e-vo for week of January 28

Dearest e-votees-

For this week we will use the appointed psalm to focus our devotion.

Peace,
Karl

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Praise the Lord! I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation.

Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them.

Full of honor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures forever.

He has gained renown by his wonderful deeds; the Lord is gracious and merciful.

He provides food for those who fear him; he is ever mindful of his covenant.

He has shown his people the power of his works, in giving them the heritage of the nations.

The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy.

They are established forever and ever, to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness.

He sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever.

Psalm 111, NRSV

During the time of the Reformation there came about the question what is required for Christian unity. In other words, what is sufficient for us to be in accord? Or what are the things that mandate that we must remain in tension?

In the modern day the question might look more like this:

• Do we have to use the same hymnals or worship forms or scripted prayers to be in good relationship with another church body?
  
• Do folks have to be in our denomination or particular subset before we can get along?
  
• What must we share in common in order to worship together?
  

What is sufficient and necessary and what is inconsequential (adiophora is the fancy word for such things)?

Article VII of the Augsburg Confession says this is what is required:

For this is enough for the true unity of the Christian church that there the gospel is preached harmoniously according to a pure understanding and the sacraments are administered in conformity with the divine Word. It is not necessary for the true unity of the Christian church that uniform ceremonies, instituted by human beings, be observed everywhere. (Kolb)


It seems that our psalm is laying out the basics of this true Christian unity

• The great works of the Lord are studied and lifted up
  
• The Lord's wonderful deeds are recounted and lifted up
  
• Thanksgiving is given among the people
  
• Food (bread and wine) is provided to those who fear him and we are reminded of the covenant
  
• Redemption is sent to the Lord's people
  

This week as you live out Psalm 111 in worship know that you are part of a vast expanse of saints that straddles time and space and denomination. You are a part of that great cloud of witnesses mentioned in Hebrews 12:1 and populated in the previous chapter. You are part of a great Christian unity that at times might seem elusive but is real and true because God and God's covenant are real and true.


God help us look past our surface differences and draw deeply into your word rightly preached and your sacraments properly administered all to your glory. Use us to blast through human separations into the unity that is your plan and your will. Amen.

e-vo for week of January 21

Dear e-votees-

This Sunday is the 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany. The appointed psalm reading for this Sunday in year B of the lectionary is Psalm 62:5-12. I have included the entire psalm below for consideration in our devotional thoughts this week.

May we patiently and faithfully serve our God and God’s people as we patiently and faithfully wait for our salvation and deliverance to come fully into force in our lives and in the world. God has the power and the means to bring this about.

Peace,
Karl

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For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.

He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall never be shaken.

How long will you assail a person, will you batter your victim, all of you, as you would a leaning wall, a tottering fence?

Their only plan is to bring down a person of prominence. They take pleasure in falsehood; they bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse.

For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him.

He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.

On God rests my deliverance and my honor; my mighty rock, my refuge is in God.

Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.

Those of low estate are but a breath, those of high estate are a delusion; in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath.

Put no confidence in extortion, and set no vain hopes on robbery; if riches increase, do not set your heart on them.

Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God,

and steadfast love belongs to you, O Lord. For you repay to all according to their work.

Psalm 62 (NRSV)

This psalm contrasts two ways of engaging power and seeking to secure salvation. There is the way of all of those made in God’s image (that would be all of us) seek these things. There is the way that those of us abiding in God’s plan (an ever-changing subset of the first group) seek these things.

Our newspapers and our television screens have been full of people engaging power and seeking security. Locally and internationally we hear of promises and circumstances. We hear of hope and betrayed trust. We hear words of praise and exultation as well as words of condemnation and slander. We needn’t look much further than the bathroom mirror to see people seeking to engage the powers that be and seeking to secure salvation in broken and detrimental ways. And ever since the garden we haven’t been seeking these things—power and salvation—well.

The psalmist knows our sinful frailties all too well. We tear down those who are weak and tottering like a backyard fix-it project. We hang on false words. We speak nicely to people’s faces but sometimes have a knife waiting until the opportune moment when the back is turned. We trust the circumstances into which we were born or unjust gains (slander, extortion, robbery, etc.) or the fleeting promises of worldly riches as means of power and assurance of salvation (worldly or eternal).

God has a different way and a different plan for us all. God calls on all of us to wait and to trust. We are invited to pour out our hearts to God (prayer, meditation, confession, etc.). God doesn’t tear down the tottering wall nor extinguish the flickering wick nor break the bruised reed. God turns the powers and the structures of the world upside down granting peace and hope and salvation to those (including us) who seem most undeserving. God invites us into a holy refuge.

There is work to be done in this broken world. God will work through us. We dwell in a world full of misspent power and false salvations. Nonetheless we don’t get to hide away in our prayer rooms waiting for God to finally come back and set things right. The scene in Sister Act where the nuns spill out of the convent into the streets to make a positive difference in their immediate spheres of influence is our call to duty and service this day. With prayer and humility, with towel and basin, we are sent to serve. Jesus came to show us the way. May that way be ours today.


