Devotional

War and Peas

/ JJS / Leave a comment

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 65; 147:1-11, 2 Kings 6:1-23, 1 Corinthians 5:9-6:11, Matthew 5:38-48

The Arameans and the Israelites were frequently at war. Because the prophet Elisha seemed to always be one step ahead of the king of Aram, the king sent an army of Arameans to surround the city of Dothan, where Elishah was dwelling. As the army approached, Elishah prayed the Lord would strike them blind, and they were blinded. Then Elisha tricked them into believing he would lead them to the man they sought, but instead led them back to Samaria and the king of the Israelites. The Lord opened the army’s eyes and they realized the tables had turned and they were surrounded in the heart of enemy territory. The king would have been happy to kill the Arameans, but instead Elishah directed the king to unleash the full fury of … soup and salad.

That’s right, Elisha had the king invite the Arameans to a feast, and then release them to return home. Afterward “the bands from Aram stopped raiding Israel’s territories.”

Could this be the sort of thing Jesus was thinking of when he told his disciples, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you?” In Luke’s gospel, it’s even expanded to doing good to them and lending to them without expecting a return. When’s the last time you lent something to an enemy?

Whether our enemies are personal, political, or global, one sure way to keep them enemies is to keep treating them as enemies. Elishah’s example, and Jesus’s words, are also echoed in Proverbs and other scriptures: “If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you.” Humanizing our enemies leaves them vulnerable to humanizing us in return, and that’s probably the last thing they want. Yet it’s the first step toward loving them.

Enmity may be forced on us by circumstances beyond our control, but how we treat our enemies is up to us. Whether you’re more motivated by burning coals or cooling tensions, loving our enemies is the path to eliminating them.

Comfort: You don’t have to return hate for hate.

Challenge: Invite an enemy to dinner.

Prayer: O divine master grant that I may not so much seek to be loved as to love. Amen.

Discussion: Have you ever been shown kindness or love by someone you considered an enemy? Did it change you?

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Fair or Foul

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 54; 146, 2 Kings 5:19-27, 1 Corinthians 5:1-8, Matthew 5:27-37

Do you ever second-guess God?

Gehazi, the servant of the prophet Elishah, was not happy when Elijah accepted no gifts or payment for curing Naaman of leprosy.  “My master has let that Aramean Naaman off too lightly by not accepting from him what he offered. As the LORD lives, I will run after him and get something out of him.” Gehazi followed Naaman and pretended his master had asked for a tenant of silver and two sets of clothes to give to visiting prophets. A grateful Naaman threw in an extra talent and two servants. Gehazi hid away his loot, but Elishah knew what had happened. The displeased prophet declared Gehazi and his descendants would carry forever the leprosy that had afflicted Naaman.

We can become disgruntled when we think someone has gotten off too lightly. When success comes to someone who hasn’t paid the same dues we have, when punishment for wrongdoing is not as severe as we’d like, or when it feels like someone has “jumped line” and gotten something we “deserved” more, we may resent them, disparage them, or even try to sabotage them. Like Gehazi, we don’t always like the way our master shows mercy, and also like Gehazi we often think it’s our job to even the score when God has dropped the ball. Fair is fair, right?

Except Christ never teaches us to insist on fairness for ourselves, and certainly not to exact it at the expense of someone else. How God works in another person’s life is not the benchmark to which we should compare how God works in our lives. After all, some people have it worse than we do too, and we never seem to think fairness might involve moving downward toward those we believe have it worse instead of upward toward those we think have it better.

Mercy, by definition, is not fair. But if we claim to follow Christ, we must believe mercy is just – not only the mercy offered to us, but also the mercy offered to others, even mercy we would not ourselves bestow. When we accept that Christ has already redeemed us through the ultimate act of mercy, it becomes something we seek more to share than to acquire.

Comfort: You have been offered the ultimate mercy.

Challenge: When in doubt, ask.

Prayer: O divine master grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console. Amen.

Discussion: How do you react to being treated unfairly?

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Inference Interference

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 57; 145, 2 Kings 5:1-19, 1 Corinthians 4:8-21, Matthew 5:21-26

Naaman was an Aramean warrior who suffered from leprosy. One of his wife’s servants was an Israeli captive. This girl told Naaman that a prophet in her land could cure his illness. With a letter and the good wishes from his own king, Naaman took “ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of garments” to the king of Israel. Did this generous tribute and simple request touch the heart of the king? Not quite.

When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me.”

And that sometimes seems to be the entirety of foreign relations in a nutshell. Personal relations, too.

Inference is a dangerous habit, but we do it all the time. Asking someone directly for clarification of their meaning or intentions should be simple, but we are uncomfortable asking and defensive when asked. Often we would rather just work off assumptions … which we’re not especially good at making. From being offended at unintended “tone” we’ve erroneously read into emails, to completely misreading the motives of foreign governments, inferences cause no end of unnecessary problems.

