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"Running in Faith" is an electronic devotional guide written by members of Abiding Presence Lutheran Church. Each week, writers use their personal interpretation of scripture to write an inspirational message they hope will help readers take their Sunday faith into weekday lives. Your comments are appreciated and, when related to a particular devotion, passed to the writer. We hope you will share these devotions with friends and coworkers. We are always happy to add new names to our e-mail list. Please contact us if you wish your name to be added. |
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Devotion for the week of June 2, 2003
What is it about your holy name, my Lord that so begs to be despoiled by the most unholy evil our minds can create? As for me, allow me the strength and wisdom to never soil that lovely name with the idea that its beauty can obscure or justify such sin. Not as long as poppies grow, and grow, in those bloody fetid fields. Amen A Reporter's Last Dispatch. The first is that I simply hate these people. And secondly, I do so distrust ... and maybe even detest their religion. I hate them mostly because of their effrontery when it comes to disrespecting our cherished beliefs, and for their vile disregard for the most basic respect of human life; both of which led them to attack US. After all, don't forget that's why we're here today. Without provocation, people from their countries attacked us on our own soil and killed thousands of our innocent people. All in the name of twisted ideas, founded on distorted religious beliefs, that are a perversion of everything we know is moral. So, for all intents and purposes, we're here to defend our homeland; and God is on our side. But also, and maybe more than I hate them, I distrust this thing they flaunt as a religion; this caricature of the beliefs and ideas of their founder. I have read their holy book; I know this to be true. Just look at what they do in their own countries in the name of religion. -- Their religious leaders vie for political position and often wealth, at the expense of their moral imperatives. -- Their secular leaders like to cloak themselves in a mantle of faith, yet more often than not they live lives steeped in debauchery and sin. -- In the name of religion (but in vile desecration of their stated beliefs) they cut off the heads, torture, or even burn alive those who disagree with or oppose them. This, even if their victims views are morally right, and even if they are true believers in their own faith. The fact is, that in just over the one thousand years their religion has been on this earth, they have managed to bastardize the words and teachings of their founder and, in the process, have turned their religion and its potential good, into a joke. Well, we too belong to a young religion. And we too have made mistakes. But I would like to believe that despite our own youth we have managed to take the words that form our faith and build with them, as with golden bricks, a temple to a set of guiding principles and beliefs that rival those of any other faith. I imagine this will not be the last time we will have to fight these immoral people, these despoilers of truth, these true infidels. But that does not matter. As God was on our side this time, he will be on our side always. Nonetheless, I cannot help but feel that we face also another danger, possibly an even worse danger; one that the very youth of our own faith could make us heir to. For having seen all that I have since coming here, and having experienced so much of war's perversion of basic goodness in all that time, I cannot help but feel indeed that ... if we're not careful, if in fact we do not learn from the mistakes of these faithless people, then in less than a thousand years time, we may wind up becoming no better than them. But then, only three days ago, as I looked for the first time on Jerusalem, and saw beyond that holy city the army of the infidel Richard scattering towards the sea, there to slither with his Great Crusade back to the open sewer that is Europe, I could not help but feel that such a time could never come. That no matter what, Allah would always be on our side; that the words of the Prophet are immutable; and that we will always be better than them. Reporting from near the walls of Jerusalem, this is Omar Ibn Massoud Al Akbar, embedded with the army of Saladin the Great, with whom Allah is greatly pleased, Sultan of Egypt, Father of the Ayyubids, Defender of the Faith and Champion of Islam.
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Devotion for the week of June 9, 2003
The rush of a violent wind! Tongues of fire! WOW! If any of the disciples or others who were there that day needed any more convincing that Jesus was the Messiah, this display of pyrotechnics should certainly have been done it! Not since Moses parted the Red Sea had there been such a show of the power of God. The disciples all began to speak, and "each one heard them speaking in the native language of each". This is the antithesis of the famous Tower of Babel narrative, when all the people began to speak in different languages and no one understood anyone else. Divided into nations in antiquity, now all humanity is one. This reading from Acts, combined with the Ezekiel reading of very dry bones returning to life and Psalm 104, which includes the lines about the Leviathan, the mythical sea monster and the marvelous works of God, make for a very exciting set of Lessons and Gospel for this Festival. Pentecost is the account of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples. After Jesus' death, resurrection, and ascension, his disciples met in Jerusalem to celebrate the Jewish feast of Shabuoth. Pentecost was originally an Old Testament festival since the time of Josephus, calculated as beginning on the fiftieth day after the beginning of Passover. It was called the Feast of Weeks, and in the Old Testament was originally an agricultural festival celebrating and giving thanks for the "first fruits" of the early spring harvest (Leviticus 23, Exodus 23, 34). On the Christian calendar, Pentecost falls on the seventh Sunday after Easter. As a Christian feast it dates back to the First Century of the church, although there is no evidence that it was observed as a Festival day. For Christians, Pentecost Sunday is a day to celebrate hope, evoked by the knowledge that God through the Holy Spirit is at work among God's people. It is a celebration of our calling as God's people to mission, speaking, and proclaiming the good news to people everywhere in languages they can understand. The list of countries and cities in verses 9 and 10 includes Jews from the whole of the then-known world; the mission to the Gentiles began later. The sanctuary color for Pentecost is red, the color of the church. The red symbolizes both the fire of Pentecost as well as the apostles and early followers of Jesus who were gathered in the Upper Room for the empowerment from God to proclaim the Gospel throughout the world. In Italy, it was customary to scatter rose petals from the ceiling of the churches to recall the fiery tongues, and in France the custom was to blow trumpets during Divine Service to recall the mighty wind which accompanied the descent of the Holy Spirit! The Feast of the Pentecost is a special time for baptisms and confirmations, when the candidates wear white robes (Hence the alternate name, "Whitsunday"). Forty-nine years ago on Pentecost Sunday (on June 6, the date I am writing this piece), I was confirmed. After much study and soul searching, I became an "adult" member of the Lutheran Church, renewing the vows made for me when I was baptized as an infant. It would really be incredible if each of us could have a startling and astounding experience such as on that Pentecost. All this "sonde et luminere" and yet, the Holy Spirit is most often portrayed as a dove: a simple, lowly white bird, with a soft, cooing voice. The voice of God does not often come in fire and thunder and rushing winds, but in a still, small voice, reminding us, "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the ends of the earth."
