Text: Galatians 5:16-21
Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is opposed to the the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolotry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before, those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
In the previous passage from Galatians, Paul told his friends not to use this "freedom" as an opportunity for self-indulgence. If you look at the laundry list of the works of the flesh, rather than try to put people you know into each category, look at them as examples of self-indulgence. Lives that exhibit a character in which "I" or "my own kind" will be the very center of all things. I tend to think that one of the other character traits of such a world will be the simple fact that if I am for me...and you are for you...we will usually find ourselves at war over this or that. Even if I am talking about simply gratifying my own desires (put the name of a desire in this space _____), I lose track of my ties to you. Instead of being a part of loving relationships, I readily turn to that which places me at the center of my existence. Trusting in me alone...trusting in my powers and abilities and resources for the sake of what they will be able to bring to me. I see no better way to create a broken world! When there are laundry lists like this it is better to look at the vision of the list rather than trying to pin point a "fleshy act" and then avoid that "act." How quickly such a list makes us yearn for the Law...for with the law, we will be able to define what is right and demand that people live "right lives" and not these fleshy lives. Unfortunately, under the law, we will continue to try to look the part and even point out the fault of others that may be greater than our own.
Connection: An exercise of the day is to simply see how often the rhetoric around us is laced with the self-centeredness that thrives on words of divisiveness and separation...ie sin. What does it take to build another character for the day? Paul would say the Spirit.
Lord God of each new breath of life, within a moment's time we can find ourselves wandering around the brokenness of our own making. We need your Spirit to breathe into us the vision of your gracious reign and the lives that dance within that Reign. Amen.
Thursday, March 30, 2006
30 March, 2006
Text: Galatians 5:16-21
Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is opposed to the the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolotry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before, those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Very quickly, when there is a list of stuff like that which is in this text, we can easily jump in to discuss the kinds of things in life that are not a part of the life we have been invited to share as children of God in Christ, Jesus. In fact, we Christians, are often ones known in the world as people who have a preoccupation with the things we should not be doing in our lives. We have become a witness to the world of life that is "this or that" ... "black or white" ... "good or bad." Then, the word we tend to offer to the world is stay away from "that" and then you will be able to get "this." But we must see with new eyes. For Paul, living by the Spirit is a life that we cannot possibly live on our own means. It is a gift. It is the love that loves us as God loves the world and no love can separate us from that love. It is a complete break from what we do so naturally...so much like the flesh. When we speak of the flesh, there is so much baggage that comes with that word that it is as though we cannot see passed it! Most often we think of sex or overdoing eating or drinking or dabbling with "stuff" - whatever "stuff" that may be. Instead, what if we spend our time "considering" the life of the Spirit? Our lead within the Spirit is Christ's love for the world - unbroken and never ending. Rather than starting off by asking what we can stop doing, how about asking how may I love and how may my loving reflect the Jesus of the scripture. Obviously, we may simply say "forget that" and move onto some acts of anger, jealousy and the rest, but then again, this Spirit may just blow into our lives the love that we hear "will not let us go" and then...and then...and then...
Connection: I obviously am on the side of the works or the life that Paul says is ruled by the flesh - or at least plays on that side of the street! Then again, we have a Spirit that will not let us stay there. In this day, we can pray, like the simple table grace: "Come Lord Jesus, be our guest..." Be our guest...be our way...be our day...be our loving - for we certainly find other ways to be! And maybe, just maybe, our day will be filled with a bit of newness - a taste of the feast to come.
Come, Lord, Jesus, be our guest and let this day be blessed with your presence and alive by the power of the Holy Spirit. Help us to see how you stand with us and continue to call us into your loving domain even as we pull away to live for ourselves. Be our foundation and our guide. Amen.
Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is opposed to the the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolotry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before, those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Very quickly, when there is a list of stuff like that which is in this text, we can easily jump in to discuss the kinds of things in life that are not a part of the life we have been invited to share as children of God in Christ, Jesus. In fact, we Christians, are often ones known in the world as people who have a preoccupation with the things we should not be doing in our lives. We have become a witness to the world of life that is "this or that" ... "black or white" ... "good or bad." Then, the word we tend to offer to the world is stay away from "that" and then you will be able to get "this." But we must see with new eyes. For Paul, living by the Spirit is a life that we cannot possibly live on our own means. It is a gift. It is the love that loves us as God loves the world and no love can separate us from that love. It is a complete break from what we do so naturally...so much like the flesh. When we speak of the flesh, there is so much baggage that comes with that word that it is as though we cannot see passed it! Most often we think of sex or overdoing eating or drinking or dabbling with "stuff" - whatever "stuff" that may be. Instead, what if we spend our time "considering" the life of the Spirit? Our lead within the Spirit is Christ's love for the world - unbroken and never ending. Rather than starting off by asking what we can stop doing, how about asking how may I love and how may my loving reflect the Jesus of the scripture. Obviously, we may simply say "forget that" and move onto some acts of anger, jealousy and the rest, but then again, this Spirit may just blow into our lives the love that we hear "will not let us go" and then...and then...and then...
Connection: I obviously am on the side of the works or the life that Paul says is ruled by the flesh - or at least plays on that side of the street! Then again, we have a Spirit that will not let us stay there. In this day, we can pray, like the simple table grace: "Come Lord Jesus, be our guest..." Be our guest...be our way...be our day...be our loving - for we certainly find other ways to be! And maybe, just maybe, our day will be filled with a bit of newness - a taste of the feast to come.
Come, Lord, Jesus, be our guest and let this day be blessed with your presence and alive by the power of the Holy Spirit. Help us to see how you stand with us and continue to call us into your loving domain even as we pull away to live for ourselves. Be our foundation and our guide. Amen.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
29 March, 2006
Text: Galatians 5:16-21 ( for a while)
LIve by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiouseness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and thing like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before; those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
I read this section again and after I read it and said...what?!? I read it again and Yes! I buy it. In fact, I'm going to leave this for next week. During next week, I plan on dealing with this little text. Most of all, I want to share with you how much I agree with the ending portion "those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." Yes, it may take me a few days to deal with it all but I found it very important for how we view being followers of Jesus in the Reign of God ( or kingdom of God as it is noted here).
Connection: The Reign of God...the Kingdom of God. What is it that we will not inherit about it? Suggestion - the life. The life is not something for later...it is for now. Look back over yesterday's reading and the comment from Paul about self-indulgence vs. love of neighbor. What we do here in the next days...will be for the life of the community - now.
Most precious God, what you are able to do with your people is a miracle. Your willingness to rescue us from the many ways we run off and jump into the piles of our own making and yet you never stop picking us up and abiding with us - all of us. In the moments when we know we are the most pitiful creatures - you embrace us and bring us home and remind us (without end) that we are your dearly beloved. Amen.
I read this section again and after I read it and said...what?!? I read it again and Yes! I buy it. In fact, I'm going to leave this for next week. During next week, I plan on dealing with this little text. Most of all, I want to share with you how much I agree with the ending portion "those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." Yes, it may take me a few days to deal with it all but I found it very important for how we view being followers of Jesus in the Reign of God ( or kingdom of God as it is noted here).
Connection: The Reign of God...the Kingdom of God. What is it that we will not inherit about it? Suggestion - the life. The life is not something for later...it is for now. Look back over yesterday's reading and the comment from Paul about self-indulgence vs. love of neighbor. What we do here in the next days...will be for the life of the community - now.
Most precious God, what you are able to do with your people is a miracle. Your willingness to rescue us from the many ways we run off and jump into the piles of our own making and yet you never stop picking us up and abiding with us - all of us. In the moments when we know we are the most pitiful creatures - you embrace us and bring us home and remind us (without end) that we are your dearly beloved. Amen.
Monday, March 27, 2006
28 March, 2006
Text: Galatians 5:13-15
For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment. "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.
Many who hear of the freedom that comes with the Good News immediately think that there needs to be some guidelines, rules, regulations or else....