The prophet Elisha advised the king of Israel to take a breath; he would cure the Aramean commander’s leprosy. Then is was Naaman’s turn to be paranoid. When Elisha instructed him to bathe in the Jordan River, Naaman protested that the cure could not be so simple and prepared to leave. His servants asked him why he would have been willing to do something difficult, and rejected something easy.

If we would like transparency and trust from others, we must be willing to offer them first. Christ tells us before we offer a gift at the altar, we should reconcile ourselves to any brother or sister who has something against us. That’s not the same as forgiving something we have against them – the onus is on each of us to initiate peace whether or not we believe we are in the wrong. If we don’t know how, we can start by asking.

Comfort: Making yourself vulnerable is not a weakness.

Challenge: When in doubt, ask.

Prayer: Let me hear what God the LORD will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts. (Psalm 85:8)

Discussion: Have you ever made an assumption which led to unnecessary conflict?

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Gift Receipts

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 67; 150, 2 Kings 4:8-37, Acts 9:10-31, Luke 3:7-18

Have you ever received a gift you didn’t request or want, but which you didn’t feel comfortable returning? Something like a piece of art which you really don’t care for, but made especially for you by a loved one. Or maybe you’ve been given a pet you weren’t ready for. Suddenly we have to decide whether that sculpture has to be on the coffee table all the time or just when Aunt Molly visits, and whether we can afford next month’s planned vacation and a pet sitter.

The prophet Elisha gave an unexpected gift to a Shunnamite woman who had prepared a place for him to stay when he traveled. The childless woman was past the age when she expected to bear children, but through the power of God Elisha told her she would conceive. When her son was older he one day returned from the field with a mysterious headache, and died sitting on his mother’s lap. The woman was left with anger and grief over the loss of something she had never expected to have. Fortunately, Elisha was able to restore the son to life.

A disciple named Ananias was given an unexpected vision from God. Saul of Tarsus, a persecutor of Christians, was laid up blind and Ananias was to visit him so his sight could be restored. Ananias’s response was basically, “Really Lord? This guy?” but God reassured him Paul was to be an instrument of great evangelism. Sight restored, Paul started with a bang and so angered the Jews with his preaching that they plotted to kill him. The disciples had to sneak Paul out of town in a basket lowered through a hole in the city wall. Paul would turn out to be a difficult gift to wrangle for years to come.

The more strongly we feel about respecting the giver, the tougher it is to deny a gift we didn’t want in the first place. Isn’t God the giver we respect the most? Not every gift we have from God will be one we desire. It may be inconvenient. Burdensome. Painful even. We need to figure out what to do with it anyway.

Making room for the unwelcome gifts along with the welcome teaches you not every gift is about you, but might be about the grace that is found in sacrificial love. If you’re not going to go out and get it for yourself, somebody has to give it to you.

Comfort: Every gift from God, even an unwelcome one, is a treasure.

Challenge: Ask yourself which of your gifts you are not using, and why.

Prayer: May God continue to bless us; let all the ends of the earth revere him. (Psalm 67:7)

Discussion: What’s the worst gift you’ve given? How did you find out it was a bad idea?

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Bad Judgment

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 56; 149, 2 Kings 2:1-18, 1 Corinthians 4:1-7, Matthew 5:17-20

Judgment is a difficult practice to avoid. We try, but it is a persistent demon. When we’re lucky we meet it face-to-face and recognize it for what it is. Though we might fail we at least recognize we aren’t to judge others for what we consider their faults and failures. But sometimes that demon comes at us sideways or sneaks up on us from behind. Isn’t judging someone’s behavior as good or worthy still a form of judgment? And isn’t claiming we would do better under the same circumstances a way of passing judgment on ourselves and others over things that are merely hypothetical?

When Paul learned the people of Corinth were practically looking for excuses to pass judgments on each other, he told them: “What do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as if it were not a gift?” Paul offered himself as an example of someone who judged himself neither favorably nor poorly: he left that up to God’s final judgment, saying: “I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted.”

Living without some judgments is impossible. We have to decide – among many other things – whom to trust, whose company we should value and whose we should avoid, and whether someone’s behavior is helpful or harmful to themselves, us, and the community. The difference between lower-case, every day judgment and Judgment with a capital J is whether or not we approach it with an assumption that we understand more than we do. Other people’s motives, struggles, and limitations are largely not just unknown but unknowable to us. Only God can judge, because only God knows the entire truth.

It’s not our place to determine whether other people are using their gifts as well as they should or could be. It’s our job to figure out how we should be using our own gifts, and never be complacent about whether we are. Perhaps the most nefarious disguise Judgment can wear is a reflection of our own face, telling us what we’d like to hear.

