e-vo for week of September 7

Dearest e-votees-

I hope and trust that his e-mail devotional finds you well.

Normally I base these devotions on one of the assigned lessons for the upcoming Sunday. This Sunday is of a different sort.

This Sunday is the 10th anniversary of the tragic attacks of 9-11. Sermons and prayers will undoubtedly find ways to recall the attacks that were so very devastating. This Sunday is of a different sort.

For many churches, including ours, this Sunday is also the kickoff of the church’s Sunday School year—Rally Sunday. Classes will commence, teachers will be installed and faith will continue to be intentionally formed. This Sunday is of a different sort.

Very interesting balancing act: commemorating and consecrating; celebrating and mourning; never forgetting our very human past and never forgetting God’s sure and certain future.

Peace,
Karl

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When 9-11 happened our church in South Dakota participated in a community wide prayer service. Each of the clergy types in attendance picked a passage to share and reflect upon. The passage that struck me then and still has things to say to us today, I believe, is:

Psalm 46, NRSV

1 God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,
though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
3 though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble with its tumult.
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.
5 God is in the midst of the city;
God will help it when the morning dawns.
6 The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter;
he utters his voice, the earth melts.
7 The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge.
8 Come, behold the works of the Lord;
see what desolations he has brought on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear;
he burns the shields with fire.
10 “Be still, and know that I am God!
I am exalted among the nations,
I am exalted in the earth.”
11 The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge.

I suppose what caught my attention just after 9-11 was the tottering (and collapse of towers), the melting (of planes and steel girders), the uproar (during the attacks and in the aftermath) all set “in the midst of the city”. The promise of Psalm 46 is that God is to be found among the chaos and the hurt. Shaking mountains and profound and hurtful attacks are places where God hunkers down. Amidst all the noise and chaos God calls out “Be still, and know that I am God!”

Following after God doesn’t promise a life free from pain and persecution—sometimes it invites those very things. God’s silence and seeming inaction during horrific times can be troubling and even fatal to the faith of some. We don’t get simple answers during such times. Platitudes and bumper sticker theology can make deep and grievous wounds more painful still. Yet God calls us to hunker down.

God does not leave nor forsake us ever—particularly during painful and troubling times. God knows our pain better than we know it ourselves. God invites us to take refuge in that holy place of God’s sure and certain love. Melting and tumult and tottering and chaos and crying and uproar and grieving will continue to be present in this world. In the midst of the painful realities God is there for us. God invites us to be there for others as well.

As the title track of Jars of Clay’s new CD, The Shelter, says so eloquently (quoting from ancient poetry): In the shelter of each other we will live.


God, help us rest in the shelter you provide—and in the shelter you provide from others. Help all continue to heal from the grievous wounds we inflict on one another. Help terrorism become a thing of the past as we press into the glorious future you desire for all of us. Amen.