It is understandable to think that freedom must be controlled or else...who knows what might happen. This is precisely why Paul raises the note about using this freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence." The freedom we have in Christ is freedom won for us through Christ's self-giving love of the whole world. In fact, the law as we understand it as law given to the people of Israel is also a love that nurtures self-giving and care and love of others. The freedom in which we live as followers of Jesus is a reflection of a life beloved and cherished by God. There is no need within our freedom to be self-indulgent or self-focused or self-concerned...as though we are free to cut ourselves off from others or free to live as we choose no matter what consequences that produces for myself or the world around me.
We are free - to love - to be loved - to step into a life that is no longer an opportunity to "make it for myself" but one in which all relationships will be shaped by the command to love. Paul is attempting to teach of a communal love that seeks reconciliation (he deals with that quite a bit in Corinthians) and serves...and in the middle of all that, there is Christ in the midst of us.
Connection: It is easy to be self-indulgent! That doesn't mean we should not do things for ourselves. But when our self-indulgence removes us from others and sharing our lives with others...our world...our vision...shrink and often we can quickly be ruled by fears. Fear that we may lose what we have. Instead, it is good to practice giving life away...sharing goods...sharing love....sharing thoughts...sharing wealth....sharing time. The list can go on. Imagine a "love command community." You may be giving to others and yet, others are giving to you. A circle of love in which individuals are loved and honored...and so it the whole group.
Living Lord it is your love for us that inspires our loving and our relationships with all your saints. Give us eyes to see the loving ways that call us into life so that our days of fear and biting may be transformed into days of peace and mercy and love. Amen.
For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment. "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.
Many who hear of the freedom that comes with the Good News immediately think that there needs to be some guidelines, rules, regulations or else....
It is understandable to think that freedom must be controlled or else...who knows what might happen. This is precisely why Paul raises the note about using this freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence." The freedom we have in Christ is freedom won for us through Christ's self-giving love of the whole world. In fact, the law as we understand it as law given to the people of Israel is also a love that nurtures self-giving and care and love of others. The freedom in which we live as followers of Jesus is a reflection of a life beloved and cherished by God. There is no need within our freedom to be self-indulgent or self-focused or self-concerned...as though we are free to cut ourselves off from others or free to live as we choose no matter what consequences that produces for myself or the world around me.
We are free - to love - to be loved - to step into a life that is no longer an opportunity to "make it for myself" but one in which all relationships will be shaped by the command to love. Paul is attempting to teach of a communal love that seeks reconciliation (he deals with that quite a bit in Corinthians) and serves...and in the middle of all that, there is Christ in the midst of us.
Connection: It is easy to be self-indulgent! That doesn't mean we should not do things for ourselves. But when our self-indulgence removes us from others and sharing our lives with others...our world...our vision...shrink and often we can quickly be ruled by fears. Fear that we may lose what we have. Instead, it is good to practice giving life away...sharing goods...sharing love....sharing thoughts...sharing wealth....sharing time. The list can go on. Imagine a "love command community." You may be giving to others and yet, others are giving to you. A circle of love in which individuals are loved and honored...and so it the whole group.
Living Lord it is your love for us that inspires our loving and our relationships with all your saints. Give us eyes to see the loving ways that call us into life so that our days of fear and biting may be transformed into days of peace and mercy and love. Amen.
Sunday, March 26, 2006
27 March, 2006
While Pastor Al is away this week to be with his mother who is ill, we will be re-posting selected devotions for 2000.
Text: Galatians 5: 7-12
You were running well; who prevented you from obeying the truth? Such persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. A little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough. I am confident about you in the Lord that you will not think otherwise. But whoever it is that is confusing you will pay the penalty. But my friends, why am I still being persecuted if I am still preaching circumcision? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. I wish those who unsettled you would castrate themselves!
Ouch! Paul...is getting a bit emotional here. In some ways, it is quite comical. Paul is so certain about the unnecessary following of the law (he concretizes it in the form of the rite of circumcision) that he gets a bit graphic about what might just happen to those who are too preoccupied with circumcision. Oops...sorry!
