desert much of the time does not make it simply a place of trial or a proving ground. God does not drop us in the desert just to test our endurance. We simply wander into the wilderness, and we get caught there because the wilderness is vast and tangled. Sometimes, the desert extends its pathless expanse as far as the eye can see.

But when the people of Israel got stuck there for all those years, they made a remarkable discovery. God was in the desert, too. God was everywhere they were, including the wilderness. God doesn’t stop at the desert’s edge. In fact, God can make the desert blossom.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you love all you create and never forsake me to lonely wandering. Help me to let you guide my feet in the pathless desert so that I can follow your lead as we make our way out together. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, nourished by your Spirit and willing to open up a larger space within for you to dwell.

“C” is for Charisma (February 24, 2012)

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

The glory of these forty days we celebrate with songs of praise; for Christ, through whom all things were made, himself has fasted and has prayed. (Hymn from the 6th century; trans. Maurice F. Bell)

…Listening In…

As Jesus passed alongside the Galilee Sea, he saw two brothers, Simon and Andrew, throwing fishing nets into the sea, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” he said, “and I’ll show you how to fish for people.” Right away, they left their nets and followed him. After going a little further, he saw James and John, Zebedee’s sons, in their boat repairing the fishing nets. At that very moment he called them. They followed him, leaving their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired workers. (Mark 1:16-20; context)

…Filling Up…

This Lent, we are exploring our faith by running through the alphabet. Today, “C” is for charisma. There are plenty of other good “C” words that I could have chosen; certainly, that are more “churchy” – well, “church,” for instance. Charisma isn’t really a word that’s used much when talking about following Jesus Christ. Perhaps, you’ve heard a preacher talk about Christ’s own charisma – how he attracted crowds, how people followed him seemingly on a whim.

However, you might see a problem with this use of “charisma.” Perhaps, you’ve heard talking heads on the news talk about the charisma of politicians – some just have it, others don’t. Often, politicians trade on this so-called charisma to make up for deficiencies in their political acumen or their knowledge of the world. In this sense “charisma” becomes the commodity they trade on to win office, and therefore it is seen as insubstantial, as part of a smoke and mirrors campaign to get elected. When we talk about Christ’s charisma winning the crowds, we are dangerously close to this kind of political showmanship.

But the word “charisma” is a really old word, and its longevity can save it from the political scene. “Charisma” comes from the Greek word charis (χαρις), which means “grace.” If we remember this root of our English word, then we remember the root of the “compelling attractiveness” that “charisma” has come to mean. The root is God’s grace – not smoke and mirrors, not showmanship, but the elegance and abundance of God’s freely given gifts stored inside a living being.

If Jesus had charisma, and I’m sure he did, then I bet it was this kind – the kind nourished by the grace of God.

…Praying For…

Dear God, your gift of grace picks me up when I stumble and teaches me to dance to the rhythm of your love. Help me to move with this rhythm in my life. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, glad that you have given me the strength and the will to reflect on my journey with you.

“B” is for Blessings (February 23, 2012)

Published on by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

The glory of these forty days we celebrate with songs of praise; for Christ, through whom all things were made, himself has fasted and has prayed. (Hymn from the 6th century; trans. Maurice F. Bell)

…Listening In…

The LORD said to Abram, “Leave your land, your family, and your father’s household for the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation and will bless you. I will make your name respected, and you will be a blessing.” (Genesis 12:1-2; context)

…Filling Up…

This Lent, we are exploring our faith by running through the alphabet. Today, “B” is for blessings. Grandmas tell us to count them. Football talk about them when they’ve won a big game. We use a different form of the word when someone sneezes. But what are “blessings?”

Well, it might be worth starting with what blessing is not. As my boss often says, “Don’t say you’re lucky, say you’re blessed.” Luck ascribes things happening to chance. Blessing ascribes them to God. People talk about good luck and bad luck. Chance favors those with good luck; not so much with the bad. But there’s no such thing as bad blessing. There are bad situations and tragedies but no bad blessings. There is blessing to be found in every situation and every tragedy. These blessings don’t necessarily minimize the pain and grief of the tragedy, but they do offer glimmers of hope. Sometimes the blessing is hidden until we are ready to see it, but the hope exists whether we notice it or not. The difference between luck and blessing is this hope: subscribe to a life of luck and hope rides on the flip of a coin or roll of dice, but subscribe to a life of blessing and hope rides on God.

There’s one more thing that separates luck from blessing, and that is permanence. Luck is fleeting, if it exists at all. But every blessing is permanent, no matter how quickly they may come or go. I urge you, then, to save them – remember them, write them down. Yesterday my blessings including playing music and embracing my wife. Each of these small blessings sinks down to fortify the bedrock of my soul. Remembering them helps me stay in relationship with the source of all blessing, and that is God.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you are the source of all blessing. Help me to seek out the blessing in all circumstances so that I may notice the glimmers of hope that exist in all situations. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, glad that you have given me the strength and the will to reflect on my journey with you.