Running in Faith is an electronic devotional guide written by members of Abiding Presence Lutheran Church to help readers take their Sunday faith into weekday lives. Each Devotion represents the personal opinion of the author and does not necessarily represent Abiding Presence Lutheran Church. Permission is granted to link to this page and to use the Devotions for personal, non-commercial purposes only.

Week of November 4, 2007
Pastor Dan

Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the city gate in order to sanctify the people by his own blood. Let us then go to him outside the camp and bear the abuse he endured.    1 John 4:6-9)

Jesus Christ suffered "outside the city gate," away from the good neighbors, away from the so-called decent people. He was not numbered among the religious establishment. He was not numbered among the politically connected. He was not numbered among the good, upstanding pillars of the community who looked out for the narrow interests at the expense of a nobler common good. Jesus Christ was numbered among the "bad elements." He was crucified on the cross in their midst.

When I think about these things, I think about the saints of the church who have gone outside the city gate with Jesus. I am reminded of Virginia Durr, a privileged Alabamian who during her entire childhood never had to wonder whether she belonged or not. She was a member of upper-class white society, a debutante and all the privileges that go with it. She grew up to be the woman who, together with her husband, went down to the police station in Montgomery to bail out Rosa Parks on that famous night when the bus boycott began. After that, Clifford Durr lost his law practice, and much of white Montgomery stopped speaking to him. The Durr family took upon themselves the ministry of the Son of Man, who came to live among us as one outside the magic circle.

Inspired by the Son of Man with all his authentic followers, we are called to step outside with Jesus into a space "outside the camp" where the so-called decent people never go. In the poetic words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "we are called to find the places God is sore bestead, in our poor, neglected neighbors without home or bread." We don't have to look very far. Trenton Psychiatric Hospital? Triad House across the street from the church? The guidance center in any local school?

Let us pray. . . Lord, draw me out of my comfort zone outside the camp today. Open my eyes. Open my heart. Take me along where you always dare to go. Give me the courage to stick it out there with you. Amen

Week of November 11, 2007
Tracie B.

Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the city gate in order to sanctify the people by his own blood. Let us then go to him outside the camp and bear the abuse he endured.    (1 John 4:6-9)

Jesus Christ suffered "outside the city gate," away from the good neighbors, away from the so-called decent people. He was not numbered among the religious establishment. He was not numbered among the politically connected. He was not numbered among the good, upstanding pillars of the community who looked out for the narrow interests at the expense of a nobler common good. Jesus Christ was numbered among the "bad elements." He was crucified on the cross in their midst.

When I think about these things, I think about the saints of the church who have gone outside the city gate with Jesus. I am reminded of Virginia Durr, a privileged Alabamian who during her entire childhood never had to wonder whether she belonged or not. She was a member of upper-class white society, a debutante and all the privileges that go with it. She grew up to be the woman who, together with her husband, went down to the police station in Montgomery to bail out Rosa Parks on that famous night when the bus boycott began. After that, Clifford Durr lost his law practice, and much of white Montgomery stopped speaking to him. The Durr family took upon themselves the ministry of the Son of Man, who came to live among us as one outside the magic circle.

Inspired by the Son of Man with all his authentic followers, we are called to step outside with Jesus into a space "outside the camp" where the so-called decent people never go. In the poetic words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "we are called to find the places God is sore bestead, in our poor, neglected neighbors without home or bread." We don't have to look very far. Trenton Psychiatric Hospital? Triad House across the street from the church? The guidance center in any local school?

Let us pray. . . Lord, draw me out of my comfort zone outside the camp today. Open my eyes. Open my heart. Take me along where you always dare to go. Give me the courage to stick it out there with you. Amen

Week of November 11, 2007
Richard G.

We give thanks because of our faith...