Paul is more concerned about sharing with people the free gift given in Christ to all who trust God's love in Jesus. For Paul, that trust is in itself a gift from God - therefore it is a free gift...for freedom of life. Paul realizes that if he would have kept this one Jewish rite within his teaching, no one would be persecuting him. But he will not and he does not...for to add anything to the free word of God's love in Jesus would mean he would be speaking some other good news which is no good news at all (see chapter 1). I am very aware for myself that it takes only a tiny bit of reliance on the law to eventually cause me to disregard the truth of the Gospel and attempt to cling to something else. We are either people of the Good News of the Reign of God as seen in Jesus, or we are lost wandering around looking for something else we can claim to be that which will save us and make all things well. Ha.
Connection: We cannot rely on anything to make us God's people. It is a gift or it is not from the God of our Lord, Jesus. If a gift, we cannot claim it as something that is to be credited to us as though we did something to earn it. Instead, rather than playing with various ways to enter into the community of saints, we need only give thanks to our God for opening the door and bidding us to come to the table. Beware of the many little times within a day we can be hooked by something other than this radical grace that Paul is attempting to bring back into the minds and hearts of his friends in Galatia.
Carry us into this day O God of constant love and amazing grace. Let the game playing of the world around us not have the power to sway us into the games of life that do not give us the true life as only you can give. Remind us that you are the God who Adopts and welcomes and not the one who looks for reasons to cut us off. Amen.
Thursday, March 23, 2006
24 March 2006
Walter Brueggemann writes of two interpretive strategies of obedience to the command of God in "The Covenanted Self."
Believers are those who love God with their whole heart, or more colloquially for Christians, "love the Lord Jesus." Such "love" is to be understood in all its rich implications, both as agape and eros, as true heart's desire. This is imagery not often utilized in....Calvinist inheritance, beset as we are with a heavy sense of duty. But alongside duty, in any serious relationship are desire and delight, the energetic will to be with the one loved, to please the one loved, to find in the joy of the one loved one's own true joy. Thus one in love is constantly asking in the most exaggerated way, "What else can I do in order to delight the beloved." In such a context one does not count the cost, but anticipates that when the beloved is moved in joy, it will be one's own true joy as well.
Quite a beautiful way to look at a covenantal relationship. Such love we would say is visible to us on the cross. There, the intensity of God's love for us - God's loving covenant with us - is seen without concern for the cost. Therefore, we too are invited to come into this way of love and we look at the journey and contemplate the cost of discipleship...and we too can throw ourselves into a loving relationship with our God that will be a delight. This is like the loving relationship we enter in our own lives. Hearing this strong and beautiful language makes me think that it matters not who the people are who enter into such a covenant. The duty, the delight, and the desire creates a relationship that breaks the boundaries of gender. There need not be any anxiety or fear when another relationship does not look like mine. A covenant relationship of any kind needs to find within its life, these powerful aspects of a loving relationship that can only make the couple and the society and the church a better place to raise up new generations of God's people.
Connection: Find the delight in your covenant relationships...honor the desire...fulfill the duty. Then, let us talk about the beauty of a covenant with one another and with our God whose love is beyond all of our anticipations and expectations.
Lord of Love, by your love we begin to see the power of relationships that our self-giving and able to simply delight in the presence of the other. Keep us mindful of the responsibility within our relationships and the joy that grows as we enter more deeply into the love your have shown for us. Amen.
Believers are those who love God with their whole heart, or more colloquially for Christians, "love the Lord Jesus." Such "love" is to be understood in all its rich implications, both as agape and eros, as true heart's desire. This is imagery not often utilized in....Calvinist inheritance, beset as we are with a heavy sense of duty. But alongside duty, in any serious relationship are desire and delight, the energetic will to be with the one loved, to please the one loved, to find in the joy of the one loved one's own true joy. Thus one in love is constantly asking in the most exaggerated way, "What else can I do in order to delight the beloved." In such a context one does not count the cost, but anticipates that when the beloved is moved in joy, it will be one's own true joy as well.
Quite a beautiful way to look at a covenantal relationship. Such love we would say is visible to us on the cross. There, the intensity of God's love for us - God's loving covenant with us - is seen without concern for the cost. Therefore, we too are invited to come into this way of love and we look at the journey and contemplate the cost of discipleship...and we too can throw ourselves into a loving relationship with our God that will be a delight. This is like the loving relationship we enter in our own lives. Hearing this strong and beautiful language makes me think that it matters not who the people are who enter into such a covenant. The duty, the delight, and the desire creates a relationship that breaks the boundaries of gender. There need not be any anxiety or fear when another relationship does not look like mine. A covenant relationship of any kind needs to find within its life, these powerful aspects of a loving relationship that can only make the couple and the society and the church a better place to raise up new generations of God's people.
