This week: God as subverting violence. If you have any comments - adebelak@redeemerluth.com. God as subverting violence has no voice in the midst of the powerful of the world. God as subverting violence is active nonviolence. Nonviolence is a power that draws ridicule from the 'respectable' powers of the world because nonviolence is not out to defeat the other or humiliate the other or turn the other into a scapegoat. God as subverting violence chants an eternal "no" each and every time the powers of the world make victims out of others. This victimization can be on the battlefield - the football field - the classroom - the factory floor - the law practice - in our homes. Violence finds ways to make some people into victims and to cast blame that leads to more and more violence. God as subverting violence takes on the place of the victim and does not let that voice go unheard. Therefore, violence is always being exposed - even when it is the death of us. O God of love and new life, be our courage in the face of all the many faces of violence that attempt to win our hearts. Amen. |
 | | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions |
| | | | | This week: God as subverting violence. If you have any comments - adebelak@redeemerluth.com. I don't think any of us like violence. The images of the people suffering through the gas attacks in Syria are frightening and disgusting. The many ways we treat the earth violently in order to make a life we can have on our own terms is also frightening and disgusting. God as subverting violence keeps reminding us that it is God's will that we heal and make well and be caretakers of the life of the world. That is often called shalom. God as subverting violence will always lead us toward the healing peace that heals relationships of all kinds. God as subverting violence resist violence - stand in its way - lay down in front of it - demand that it leave and leave now! Therefore, God as subverting violence is not a lecture. It is a life that works in a way that is quite contradictory to the violence that runs the world and attempts to run each of our lives - and usually does. When the peace of this God as subverting violence rules, it may seem awkward - odd - strange. We have become too familiar with the violence God continues to subvert. O God of love and new life, let your shalom rule and lead us. Amen. |
 | | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions |
| | | | | This week: God as subverting violence. If you have any comments - adebelak@redeemerluth.com. The world builds itself up with some sort of violence. That violence - in one shape or another - keeps the world just as it is an just as those who have the power to rule are able to keep it for themselves. The result, there are those who are considered disposable. Whenever a person is considered disposable for the sake of people and systems that consider themselves worthy of being able to judge between what is good/bad or what is clean/unclean or any of those lines that are so easily drawn between us, violence erupts. God as subverting violence does not go along with the nametags the powers of this world like folks to wear. God as subverting violence invites everyone to the table - all folks - no numbers on the table. God as subverting violence is part of the endless task of dismantling all that the power of death likes to put in place. Bit by bit - moment to moment, God as subverting violence invites us to sit at the lunch counter in the deep south - cross economic lines to create friendships - love the people we are being told we cannot love. Unfortunately for the powers of violence and death, they will not accept that this God of ours invites us to love the makers of violence and violent systems so that new life will come to all - without coercion. O God of love and new life, keep us coming to the table of all hopefulness within your Reign. Amen. |
 | | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions |
| | | | | This week: God as subverting violence. If you have any comments - adebelak@redeemerluth.com. Violence will try to win the day. Unfortunately, it often does. In some shape, violence does the job of controlling how the world spins and how our lives so often go along with that spinning. God as subverting violence stands in the way of that spinning and becomes the power of life available in the shape of the victim. God as subverting violence is when the image of God becomes the crushed one who does not go along with the violence or the mob or the pressure to keep things just as they are. In this way, we are not denied the result of violence that take place simply to have its way for the victim of a violent system is one who has been violated by the powers of violence. God as subverting violence stands up with the victims and resists any attempt for the powers of the day to blame or diminish or destroy those people who have been cast in a manner less than those in power. God as subverting violence interrupts the 'party' of violence the world likes to whip up and for that, this God and all who follow will face consequences. Yes, death - but more importantly and more frustrating to the powers of death - a fullness of life that death cannot bring about ever. O God of love and new life, make us instruments of your acts of subversion and new life - instruments of peace, forgiveness, mercy, and justice. Amen. |
 | | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions |
| | | | | This week: God as 'coming through the door'. If you have any comments - adebelak@redeemerluth.com. I always like to remind folks that before we do things that are associated with being a holy people beloved by God - we are already involved in being the beloved of God. Therefore, the green light is on. No need to label something as being 'religious' or 'church-like'. God as 'coming through the door' is opening the door to our hearts so that in all that we become - we will become the ones God already knows we are - beloved. God as 'coming through the door' is the God who was with Jesus on the cross through the whole mess. With each movement - each actions by the powers of death that continued to think they had the day in their back pocket - God was coming through the door reminding Jesus of the never-ending presence of the whole Reigning power of God present and available within Jesus' vulnerability. God as 'coming through the door' is always a grand welcome into that which is to be - the fullness of God. O God of love and new life, let that fullness of your Reign pour down upon us and be the encouragement for life within this day. Amen. |
 | | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions |
| | | | | This week: God as 'coming through the door'. If you have any comments - adebelak@redeemerluth.com. God as 'coming through the door' doesn't wait for an invitation. This is the God who embraces us before we ask for a hug. This is the God who runs out to the long lost child and is in the middle of throwing a welcome home party even before the child has had the chance to set up some kind of reason for coming home. God as 'coming through the door' is setting up our future that God already rules. You could say therefore, that the room in which we find ourselves is already a part of God's rule - God's domain - God's home that has many rooms. God as 'coming through the door' is the first one to greet us in life and the first to hold us in death. There is movement before we move - there is promise before we promise to be this or that. God as 'coming through the door' lets the wind of the day blow into our lives and carry us into a life we may not have considered - a life of love and hope and mercy and joy. O God of love and new life, thank you for whatever will come into this day. You hold the future in your hands and always invite us to join you there. Thanks be to God. Amen. |
 | | | | Adventures... in Hope - Redeemer Devotions |
| | | | | This week: God as 'coming through the door'. If you have any comments - adebelak@redeemerluth.com. Before you opened this devotion God as 'coming through the door' was - yes, in the room - already with you - not asking if it was time for a visit or if you were ready. Before that breath that you take in before you even realize that you are breathing in a part of the new day - the door is open and the room is full of the presence of our God who will take us along the way. Before we get all washed up - fed - dressed and ready to go, God as 'coming through the door' has invited us into the life God brings in through the door and set before us. This is not some kind of puppet God. This is God whose Reign is already in place and we are invited through the door God has already opened and is ready to walk through that door and face the world around us as though that is just what we - the beloved of this God - will do. I need such a proactive - come-along-with-me - God who is filling the room with hopefulness even before I think about it. O God of love and new life, welcome into the day that you have made and the life you have ready for us. Amen. |
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