God, you are our rock and our salvation. Let us bless others as you have so richly blessed us. Give us courage and faith and hearts to serve. Amen.

e-vo for week of January 14

Dearest e-votees-

As you know, these devotions are usually connected to the assigned readings of the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL). This week, however, I beg your indulgence as we look at the assigned psalm for this coming Sunday (Epiphany 2, year B) but look at the verses that were left on the cutting room floor as the lectionary was assembled.

May your week be blessed.

Peace,
Karl

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Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.

O that you would kill the wicked, O God, and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me—those who speak of you maliciously, and lift themselves up against you for evil! Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Psalm 139:7-12 & 19-24, NRSV

The NRSV sometimes adds captions to sections of scripture. They aren’t found in the original language but offer a summary of the scriptural section to follow. The caption for Psalm 139 is “The Inescapable God.” What a wonderful descriptor of our God who does not leave us stuck in the aftermath of our sinful dispositions.

There is no where we can go to escape from God. There is nothing we can do to make God love us less. There is nothing we can do to make God love us more. There is no secret that we can keep from God. There is no secret place that lies beyond the touch of God’s grace and mercy. If we attempt to flee from God we will find ourselves tired and as close as ever to the forgiveness of God brought to bear in our lives through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

The second portion of lectionary excised verses from Psalm 139 show the darker side of the psalmist. And the darker side of us too. We long for harm to come to those who harm us. We draw lines in the sand with us and God on the same side (or so we think). We proclaim our faithfulness to God (like Peter did to Jesus). We proclaim our innocence while we level blame upon those around us.

If there is no place where we can flee from God’s mercy why do we think those we deem to be God’s enemies will have any more success than we in running away. Jesus states from the cross “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing”. (Luke 23:34) Those gracious words of forgiveness come to bear in our lives. Those words come to bear in the lives of others as well.

God does know and test our hearts. There is indeed wickedness in us. Nonetheless, God chases after us with love undeterred. That is the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And through that persistent love our hearts can be changed.


God, teach us to stop running and trust your love. Teach us to chase after others that they might trust your love. Thank you that you make your enemies, including us, into your friends and family. Amen.

e-vo for week of January 7

Dearest e-votees-

In this cycle of the Revised Common Lectionary (Year B which began on November 30 on the 1st Sunday of Advent) the bulk of our gospel lessons come from Mark.

This Sunday we overlap the reading we had on the 2nd Sunday of Advent right at the start of the gospel of Mark.

Mark doesn’t record any of the Christmas story for us (no birth, no signs, no Mary, no Joseph, no angels, no shepherds, no star, no Magi, no Slaughter of the Innoncents, no Herod, no Anna, no Simeon)—he begins his account with John the baptizer fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy and baptizing Jesus.

It is a little abrupt but straight to the point. Mark is like that. So is God, at times.

Peace,
Karl

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John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

Mark 1:4-11, NRSV

All four gospels include an account of Jesus being baptized. Mark is unique in that he uses the language of heaven being “torn apart”—Luke and Matthew use a different word that talks about heaven being opened. John doesn’t even mention heaven being open or torn.

The word Mark uses in the Greek that is rendered “torn apart” is skids-zoh. It is the root of our word “schizophrenic” which literally means “torn mind” or “split mind”.

The word skids-zoh appears only one other place in Mark (15:38, also in parallel verses in Luke 23:45 and Matthew 27:51). It appears at the time of Jesus’ death when the curtain in the temple is torn from top to bottom.

The temple curtain separated where God was believed to dwell from the rest of the temple and the world. Only once a year could the priest chosen by lot enter into the Most Holy Place. That was not a space with which to trifle.

When Jesus died the curtain tore from top to bottom. Who do you suppose was on top doing the tearing? Access was granted between God and humanity. Either God was let out into the world in a new way (kind of a backwards Pandora’s box) or we were granted access to God in a new way. The point is that relationship is restored with God through Jesus’ death.

When Jesus was baptized, God tore open the heavens to speak words of relationship and testimony about Jesus. When Jesus died, God tore open the obstacle between God and people renewing relationship and giving testimony about Jesus life and death and imminent resurrection.

Tearing things apart seems kind of abrupt and permanent. But Mark can be that way. And God can be that way, too. Especially when God wants to make it clear how much we are loved and that we are, in fact, in restored relationship with God.

Peter, James and John will hear these words of affirmation and relationship again atop the Mount of Transfiguration in six weeks at the end of the church season of Epiphany (which began on January 6). If God keeps repeating something in our hearing perhaps it is important.


God, thank you that you tear through every hindrance between us and you. You declare your love for us insistently. Help us to know your love. Help us to understand that through baptism into Jesus’ death and resurrection we are restored in relationship with you. Tear down anything we build up that tries to block out your message of insistent love and pure grace. Amen.

e-vo for week of December 31

Dearest e-votees-

As we squeeze out the last moments of this calendar year I hope and pray you are surrounded by the love of family and friends.

I pray, too, that you know the depth and surety of the love God has for you.

May you have a blessed 2009.

Peace,
Karl

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Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.