Connection: Find the delight in your covenant relationships...honor the desire...fulfill the duty. Then, let us talk about the beauty of a covenant with one another and with our God whose love is beyond all of our anticipations and expectations.
Lord of Love, by your love we begin to see the power of relationships that our self-giving and able to simply delight in the presence of the other. Keep us mindful of the responsibility within our relationships and the joy that grows as we enter more deeply into the love your have shown for us. Amen.
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
23 March 2006
Walter Brueggemann writes of two interpretive strategies of the command of God in "The Covenanted Self."
The first is that the commands of God are the disciplines essential to the revolution that is Yahwism. Every serious revolutionary movement requires exacting disciplines of its adherents... A revolution has no chance of success unless all of its adherents are singularly committed to the vision and the project and are willing to play their assigned role with unquestioning reliability and responsiveness.
The revolution to which the biblical community is summoned is to enact in the world of social affairs a new practice of social relationships marked by justice, mercy, and peace, which touches all of life. In order to engage in such a practice, all those committed to this revolutionary vision are expected to enact the daily requirements concerning self toward God and self toward neighbor in order to "advance the revolution."
In other words, if this is who we say we are, watch how our words become our actions. It takes discipline to have our lives reflect the vision of God's Reign. Discipline is not a bad word. And yet, discipline has room for humor and the reality of how well we fall short of goals. At the same time, the discipline gives us direction and guidance and encouragement. There would be no need for a discipline if it was not something that we could put into practice. No matter where we might be, there is always a more complete expression of God's Reign waiting for us to enter. On the other hand, it is important to remember that the Reign of God is constantly breaking into our lives and bidding us to walk within its domain. We do not make it come. It comes upon us and, as I like to say, it pulls us or will woo us into its life. I suppose it is good to call it a revolution because it really does bring us into life we would not receive as we follow along the ways of the powers of this world.
Connection: The revolution is already here. Today will simply be another day in which we are invited to enter its dynamic life. The part that takes discipline is that we may not want to go where it takes us or be who it is making us.
Come, Lord God, and make us into the living presence of your glorious Reign. Let justice and mercy and peace be the building blocks of our day as we greet your coming among us. Amen.
The first is that the commands of God are the disciplines essential to the revolution that is Yahwism. Every serious revolutionary movement requires exacting disciplines of its adherents... A revolution has no chance of success unless all of its adherents are singularly committed to the vision and the project and are willing to play their assigned role with unquestioning reliability and responsiveness.
The revolution to which the biblical community is summoned is to enact in the world of social affairs a new practice of social relationships marked by justice, mercy, and peace, which touches all of life. In order to engage in such a practice, all those committed to this revolutionary vision are expected to enact the daily requirements concerning self toward God and self toward neighbor in order to "advance the revolution."
In other words, if this is who we say we are, watch how our words become our actions. It takes discipline to have our lives reflect the vision of God's Reign. Discipline is not a bad word. And yet, discipline has room for humor and the reality of how well we fall short of goals. At the same time, the discipline gives us direction and guidance and encouragement. There would be no need for a discipline if it was not something that we could put into practice. No matter where we might be, there is always a more complete expression of God's Reign waiting for us to enter. On the other hand, it is important to remember that the Reign of God is constantly breaking into our lives and bidding us to walk within its domain. We do not make it come. It comes upon us and, as I like to say, it pulls us or will woo us into its life. I suppose it is good to call it a revolution because it really does bring us into life we would not receive as we follow along the ways of the powers of this world.
Connection: The revolution is already here. Today will simply be another day in which we are invited to enter its dynamic life. The part that takes discipline is that we may not want to go where it takes us or be who it is making us.
Come, Lord God, and make us into the living presence of your glorious Reign. Let justice and mercy and peace be the building blocks of our day as we greet your coming among us. Amen.
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