     Ed and Stacey were so excited about their new baby Sarah. She was a gift from God. While still in the womb, they discovered that Sarah had a rare heart condition. Through surgery performed immediately after birth, and two subsequent surgeries, they were able to repair the heart problem and Sarah is alive and well today. They were extremely happy and thankful for God's blessings through this difficult situation.
     On December 9, 2004 Edward died from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident. He was returning home after work late that night and decided to change his normal route to go to a shoppingcenter to pick up a few Christmas presents for his new 6 month old baby girl Sarah. It was cold, dark and drizzling. Maybe his glasses were fogged up and speckled with rain droplets, but what ever the reason, he made a left turn into the path of a car traveling 45 miles an hour. It was a tragic accident.
     In times like this, it is difficult to take Paul at his word. Sarah was so young. Stacey needed help to raise Sarah and their two other children; Eddie and Kristen. Stacey did not work outside the home. How could God allow this to happen to such devout Christians? Why do bad things happen to good people?
     Rabbi Harold Kushner has written an elegant response to this painful question in his book titled: "When Bad Things Happen to Good People" Kushner outlines the various ways that people try to salvage their view of God and His orderly world. They explain that misfortune occurs because:

     Kushner rejects all of these explanations. "All the responses to tragedy which we have considered have at least one thing in common. They all assume that God is the cause of our suffering, and they try to understand why God would want us to suffer. ... There may be another approach. Maybe God does not cause our suffering. Maybe it happens for some reason other than the will of God."
     Some things are just circumstantial, and there is no point in looking for a reason for them. Some suffering is caused by the workings of natural law. There is no moral judgment involved--natural law is blind, and God does not interfere with it. God does not intervene to save good people from earthquake or disease, and does not send these misfortunes to punish the wicked. Kushner puts great value on the orderliness of the universe's natural law, and would not want God to routinely intervene for moral reasons. Some suffering is caused by the actions of evil people. Kushner re-interprets the story of Adam and Eve to make the point that the ability to choose between good and evil is what makes us human. For God to interfere with our ability to do evil would make all of us less human. Some suffering we cause ourselves by the way we handle our initial suffering. We blame ourselves, or we take out our anger on the people who are trying to help us, or on God.
     To help deal with these things, the bad things that can happen to anyone, we might pray. Why pray you ask? Kushner says that the prayers of others can make us aware that we are not facing our problems alone. And God can give us the strength of character that we need to handle our misfortunes, if we are willing to accept it. What we may find after reading Kushner's book is that we need to - forgive the world for not being perfect, to forgive God for not making a better world, to reach out to the people around us, and to go on living despite it all, and continue to pray and give thanks for all our blessings... and tragedies.

     Dear Lord in heaven: I thank you for helping me to see the needs of others that I may be of service to them. Thank you for the blessings you've provided me and my family, may I never take them for granted, but share them with others and give glory to you. Thank you for giving me the strength to call on your name when times get tough. I pray these things in Jesus name, Amen!

Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.    Ephesians 6: 17-18 (NIV)

Why bother asking God for anything in prayer? Yes, we're told in the Bible (see, for instance, Luke 18) to engage in petitionary prayer (where we ask God for something for ourselves) and intercessionary prayer (where we ask God for something for someone else). If God is all good and all knowing, however, then what is the point of either kind of prayer? For after all, if God already knows what's good for us and will do it, aren't petitionary and intercessionary prayer pointless?

Trying to answer these questions takes us deep into questions about the divine nature. If God is immutable (i.e., unchanging in any respect including will, emotions, and thoughts) and impassible (i.e., unaffected by creatures), then the point of either kind of prayer cannot be to change God, but rather to change ourselves by putting us in accordance with God's will. Jesus exemplified this perfectly in the Garden of Gethsemane when he knelt down and prayed: "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." (Luke 22:42) If, by contrast, God is not immutable and not impassible, then prayer can have the additional point of prompting God's response.

However we come down on these questions, I think we can at least agree on this: that praying to God for ourselves and for others provides us with a powerful reminder that, at the deepest level, we need God. One of the gravest spiritual dangers we humans face is the temptation to think that we have what it takes to handle our own problems, that we're self-sufficient, that we don't need God. This is especially true when things are going well for us materially and otherwise. So as Paul enjoins us, let's take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And let's pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.

Dear God,
You know us better than we know ourselves. Teach us to pray so that your knowledge of us deepens our knowledge of you. Amen.