"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.

Devotion for the week of June 5, 2005
Submitted by Pastor Dick H.

The world and all that is in I is mine.
Psalm 50:12b

Our God is a possessive God. Boldly, our Lord claims that he's the owner of the whole world!

The maker of heaven and earth makes his astonishing assertion through a spokesperson -- the ancient psalmist. "I am God," he says forthrightly.

Since our Creator God is the owner of all things, it follows that we are stewards. Stewards are people who are put in charge of their master's property. They are managers or administrators of gifts entrusted to their care.

Accountability is implied. Stewards are responsible to the landlord. One day, they'll be called to give an account of their stewardship.

Goods and property are to be used, but not abused. Wealth and abundance are to be shared, not consumed selfishly. The land is to be nurtured and cared for, not exploited for short-term or easy profit. Environmental policies and priorities are to be based on justice for all, not on self-interest.

In short, all of life is a gift. Our selves, our time, and our possessions are benefits first given to us. Accordingly, you and I are called to a stewardship of accountable management and a responsible offering of thanks.

Devotion for the week of June 12, 2005
Submitted by Susan L.

I fear no evil, for thou art with me.
Psalm 23:4

      Recently I was listening to a radio talk show. The guest had just won an award for outstanding public service in mental health. When one caller with a sad voice finished a horrific story about the effects of her sister's schizophrenia on the lives of her seven children, I was overwhelmed by a sense of hopelessness and started to reach over to turn off the radio. But the guest said, "The good news is that you are not alone." He went on to give the caller a phone number she could call to find a community group of people with similar problems.
      I recently read Anita Diamant's The Red Tent, a fictional account of the lives of the women in Jacob's family (son of Rebecca and Isaac). The mixture of joy and suffering, good and evil, strong and broken people was both fascinating and distressing. The narrator closes the story with the words, "Wherever you walk, I go with you." As I was thinking about how important it is for people not to feel alone, Melanie Harding's Running In Faith contribution two weeks ago contained the same message. I think the assertion that God is always with us bears re-iteration.

Dear God,
      Thank you for your comforting presence in our daily lives and for the community of fellow travelers that surrounds us, all willing to stretch out a hand, even through time, when we feel concern. Amen.

Devotion for the week of June 19, 2005
Submitted by David M.

God saw their efforts to renounce their evil ways. And God relented about the disaster, which he had threatened to bring on them, and did not bring it. This made Jonah very indignant; he fell into a rage. He prayed to Yahweh and said, "Please, Yahweh, isn't this what I said would happen when I was still in my own country? That was why I first tried to flee to Tarshish, since I knew you were a tender, compassionate God, slow to anger, rich in faithful love, who relents about inflicting disaster. So now, Yahweh, please take my life, for I might as well be dead as go on living." Yahweh replied, "Are you right to be angry?" ... Jonah 3:10-4:4

Is it always right to demand justice? Must the guilty always be punished? Or is there sometimes room for forgiveness and reconciliation? Who decides? Leading up to this citation from the book of the prophet Jonah, Jonah had finally gone to Nineveh to warn the city of impending destruction due to its' wickedness. This was after Jonah refused to obey God's initial command to go, followed by Jonah spending three days inside a great fish. Jonah warned the city, whereupon they repented, proclaimed a fast and prayed to God for forgiveness.

Then, picking up where our quote starts, God saw their repentance as sincere and changed his mind. Jonah was outraged. He thought God was being unjust by not giving Nineveh what it deserved. In fact, Jonah faults God for his mercy and is so angry at the turn of events that he tells God to kill him.

What is Jonah's problem? He apparently thought Nineveh was irredeemable, that whatever evil they had in fact perpetrated demanded recompense, and that no compassion or redemption should have been possible. Sometimes you just have to have your pound of flesh, your eye for an eye, your life for a life, right? Obviously God doesn't always think so.

Who decides? Never try to get revenge; leave that, my dear friends, to the Retribution. As scripture says: "Vengeance is mine -- I will pay them back, the Lord promises." (Romans 12:19)

"Yes, if you forgive others their failings, your heavenly Father will forgive you yours, but if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive your failings either." (Matthew 6:14-15) It is God who ultimately decides who will be punished.

Does this mean we do away with any system of criminal justice? No. But it does mean that system needs to be fair and proportional, holding out the chance of redemption for those who are not a true danger to others. It also means that we as individuals should have the proper attitude towards justice, embodying forgiveness and compassion to even our enemies, leaving vengeance and punitive damages to our God. Is it ever right for us to switch places with God and demand the life of another? Do we consider our enemies, both personally or nationally, to be so far beyond the pale that they do not deserve to be treated fairly or humanely?

Jonah was willing to die in his anger, rather than allow the possibility of reconciliation and a new way forward for the Ninevites. When faced with a choice like his, which of the two ways would we go?

"If God in Christ loves his enemies -- whom we were -- if THAT is the good news, then there is no bad news. Then our loving our enemies, because we are children of God, is the gospel itself. We need only believe."
     J.H. Yoder, 1972

Devotion for the week of June 26, 2005
Submitted by Pastor Dan

The LORD has done great things for us, and we rejoiced
Psalm 126:3 NRSV

One of the most influential theologians of the 20th century, Karl Barth, was once on a bus in Basel, the Swiss city in which he lived and taught for many years. A man happened to come and sit beside him, a tourist. Barth struck up a conversation, "You are a visitor, yes? And what do you want to see in our city?" The tourist said, "I would like to see the great theologian Karl Barth. Do you know him?" "Oh, yes," said Barth, "I shave him every morning." The man went away satisfied, telling his friends that he had met Barth's barber. (From Eugene H. Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction)

Here is a person of faith, Karl Barth, who wrote a six-million-word, seven-thousand-page, twelve-volume work of theology plus many, many other books and articles, with a chuckle under his breath and a twinkle in his eye. Abundant joy overflowed in, with, and through Karl Barth. Because of that joy, he refused to take himself too seriously and burdened neither himself nor those around him with unnecessary gloominess or heavy seriousness of pride and ambition.

Of course, joy never discounts nor skirts over the tears and toils of life. Joy is rooted in the dependability of God's promises and the fickleness of our human ways. Joy is what God bestows upon us, not what we work up. Joy is the overflowing blessing from knowing we are God's children and privileged to have profound purpose in our daily service. I believe it was Phyllis McGinley who once wrote, "I have read that during the process of canonization the Catholic Church demands proof of joy in the candidate, and although I have not been able to track down chapter and verse I like the suggestion that dourness is not a sacred attribute."

Let us pray. . .
Lord, during this day, give us supreme joy in our prayer, rest, work, conversation, and play. Rid our lives of dourness and lift our hearts with gratitude and praise. You have done great things for us, and we are glad. Amen