Friday, 17 September, 2004

This week's devotions are written by Redeemer member John Caron.



This series of devotions will reflect on the rich material contained in the Lutheran Book of Worship (LBW). Some of the texts will be familiar to those in the Lutheran tradition while others will be from infrequently used liturgies.



If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, God who is faithful and just will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Brief Order for

Confession and Forgiveness

LBW, p. 56

This is the prayer that many Lutherans pray during penitential seasons such as Advent and Lent. One phrase stands out for me in this prayer: "God who is faithful and just". By using the word faithful we are saying that God is constant and that God's covenant of grace is with us always in baptism. By using the word just we are saying that God acts with equity and fairness to all people. …But if that were the case, how can God forgive us? For that matter, how can God forgive those who commit atrocities far worse (by our reckoning) than any act we could conceivably commit? Can we truly say that this reflects "justice"?



Connection: We are comfortable with God being faithful, but can we say the same thing about God being just? How would we feel about a judge who acquits a shoplifter, then the next day, an armed robber, and the next day, a mass murderer? We need to either deny that God is just (which then reverts us to the position of saying we have no sin, thus deceiving ourselves) or we need to accept that God is just, which forces us to reconstruct the entire concept of justice. How would this change the world? How would this change ourselves?



Prayer: Help us to sit before you and learn what justice means. Help us to live out your justice in a world where worth is measured by what we do rather than by who we are as children of God.

Thursday, 16 September, 2004

This week's devotions are written by Redeemer member John Caron.



This series of devotions will reflect on the rich material contained in the Lutheran Book of Worship (LBW). Some of the texts will be familiar to those in the Lutheran tradition while others will be from infrequently used liturgies.



[Name], child of God, you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever.

Holy Baptism

LBW, p. 124

In the fiction series Left Behind, readers are exposed to a theology where God's patience and grace runs out, where the "rapture" takes place, and where all the "good" people are safely sequestered while the rest of humanity quite literally goes to hell. The popularity of this theology is no doubt due in part to the fact that it mirrors so closely the values and economics of our society and the world at large. Salvation is portrayed as a function of good deeds vs. bad deeds and being saved vs. being a sinner. The message of the Gospel, proclaimed through baptism, is that we will never be "left behind" - that we are, in fact, marked with the cross of Christ forever. The theology of quid pro quo is replaced with a theology of mercy and love. A god who kills his people is replaced by a God who dies … for humankind. This God - our God - never leaves us behind.



Connection: Let go of what we think we deserve or what we think others deserve. God certainly has. When we baptize an infant we make the bold statement: "Whoever you will become, however your life unfolds, know that you are sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever."



Prayer: We thank you, O Lord, for your faithfulness and love. It is in your nature to always be present with us and to be our nurturing Parent. May your love shape us to be reflections of that love to a world ruled by the fear of being left behind. Amen.

Wednesday, 15 September, 1004

This week's devotions are written by Redeemer member John Caron.



This series of devotions will reflect on the rich material contained in the Lutheran Book of Worship (LBW). Some of the texts will be familiar to those in the Lutheran tradition while others will be from infrequently used liturgies.



Blessed are you, O Lord our God, maker of all things. Through your goodness you have blessed us with these gifts. With them we offer ourselves to your service and dedicate our lives to the care and redemption of all that you have made, for the sake of him who gave himself for us, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Holy Communion

LBW, p. 88

There is a wonderful parallelism in this prayer when seen in the context of the Eucharistic liturgy. In this petition, we give our gifts and even our lives to the care of all creation. Then at the conclusion of this prayer, we move to the Great Thanksgiving where we remember the great act of redemption Christ initiated for the entire world. In one graceful movement, we proclaim that our lives are a reflection of Christ's ministry to humankind and to the entire creation.



Connection: It is more than the money! It is even more than "Time and Talent"! Our offering is no less than our whole lives dedicated to proclaiming God's loving reign. In a world that fears weapons of mass destruction, we bring the witness of mass redemption. May it never be said that this witness cannot be found!



Prayer: Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Amen.

Tuesday, 14 September, 2004

This week’s devotions are written by Redeemer member John Caron.



This series of devotions will reflect on the rich material contained in the Lutheran Book of Worship (LBW). Some of the texts will be familiar to those in the Lutheran tradition while others will be from infrequently used liturgies.