Comfort: God will get around to judging what needs to be judged…

Challenge: … and very little of it may end up being to our satisfaction or expectation.

Prayer: I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation. (Psalm 111:1)

Discussion: When have you realized you judged someone wrongly or harshly?

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Fools for Wisdom

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 130; 148, 2 Kings 1:2-17, 1 Corinthians 3:16-23, Matthew 5:11-16

What does it mean to be wise? Unlike certain types of intelligence, wisdom is not something we can rate on a scale. Neither is it the same as knowledge, which we can acquire by the ton without finding an ounce of wisdom. The cliché that wisdom comes with experience certainly holds some truth, yet many people manage to experience decades without growing much wiser at all and some young people are what we call wise beyond their years. Though most of us would like to be wise, few of us would honestly describe ourselves as such.

In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul calls the thoughts of the wise futile. He advises them: “Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise.” What could this contradictory message mean?

Worldly wisdom points toward wealth, power, security, and a legalistic kind of justice. God’s wisdom, expressed through the teachings of Christ, points toward humility, mercy, risk, and a kind of justice that is about serving those most in need. The worldly view is often more appealing, and the temptation to twist scripture to rationalize our own desires and prejudices is a strong one. When we interact with the world, particularly if we are called to lead in some way, we should humbly seek God’s will above our own. Our confidence is to be primarily in God, not in our own thoughts and desires. True wisdom tries less to impose itself and more to invite others along.

Acting out of God’s wisdom may make us look foolish to the world, but it also empowers us. When Jeremiah insisted he was too young to be a prophet, God told him: “Do not say, ‘I am only a boy’; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you.” (Jer 1:7). Is there a sense of freedom in knowing we are not under pressure to be wise, but instead to be listening for and guided by God’s wisdom? After we listen we must still act with integrity, discernment, and accountability – as only a fool can do.

Comfort: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Challenge: Once in a while consider the possibility that you might be wrong about something you are sure about, and pray on that.

Prayer: 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 129:23-24)

Discussion: Who do you consider wise?

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Who gives the growth?

/ JJS / 2 Comments
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The Sermon on the Mount, Sebastiano Ricci

Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 36; 147:12-20, 1 Kings 22:29-45, 1 Corinthians 2:14-3:15, Matthew 5:1-10

One of the challenges of resolving petty disagreements is we disagree on what’s petty. What seems like a harmless, off-the-cuff remark to me may feel like a biting comment to you. What seems like a minor annoyance to you may legitimately irritate me to tears. If we come from different parts of the world, something as simple as ordering five hot dogs with a palm facing outward instead of inward might be the insult that sets the lifelong tone of our relationship.

Paul knew petty squabbles could tear apart the early church. When the faithful in Corinth began to divide along lines of who had been converted by Paul and who by Apollos, he knew he needed to push them back together. He told the church that he had planted the seed of faith and Apollos had watered it, but both were only servants of God – the source of the seed and the actual growth.

After a couple thousand years of growth, we are still responsible for tending it, and sometimes we still need to be reminded we are not its source. The nature of the God we serve is deeper and more vast than we can possibly comprehend individually or collectively. Paul describes his role as the builder of a solid foundation upon which many others will build. Everything that people add to that foundation will eventually be tested, and what is not worthy will burn away.

Are we focused on adding things that will endure?

The church has outlasted bad doctrine, power struggles waged on a global scale and in the choir loft, corruption, and schism. What endures? The peacemaking. The mercy. The meek and poor in spirit. Those things, as Jesus preached in the Beatitudes, which are not about leaving our own bold though impermanent mark like graffiti across the face of the foundation, but about serving God by serving others.

We will, accidentally and intentionally, hurt each other. It is in the extending and accepting of olive branches – specifically when we would rather not – that we water and tend the growth. Better to set one small stone of mercy wisely and firmly in place than a great boulder which crumbles because we’ve carved our name too deeply into it.

Comfort: Even if only in a small way, you are adding to the foundation.

Challenge: Think about what you are adding and whether it serves you or God.

Prayer: Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved. (Psalm 80:3)

Discussion: Has God ever used you or someone you know to turn a petty squabble into a moment of grace?

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Listen Like an Ambassador

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 15; 147:1-11, 1 Kings 22:1-28, 1 Corinthians 2:1-13, Matthew 4:18-25

War – whether it be physical or cultural – is a failure of diplomacy. Diplomats bridge the gap between cultures whose differences might otherwise seem irreconcilable except through violent conflict. No embassy is a one-person operation. Usually the ambassador is supported by a staff of cultural, legal, press, military, and other diplomatic attachés. If we are citizens of heaven traveling in a foreign land, we need to determine whether we are tourists or representatives of a higher authority. If we are public about our faith, we have chosen to serve as representatives. That thought should be intimidating, but it doesn’t need to be, if we are observant of those who have served successfully before us.

