March 5, 2010
Romans 10:13-15 – 13 “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” 14But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? 15And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” (NRSV)
“Saved” is a word with a lot of baggage in the Christian tradition. For some, it is the be-all and end-all of religion. The question of salvation is, for these folks, a matter of whether you’re going to heaven or hell, and it is the main point of Christianity. For others of us, it’s not that simple. “Saved from what?” we may ask. “Saved for what?”
During the season of Lent, we focus on repentance and penitence for our sins. We often hear salvation described as being “saved from our sins,” and that’s a great place to start. Too many of us spend too much time feeling not good enough, guilty, or shamed. God’s mercy is a wonderful gift – the Good News of forgiveness for everyone!
But surely you know people who need salvation from things besides guilt, people who want more than a promise of “pie in the sky”. What is the Good News that they need to hear? What else could it mean to be saved through the name of Jesus? Freedom from worry, selfishness, or society’s pressure to succeed? The capacity to love enemies, to make sacrifices with good will, or to turn away from self-destructive habits?
How can the world hear this good news? If we start sharing it! When we come together and talk about what salvation has meant in our lives, we learn how to tell our own stories in ways that are meaningful for others. Then we will be ready to bring good news to everyone who needs it, and that’s pretty much everybody!
Collect for the Week: Gracious and Merciful God, whose love saves us from every danger, grant that we might have an expansive view of your salvation, that we might live and share the good news that each person needs. Through Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
By Rev. Rebecca Littlejohn
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February 26, 2010
Joel 2:12-13 – 12Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping and with mourning; 13rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing. (NRSV)
Those of us following our Common Daily Bible Reading have been alternating weeks of Luke with weeks of the Old Testament books known as the Minor Prophets. Many of the Minor Prophets share a common theme, one that is vital to remember in the season of Lent. We’ve seen it in Zechariah, Zephaniah, and we find it here in Joel: If we’re going to offer God true repentance, it has to come from the inside, not just the outside.
The prophets seem to understand our human tendency to think that changing our appearance is enough. They know how we love elaborate rituals that display our supposed faithfulness. They know how we much we enjoy showing off, even if it’s about who can sacrifice the most. But they also know that this sort of flaunting of faith is not what God wants.
The prophets push us toward sacrifice that is real rather than merely visible. “Rend your hearts and not your clothing” writes Joel. The “fast” chosen in Isaiah 58 is to feed the hungry and clothe and house the poor. God is pleased, Zechariah says, when we are truthful and just and “do not devise evil against one another in our hearts.”
Jesus Christ is the ultimate example of a sacrifice that was true and real, not just for show. When we follow Jesus, we are asked to give of ourselves in ways that change our lives, not just our appearances. We are called to live a faith that is more than skin-deep, one that transforms us from the inside out.
Collect for the Week: Gracious, Loving God, who showed us that sacrifice is about love not display, grant that we might give of ourselves in ways that are true and transformative, that the world might see a sincere witness of sacrificial love and know your mercy. Through Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
By Rev. Rebecca Littlejohn
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February 19, 2010
Psalm 127:1-2 – 1Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord guards the city, the guard keeps watch in vain. 2It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives sleep to his beloved. (NRSV)
There has been a lot of busy-ness around here lately. With Miracle Day coming up in barely more than 3 months, our committee members and their prayer partners, along with the whole congregation, are in danger of getting swept up in all the details! What a blessing, then, to have the season of Lent interrupt us and remind us to remember what we’re doing.
Psalm 127 lays it out pretty clearly. If we don’t take care to recall the purpose of what we’re about with these ambitious projects, they will not do for our church what we hope they will. If we don’t make sure that God’s purposes are at the center, that God’s Spirit is in our planning and sharing, the potential for miracle will slip away.
Throughout the season of Lent, we will be taking a deep breath, slowing down for a bit before things start up in earnest, so that we can remember that the WHY is more important than the HOW. We will be pondering what this Miracle Day experience could unleash within our congregation, what it means to be doing these projects at this point in our history, both in terms of those who came before us and those who will follow us.
