| | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions |
| | | | | After 14 or 15 months of looking at God as, today begins a new ride: The Reign of God as - all new. If you have any comments - adebelak@redeemerluth.com . The Reign of God as all new allows us to take on the day in a way we had not anticipated. Most often, we do that which is in front of us - we act within a certain role - we try to meet certain expectations - we move through the day just as we have and just as we thought we must. The Reign of God as all new is the freedom to take a leap into a life we have not previously considered. Sometimes that is the leap into a relationship when we thought new relationships could never happen. And yet, God walks with us into all of our relationships making them new each day. The Reign of God as all new grows out of forgiveness - complete forgiveness - unearned forgiveness. It becomes the power to step out in a new way because we do not have to feel as though some other power controls us. The Reign of God as all new is new because it is shaped by the love of God - full of surprises - full of a depth of life we often never let ourselves experience. O God of love and new life, help us anticipate your loving presence calling us out into new relationships and new life. Amen. |
 | | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions |
| | | | | After 14 or 15 months of looking at God as, today begins a new ride: The Reign of God as - all new. If you have any comments - adebelak@redeemerluth.com . The Reign of God as all new changes our routines and gives us the opportunity to enter them with new eyes and new moves. Routines are often good for us - a bit of order to make sure we responsibly do the work we have been handed. The Reign of God as all new gives us more to consider as we go about those routines. Our daily patterns are not to be given the power to turn us from the life of God's Reign. Right in the middle of our mundane routines are the moments that Jesus often turned into amazing events. A regular trip to the synagogue becomes a time of healing and that time of healing becomes a moment when the powers of the world and the power of the Reign of God meet up. As we know, the new adventure of God's Reign is not usually appreciated by those who think they must manage the mundane and rule the ordinary. The Reign of God as all new opens our eyes to see how God's presence can and will bring new life into that which we claim to know so well. Therefore, every moment holds an abundance of 'what just may be'. O God of love and new life, move us into that Reign that will turn each moment into your image present with us. Amen. |
 | | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions |
| | | | | After 14 or 15 months of looking at God as, today begins a new ride: The Reign of God as - all new. If you have any comments - adebelak@redeemerluth.com . The Reign of God as all new is just that. Nothing that has been - nothing that we have seen hanging over our heads - none of the monsters of regret and hate and fear and shame can run our lives. That is the resurrection word to us. Life is now to be defined within the bounds of God's extreme and thorough forgiveness. The Reign of God as all new casts out the demons that have a way of sneaking back into our lives. And yet, in the light of the resurrection, the forgiveness that leaves behind everything - every moment - every other person that has ever tried to control us - is now making things new - fresh - no baggage. Too often, even the notion of 'new' is just a cleaned up version of how things have always been. It is like cleaning our garage. It looks like new for awhile - but it still holds all the old 'junk' that we cannot make ourselves throw away. The Reign of God as all new sets us up as new. We are the beloved of God and God don't make no junk. Nothing that has been - rules anymore. O God of love and new life, remind us of the openness of your Reign that continues to pull us into life we often will not let ourselves experience or trust. Amen. |
 | | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions |
| | | | | This week: God as fear and great joy. If you have any comments - adebelak@redeemerluth.com . God as fear and great joy is the burst of energy that moves through the day and ignites the kind of life that comes to us when our world is now open to possibilities heretofore unconsidered. It is both the leaping of new life and the what-now of what was. Like those women at the empty tomb, we are invited to move past the consideration of 'what-now' and take off into the surprise of new life that is already with us. We must remember that we are not waiting for the coming of Jesus again - we are in the midst of it. Jesus greets us and directs us today - now - even when we are not sure what that all means. God as fear and great joy is the wind swept moment that connects the dots between promise - frustration - renewal. In moments like this, it is always good to have another follower of Jesus alongside because - if you are like me - it takes a another hand to help move me and encourage me and go with me. In that 'going' the fear/awe gives way to the movement - the great joy - the moving on down the road into the Reign of God with us in the middle of it all. O God of love and new life, by your Spirit move us and hold us and send us into the middle of your glorious Reign. Amen. |
 | | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions |
| | | | | This week: God as fear and great joy. If you have any comments - adebelak@redeemerluth.com . God as fear and great joy is that power that grabs hold of us and pulls us into God's living Reign along the way of Jesus - even when we do not know what that will mean for us. How can we know what it will mean for us!? God as fear an great joy is as troubling as any change in our lives. Change and new directions and surprises are not always met with a calm heart and a clear mind. God as fear and great joy is the twirling we all are most likely to do when we are sent out beyond our place to bring news that is meant to change everything. Wouldn't you like to be sitting at the edge of the circle of conversation the women had with other women after they told the disciples what they saw and heard!? Wouldn't you like to sitting a the edge of the circle of conversation the men had after the women came back with their witness?! God as fear and great joy doesn't care about all the conversation - this is the God that calls forth life - move on - get going - meet you up ahead - let's go. O God of love and new life, though we so often wonder about the life into which we are being pulled by your Spirit of Life, settle our hearts and get us moving. Amen. |
 | | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions |
| | | | | This week: God as fear and great joy. If you have any comments - adebelak@redeemerluth.com . God as fear and great joy is when the switch is flipped and a new reality is no longer something about which we might dream - it is that in which we are standing. It is the unbelievable presence of God stepping in our shoes and leading us off into the 8th day of creation. That is the day of resurrection - the day all of us are invited to enter when we are baptized - when we have been grasped by the Spirit of God - when our hearts are pounding with life that was not expected. God as fear and great joy doesn't know the details of what will happen - simply that a vision for what will happen is beginning to take shape and it is overwhelming and full of joy that is beyond what we have ever experienced. God as fear and great joy becomes that leap we take over the edge because we are draw by a vision into that which we cannot see fully at this moment. O God of love and new life, take us over the edge and give a witness to how your love re-creates the day at hand. Amen. |
 | | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions |
| | | | | This week: God as fear and great joy. If you have any comments - adebelak@redeemerluth.com . God as fear and great joy is the realization that God is the future and we are being invited into that future that will not be ruled by the usual suspects of the day. That is how those two women went dancing and running into the time at hand. They were the beginning of what was to be - they were out front before the men of the group knew that there was an 'out front' of the Reign of God taking shape. God as fear and great joy is the experience of knowing Jesus is for real - alive and not simply a story. It is the power that is able to act like a new kind of humanity. Those women could not be witnesses - they were women and in that day - no way. And yet, when they come upon Jesus who greets them and is made known to them, there is no way they will give up their place as witnesses - the first ones - as was noted yesterday. God as fear and great joy is the life available to us today. No conditions and no boundaries - women are witnesses - we can be witnesses also - we can heal also - we can forgive also - we can make peace also - we can offer ourselves up to others for free also. God as fear and great joy stretches us and tears the curtain of the Temple because this God is now with us - running with us and filling our hearts with great joy and awe. O God of love and new life, inspire us to go beyond the places in which we think we must remain. Open up our lives to your Spirit that will not stop blowing into our lives to make all things new. Amen. |
 | | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions |
| | | | | This week: God as fear and great joy. If you have any comments - adebelak@redeemerluth.com . God as fear and great joy is how God shines through the two women who found the tomb empty and were the first - get that - first witnesses to the Resurrection and the Resurrected Jesus. Fear here is not a 'run-away-and-hide fear' that is cause by the threatening powers of the world. This is an experience of awe - the experience of that which has never been - that which will mean the complete rebuilding of the future. God as fear and great joy takes whatever has been the shape of the world and the days of our lives and makes everything new - outlandishly new - resurrection new. God as fear and great joy is the power that can send any one of us off along the ways of our lives ready to witness to life in the places we thought death ruled. No more do we run as ones who fear death. Empty-tomb fear is the head shaking fear that comes when a door - long closed - has been open, knocked off the hinges. I think of the look on our cats' faces when the garage door is wide open - they look like they are ready to come out - but they have never really been there before that moment. Out beyond the doors of death is life that can take us all back. but the next thing that we experience is great joy. O God of love and new life, you open the door and you bid us to step off into the life of your making - a peaceable Reign - a bathing in grace. Amen. |
 | | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions |
| | | | | This week: God as Holy Week. If you have any comments - adebelak@redeemerluth.com . God as Holy Week is water poured over feet. It is not merely an exercise in humility. It is how God's Reign flows. God as Holy Week is the invitation into acts of hospitality - as simple as that. Any and all who come into the community of the followers of Jesus become people who wash feet. God as Holy Week shows us how to do that. It may not be with water in a basin. It may be by way of the many times within this day that we can offer someone a place in which they will be greeted with the graciousness of God's Reign. The powers of our world usually see other people as mere commodities - things bought and sold - things that will benefit the powers - things - just things. But God as Holy Week sees all people as precious instruments of God's Reign - instruments that need to be refreshed and need to be reminded of the way life is renewed when the grace of God is available for all. A bit of water cannot do much to really wash feet, but the offer - the movement - the bending down - the act of revealing one's feet, takes us all into a scene of God's home of welcome and peace. God as Holy Week is an experience each of us are handed this week and each week to follow. O God of love and new life, make each week within your gracious Reign full of your holy life that never ceases to pull us from our shells and emerge as new beings in your love. Amen. |
 | | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions |
| | | | | This week: God as Holy Week. If you have any comments - adebelak@redeemerluth.com . God as Holy Week brings worship to life. During Holy Week there was all the activity in the Temple and yet it lacked life - the kind of life that is fashioned by the one who rode into Jerusalem and then kept walking into the Temple to remind everyone of the life that comes when God's Reign settles in. God as Holy Week is humanity putting on the face of God and entering into God's living image. Often, Holy Week can become full of times of worship and meditation - that is fine and good. But I would suggest we all have the time and ability to put these Holy Week stories of ultimate giving and sharing into the pattern of our week. God as Holy Week is a story into which we are invited to journey - not knowing just how each event will take place but knowing that as God's image unfolds in our lives, we will being serving others and some may not like that service offered - for free. I'm looking forward to tomorrow. We will have 20+ people helping to hand out over 12,000 pounds of produce and perishables. We have been given a gift that allows us to pass on the gift and also be a gift. Last year many folks found out that as we spent those hours handling all that food and meeting those who came through the lines - we had the opportunity to simply bath in grace incarnate. God as Holy Week is that grace that fills us up and spills over so that the world may see and touch God's hands through ours. O God of love and new life, fill us with the power of life that you brought into Jerusalem and continue to bring into each day we enter. We long for that life and spirit. Amen. |
 | | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions |
| | | | | This week: God as Holy Week. If you have any comments - adebelak@redeemerluth.com . God as Holy Week makes the peaceable Reign of God visible even if it looks different from the powers that appear to control the world. This visibility is not appreciated by the powers of the world because it unveils a life that uses all the religious language that is so beloved and it gives that language a look and a feel and a living presence that does not go along with how the religious powers of the day want that language to be taken. God as Holy Week will speak of Temple as life - life that is holy - life that cannot be destroyed like Temples of stone and precious metals. God as Holy Week lets the precious nature of God's Reign shine even when that shine gets in the eyes of those who think they are the powerful folk who rule all things. When that happens, people sit up and take notice - people ask for clarification - people question in order to trip up the life God brings into Holy Week. God as Holy Week is a painful truthfulness. It is painful whenever we try to hold onto the lies that the powers of death have been selling us forever. And yet, as we let go of those lies we are given new insights and a new power that is shaped by a love that lets no one go. The power of death simply wants to take that love and make a fool of it by hanging it out to dry. That's why God as Holy Week is always throwing water over feet and over our dried out lives - to life! O God of love and new life, make us a part of the blessed character of your Reign of forgiveness and love. Amen. |
 | | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions |
| | | | | This week: God as Holy Week. If you have any comments - adebelak@redeemerluth.com . God as Holy Week is the power of God alive and up-front on display so that no one will walk by and not have to deal with God's presence. It is Jesus right in the middle of the so-called "holy" places that have fallen away from the holiness of God's living presence that brings life and freedom and hopefulness and nonviolence. God as Holy Week is that strange life - given for the welfare of others. This is a life that often makes religious people - look away. It is foot-washing - bending down to make others feels welcome and at home - facing the powers of the day without matching their violence - speaking truth when lies have been the operating system that keeps things just as they always have been. God as Holy Week looks death in the face and smiles with the hope that even the power of death will sit down and endure the wonder of foot-washing and the bending/bowing of listening and assisting and loving. God as Holy Week longs to have the power of death give up the grasp on life it thinks it must have in order to stay alive. God as Holy Week longs for the power of death to join up walk hand-in-hand with the power of life - non-violence - love - mercy - and hopefulness - that is God's peaceable Reign. And yet, as is so often the case with the power of death in every age and every week - it will not take the time to wonder and envision such utter joy. O God of love and new life, when your Spirit comes upon us draw us into a love that will not let go of those we fear and those who hate us and those who we often let turn us into ones who hate them. In that love, we will move into peace. Amen. |
 | | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions |
| | | | | This week: God as moving toward life. If you have any comments - adebelak@redeemerluth.com . God as moving toward life will be the whole story of next week - Holy Week. God-in-the-flesh takes the fullness of life right into the center of the places of power that often take life from people. God as moving toward life meets face to face with the powers that do not want eternal life to blossom and grow. Therefore, we come away with the conflicts in Jerusalem - we find death afraid of the kind of life that will settle into the places that death so eagerly tries to own and dominate. God as moving toward life will be a witness without hesitation - a witness in our skin - a witness that shows that everything death has tried to control becomes a cosmic joke. And yet, this movement toward life is one that does not ignore or hide from the utter darkness of the power of death that is after all of us. God as moving toward life hangs out on the cross - the symbol of death and death's domain and character - until death has its last say only to be met by life again. O God of love and new life, walk with us through all that death will throw in our path so that we, with all the beloved of God, will never shy away from life eternal. Amen. |
 | | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions |
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