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Devotion for the week of June 16, 2003
AMEN! Sunday, June 15 was Father's Day in our society. A day when we honor and celebrate those men in our lives who parent us with love. The one you honor may not actually be your father, but someone who has loved you and taught you and served as a parent through celebrations and joys. Or perhaps Father's Day is a day of sadness for you because your father has died or isn't a part of your life or worse yet, violated the word father by unspeakable actions toward children. Or maybe your sadness is because you are not able to be a father. If that is the case, talking about fathers and setting aside a day to honor fathers is rather painful. Often we talk about God as father. God as loving parent who cares for all his children with tenderness and devotion, leading and guiding in ways that are life-giving. Father is the way Jesus taught us to address God in prayer. There has been much discussion over the years as to whether this way of talking about God is helpful in understanding God or whether, for some, the image conjures up images that only produce fear, hurt or sadness. Your use of the image of God as father will probably depend on your experiences with fathers (your own or others). One woman who is an abuse survivor tries to recapture the image of a father God in her prayer called "Daddies". Her name is Catherine J. Foote and her book is called Survivor Prayers: Talking with God about Childhood Sexual Abuse. Her prayer calls on God to be the father, daddy, that she didn't know; the perfect father who knows only love and protection and care for his children. May her prayer be answered for each of us.
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Devotion for the week of June 23, 2003 Scripture Reading: Psalm 46:10 The essay below is taken from "Bible Readings For Women", Lyn Klug, Augsburg Publishing House, 1985. "Work is not always required of us. There is such a thing as sacred idleness, the cultivation of which is now fearfully neglected. George Macdonald wrote this more than a century ago, but his words are no less true today. "We live in a world that goads us to produce and achieve, 'Time is money', 'Look for measurable results.' The pressure to produce may make it difficult for us to take time for "sacred idleness" like prayer. Or if we do pray or meditate, we can fall into the trap of striving for spiritual productivity. Sometime we need just to sit still and listen, doing nothing, expecting nothing. "Free for a time from what we do, or say, or think, we may find the truer reality at the center of our being -- all the unseen possibilities, dreams, and hopes. In such idleness we also find rest, knowing that God has loved us not for anything we did, or said, or thought. He just loves us because he wants to. In such stillness we may discover our true reason for existence: to know God." Lord, help me relearn the art of sacred idleness. Amen |
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Devotion for the week of June 30, 2003
I am a rank amateur watercolor artist, possessing a mere beginner's competency. I am serious, though, about my genuine love of great art, and continually strive to improve my aesthetic sensibilities and appreciation. Aesthetics, we are told, is an intellectual study that concerns itself in finding what makes one work of art better than another. It considers, too, how humanity's interest in art is connected with other great philosophical interests, science and religion. It should come as no surprise, then, that one culture's great art may be another's "stick in the eye." In early 2001 the Taliban leaders of theocratic Afghanistan announced their intention of destroying two 175 foot high Buddha, sculpted into a mountainside as part of their drive to "create the world's purist Muslim state." When that threat became reality, and these 1500 year-old, irreplaceable ancient artifacts were blown up, I was immensely saddened...... no, I was outraged. These masterpieces were not the property of one nation I told myself; they belonged to mankind. They were "owned" by you and me just as much as by the mullahs and their Islamic followers in Afghanistan. Because these two Buddha were human "images" they were found offensive by people of a different tradition ... so they were destroyed. Blatant intolerance, one might say. Then I thought: "what about the Northern European Christian settlers who showed similar disregard and intolerance for the religious and cultural artistic artifacts of the Native Americans?" Something to ponder on. So, what have I learned from all this? That intolerance knows no aesthetic, cultural or national boundaries, whatever the religious persuasion. The anger I felt for the Taliban was no doubt much the same as that felt by the Amerinds toward our ancestors. Better that I turn to my own Faith and pray for a deeper understanding of my own Beliefs, I thought. In a much larger sense, there is a similar world-wide need for greater understanding and tolerance between cultures, between religions, between nations. Quote I: Father Hans KÜng is a contemporary Roman Catholic theologian whose ideas shaped Vatican II. (However, because he challenged the Catholic Church's hierarchy he has been denied the right to teach by Pope John Paul II. Doesn't that have a historical ring to it?) Fr. KÜng has written: "No peace among nations without peace among religions. No peace among religions without dialogue between the religions. No dialogue between religions without investigations of the religions."' Quote II: "Art should be independent of all claptrap ---- should stand alone, and appeal to the artistic sense of eye and ear, without confounding this with emotions entirely foreign to it, as devotion, pity, love, patriotism and the like. All these have no kind of concern with it." James McNeill Whistler.
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