God will take care of the HOW, as long as we don’t lose sight of the WHY. Though there will be some long days, some long meetings, and some long decision-making processes, we do not need to labor anxiously, for God will give our hearts rest. Let’s take a deep breath and try to focus on that for a while.
Collect for the Week: Gracious, Loving God, who gives sleep to the weary, help us to trust in you, to set aside our busy-ness for a while so we might remember whose hands need to guide this project so that it will be an experience of your miraculous power for all involved. Through Christ Jesus and the Breath of your Spirit, Amen.
By Rev. Rebecca Littlejohn
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February 12, 2010
Psalm 96:1-4a – 1O sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples. 4For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. (NRSV)
Have you thought to mention out loud any time lately what God has done for you? Have you thanked or praised God for it, or even just reminded yourself? There are so many psalms that call us to praise God, and yet, too often days go by when we’ve spent more time worrying about what we don’t have or what we still want or what we hope won’t happen than we have praising God for what he has done.
The thing about focusing on what God has done is that it has transformative power. You may be having a rotten day, but if you recall that God woke you up this morning, other blessings start to appear as well. Gratitude changes us. We start to realize how much we take for granted, and our lives, or at least our perceptions of them, take a turn for the better.
The praise that the psalms call us to goes beyond mere thanksgiving though. At some level, gratitude is still about us; we’re giving thanks for what God did for us. Praise, on the other hand, is more about God than it is about us. We praise God, not because our lives are particularly great, but because God is great.
Praise gets us out of our own little selves and restores our perspective by reminding us who is God (God) and who is just human (us). It’s amazing how easily we forget that sometimes, and yet, the simple habit of grateful praise can bring us back down to where we belong every time. There are 150 psalms. I didn’t check, but I’m guessing every one of them has at least one line calling us to praise God. How many reminders will it take?
Collect for the Week: Gracious and Almighty God, creator of the stars, the winds, the sea, grant that we might remember always to praise your name, your righteousness and your love, that we might take our rightful place in your kingdom and witness to your glory. Through Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
By Rev. Rebecca Littlejohn
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February 5, 2010
Isaiah 55:10-13 – 10 For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. 12For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the fields shall clap their hands. 13Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to the LORD for a memorial, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. (NRSV)
The way we understand our faith and the way we understand the world are strongly influenced by the way we see God. Who is God for you? How was your vision of God formed? Some people go through life wracked by guilt and fear, because they were taught as young children that God was an angry score-keeper, just waiting up in heaven for them to mess up.
Some people go through horrible trauma before they’ve had a chance to form a healthy understanding of God and end up thinking of God as a callous, capricious ghost who toys with humanity like a kitten with a helpless baby bird. You could find support for both of these portraits in scripture if you wanted to. And you can imagine how people convinced of such ideas might interact with the world.
But neither of those caricatures describes the God I know. Instead, I see God’s true nature revealed in these verses from Isaiah 55. God does not wish punishment upon us, or suffering, or meaninglessness. God wants us to have eternal joy and peace. God wants us to have daily bread. And not just us, for these words were not sent to Anniston, Alabama, in a sealed, confidential envelope; God wants these gifts for all people. And God’s Spirit is alive and moving in the world, pouring out grace, just as the rain waters the earth, not just because, but with a transformative, nourishing purpose. That is the God I know through Jesus Christ, and I view all scriptural images of God through the lens of that truth.
How does such a conviction affect the way we live our lives? How does it help us deal with the day-to-day hassles that arise in our lives, or respond to the tragic suffering of something like the Haitian earthquake? How does it shape how we teach our children about God? Our beliefs about God matter, because through our behavior, they create the world we live in.
Collect for the Week: God of Eternal Compassion, who sends rain and sun to all your children to nourish us and give us life, grant that your grace and love might take hold in our hearts, that we might indeed be living witnesses to your joy and peace. Through Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
By Rev. Rebecca Littlejohn
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