Ephesians 1:3-14, NRSV

The words of our appointed epistle lesson for this coming Sunday from the church are so deep and rich and powerful. Feel free to read them again and linger over them.

The words above are even more powerful yet when you realize that we are not the subjects of the verbs. All three persons of the Trinity are at work in bringing to bear on our lives the good news of the gospel. We are the recipients of God’s amazing and pervasive grace.

The only thing that we do in the words above is hear the word of truth and believe in him.

And even that is not of our own doing as Martin Luther so clearly states in the explanation of the third article of the Apostles’ Creed in the Small Catechism:

I believe I cannot by my own understanding or effort believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or come to him. But the Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, and sanctified and kept me in true faith.

In the same way he calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it united with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.

In this Christian church day after day he fully forgives my sins and the sins of all believers. On the last day he will raise me and all the dead and give me and all believers in Christ eternal life.

This is most certainly true.

Go ahead and read those words again about all the good things that God is bringing to pass in your life.

It is not about your will or your strength of resolve or your resolutions. It is not about how hard you are going to try or what you will take up or put down in this coming year.

It is about our God who has blessed us beyond comprehension through grace. It is about a sure and certain hope that God has given to us. It is about what Jesus has done. It is about what God will still do as a result of Jesus’ work. It is about what God has done for us and it is about those God would use us to tell.


God, thank you for the blessings of this past year. Thank you for the blessings of this coming year. Thank you, most of all, for Jesus. Draw us into him even more deeply in the days ahead. Amen.

e-vo for week of December 24

Dearest e-votees-

A blessed Christmas Eve to all of you.

Peace,
Karl

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For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly, while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.

Titus 2:11-14, NRSV

God’s grace has come upon us.

God’s salvation has come to all.

As this grace and as this salvation take root in our lives we grow and are trained in self-control, in upright and godly living and in patience.

We will continue to see people who have not yet arrived in these arenas of self-control, uprightness, godliness and patience. Sometimes those people who have not arrived yet are staring right back at us from the mirror. Sometimes those people are found at our family gatherings. Sometimes in our workplace. Sometime in the throes of hectic traffic. Sometimes down the pew from us at worship. Pretty much everywhere we humans wander.

That’s okay.

God’s grace has come upon us.

God’s salvation has come to all.

God is at work in us and God will bring that work to completion. All that is really needed is for us to open our hearts—wide and willing—to receive the Christ child as did the manger. We can make room for other hungry, stumbling, awkward pilgrims to join us at the Lord’s table. And they can make room for us too. God’s grace can be found in many places—pretty much everywhere we humans wander.

God’s grace has come upon us.

God’s salvation has come to all.


God we thank you that you stooped into the manger to reach out to your people. Help us know your grace. Help us know your salvation. Continue your work in us. Continue your work through us. We welcome you, Lord Jesus. Amen.

e-vo for week of December 17

Dearest e-votees-

This week’s appointed text from the epistle is the closing words of Paul’s letter to the church at Rome. The words speak of hope and mystery; of revelation and faith.

May they strengthen us and bless us this day that we might go out and encourage and bless others.

Peace,
Karl

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Now to God who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but is now disclosed, and through the prophetic writings is made known to all the Gentiles, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith-to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever! Amen.

Romans 16:25-27, NRSV

There is strengthening available for those as they encounter the gospel.

• Perhaps we feel weak from despair.
• Perhaps we feel listless from apathetic boredom.
• Perhaps we feel tapped out from too many promises that didn’t bear out.
• Perhaps we feel unable to grasp on to anything of depth and merit and truth.

There is good news (gospel) for us who need strengthening.

We need not despair. There is hope and future and a calling for us through the good news of Jesus Christ. There is nothing that can separate us from God’s love. There is no sin so great that God cannot forgive us. There is nothing we can do to get God to disown us. Despair should not win the day.

We need not drown in boredom. There is mystery and revelation to be had. Secrets kept over the ages are being revealed to all—including us Gentiles. God has commanded these mysteries and secrets to be made known. There is no way we should be able to remain trapped in boredom. Monotony should not win the day.

We need not get jaded by promises that didn’t bear out. God’s promises are coming to fulfillment in Jesus Christ. The prophetic writings are fulfilled in Jesus’ ministry. The promises that we are neither lost nor forsaken are borne out in the life of Jesus. The promises of resurrection and restored life are borne out in the suffering on the cross and the empty tomb. There is no promise of God that isn’t answered resolutely in the affirmative in the life and ministry of Jesus. Broken promises should not win the day.

We need not fear when things seem unsure. We might reach out for a firm handhold during uncertain time. We need not fear that there is nothing to latch onto. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and into all eternity. Jesus’ words are sure and his mercies reliable. When we latch onto the things of Jesus we find depth and worth and truth. There is a reliable rock to cling to during the raging storms. Chaotic weather should not win the day.


God, give us strength through the gospel of Jesus. Give us hope. Give us enthusiastic curiosity. Give us sure words. Give us refuge in the storm. Help us be contagious in our sharing of these things with all the people we encounter this day. Amen.