Lord God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Evening Prayer

LBW, p. 153

This has always been one of my most favorite prayers in the Lutheran Book of Worship – at least it is when things are going well. When I am in those “ventures of which I cannot see the ending,” I am less enamored with this piece of our liturgy! One gem in this prayer is that it does not ask God for courage but for faith. Courage is faith’s byproduct. Faith is the gift that God gives us to live out the Christian life day by day. We cannot generate faith through mental gymnastics, orthodox theology, or even a “purpose-driven life.” Faith comes to us because it is God’s nature to give faith freely and without any condition or preparation on our part. It is human nature that when we feel vulnerable we often attempt to gain control over our lives so that we can move ourselves past whatever troubles us. With the glut of self-help books out there, it is important to remember that when it comes to faith, self-help is the last thing we need!



Connection: I suspect that this prayer was included in the Evening Prayer liturgy for good reason. We often feel the terrors and fragility of life most acutely during the dark of night. In those times, keep saying “Faith is a gift. Faith is a gift. Faith is a gift!”



Prayer: God, you and only you can give us faith. Remind us that we can never manufacture faith; we can only accept it as your greatest gift of all!

Monday - 13 September, 2004

This week’s devotions are written by Redeemer member John Caron.



This series of devotions will reflect on the rich material contained in the Lutheran Book of Worship (LBW). Some of the texts will be familiar to those in the Lutheran tradition, while others will be from infrequently used liturgies.



Gracious Father, we pray for your holy catholic Church. Fill it with all truth and peace. Where it is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in anything it is amiss, reform it; where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in need, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake of Jesus Christ, your Son our Savior.

Prayer titled “The Church”

LBW, p45

Every time I hear this prayer, my mind tends to go to thoughts of the institutional church, its bishops, governing bodies, and councils. While I think this is certainly a valid application of this prayer, the primary definition of “Church” for Lutherans is “the gathered people of God” – not institutions or officials but the baptized in this and every age. With this in mind, the prayer becomes one of growth and renewal for ourselves and not so much of an abstract and detached organization. The prayer becomes immediate, specific, and challenging in that it asks us all to examine every aspect of our lives and to participate in a process of continual renewal and growth.



Connection: We are both a work in progress AND the end product. While we dare to acknowledge our failures and limitations, we do so as “the holy catholic Church.” Our membership in God’s family is a gift that can never be taken away from this. We therefore have the freedom to look unflinchingly at our shortcomings and rather than covering up or trying to justify ourselves to God, we can ask our loving parent to work with us to be more than who we are today.



Prayer: Loving Parent of us all, you will always be with us and for us. We acknowledge all those areas in which we fail to be loving and faithful. Work with us to be the reflection of your grace in our broken and divided world. Amen.

This week;s devotions are written by Vicar Steve Bond.



Alas, the final installment from Hauerwas’ “Only Theology Overcomes Ethics”…



“It is the gospel that is the agent of the specifi history of God’s people and so enables and shapes…meanings.” It is the Eucharist above all that shapes the habitus of the church’s speech.



If you want to get to know someone, pay attention to how he or she responds when you say, “Tell me your story.” The kinds of events and relationships that people name as having significance in their lives say a great deal about who they are themselves. It is the same with the church—at our center, is not a list of rules, a magic formula for success, or a mystical feeling, but the death and resurrection of Jesus. The story we tell centers around the living remembrance and real presence of Jesus in the bread and the cup—for us. The story of the church is the story of Jesus, who has claimed us and called us to be a cruciform—cross-shaped—people.



Connection: At its heart, ours is a story of a God who is gracious beyond our deserving and good beyond our imagining. It is our firm hope that at the last, the “old old story,” which is also a vision of our future, will be made real. In this day, God is already at work showing us surprises of mercy and offering us the presence of the living Jesus in ways we can only imagine.



Father, let your mercy shape us and let your grace have its way with us. Open our ears to the good news you will speak to us today, and open our mouths and hands to speak and live that news to all.



1 Corinthians 11:23-26—“For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way, he took the cup also, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

Thursday - 9 September, 2004

More from Hauerwas’ “Only Theology Overcomes Ethics”…



Christian ethics and politics are not areas to be developed after we have done theology but are constitutive of Christian speech whose form is first and foremost prayer.



Earlier, we said that theology means working out what it means that God matters. All of us as people claimed by God are called to work that out not only in words but in the whole of our lives. That call is a gift of grace in that God offers us wholeness and integrity of life. Ultimately, the questions, “What should we say about God?” and “How should I live?” are specific ways of asking, “How can God’s gracious reign come to fullness in all of who I am?”



Connection: The busy-ness of daily life often feels like it is fragmented and disorienting. Part of the promise of grace is that God’s shalom—God’s peace and wholeness—is offered to us to put our fragile pieces back together. In this day, where will the wholeness God gives be at work in your life?



Lord, we claim your promise that you will restore us in our entirety. Take the shards of who we are and fashion them into one whole, so that we can be vessels filled with your mercy and love for the world and each other.



Romans 6:4—“Therefore we have been buried with [Christ] by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”