One of the most important diplomatic skills – arguably the most important – is the ability to listen. When Paul first visited the Corinthians, he did not pretend to have all the answers to their problems. Instead he “decided to know nothing among [them] except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” Paul knew that the mission of diplomacy is not to dominate and to impose, but to understand and relate. He didn’t even attempt to impress the Corinthians, but approached them “in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.” This may not sound like an auspicious beginning, but in the end he delivered his message successfully and established the church in Corinth.

Paul succeeded because he lived his core mission with integrity. People perceived no difference between his words and his life. Because Paul’s message was one of salvation through redemption rather than perfection, his flaws did not undermine that message. As Christian “attachés,” we should find two important lessons here. First, we should never present ourselves as perfected or somehow better than non-Christians. Otherwise, the first time we cut someone off in traffic while sporting a Jesus-fish bumper sticker, our message becomes one of hypocrisy. Second, we need to be serious about living lives that reflect the Spirit within us. Again this doesn’t mean unattainable perfection, but a heart full of the love, peace, mercy, and humility of Christ. A humble example is worth more than a million lofty instructions.

Comfort: Perfection is the enemy of progress.

Challenge: Each day, reflect on how your example could be better.

Prayer: God of the journey, give me ears to hear and words of love.

Discussion: What is the difference between diplomacy and politics?

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Playing God

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 123; 146, 1 Kings 21:17-29, 1 Corinthians 1:20-31, Matthew 4:12-17

Imagine a great crime has been committed against you – one that cannot be made right. The perpetrator is apprehended and found guilty. When the perpetrator demonstrates he’s really sorry, the judge defers the sentence until after perpetrator’s death, at which time his son will suffer the penalty. If you’d have a hard time feeling like justice was being served, you’re probably not alone.

This is pretty much what happened after Ahab, who along with his wife Jezebel had a man stoned under false pretenses to take his ancestral land, humbled himself before an angry God. After Ahab put on some sackcloth, fasted, and put on a sad face, God decided punishment could wait.

Unfair as it seems, God – being almighty and all – gets to call the shots. We don’t have to agree, like, or understand it. But it does teach us something about the practical application of Biblical principles: just because God gets away with it doesn’t mean we can or should.

Punishing the children of the guilty, instead of or in addition to the guilty themselves, is not a just system for human beings to administer. We can’t point to books like Joshua, wherein God commanded virtual genocide, to justify our own tribal violence against people of a different faith or ethnicity. When the psalmists beg God to smash out the teeth and kill the children of their enemies, we can’t assume that’s the sort of behavior God encourages us to pursue. When we twist scripture to justify our worst impulses, who exactly are we serving?

Over and over, God offers redemption and forgiveness to the very people we would expect God to punish. Saul the oppressor of Christians becomes the Apostle Paul. The Ninevites who enslaved Israel are sent the reluctant prophet Jonah and they repent (much to Jonah’s disappointment).  God will do what God will do. Who among us dares to say when God should punish and when God should redeem?

In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul wrote: “God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom.” Let’s walk and act humbly, leaving God’s choices to God.

Additional Reading:
For more on today’s passage from 1 Corinthians, see Fool Me.

Comfort: You don’t have to figure out what God would do; God will do it.

Challenge: Be cautious when using scripture to justify your actions.

Prayer: Merciful God, in my foolishness lead me to your wisdom. Amen. 

Discussion: What actions of God in the Bible are hard for you to understand?

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An Old-Fashioned Sin

/ JJS / 3 Comments

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 135; 145, 1 Kings 21:1-16, 1 Corinthians 1:1-19, Matthew 4:1-11

Covet isn’t a word we use a lot unless we are quoting the Ten Commandments. It can be a difficult concept for us to wrap our brains around. We often treat it as a synonym of envy or desire, but it’s more intense than that. Those are feelings, and God’s commandments don’t waste time telling us what to feel. We can’t covet something unless it belongs to someone else. When we covet our neighbor’s livestock or spouse, we don’t just wish we had one of those too, we dwell on the idea that the one they have should be ours. It’s more than wanting it – it’s convincing ourselves we somehow have more right to it than they do.

King Ahab coveted the land of a man named Naboth. The land, which Naboth used as a vineyard, was his ancestral inheritance. Ahab wanted to turn it into a garden so he offered to buy or replace it, but Naboth declined his offer. Ahab – who as king was wealthy beyond measure and could have built more gardens than he could have visited in a lifetime – became so depressed he wouldn’t eat or leave his bed. Ahab’s wife Jezebel was having none of it. She arranged for false charges of blasphemy to be brought against Naboth and the people stoned him. Ahab didn’t waste any time taking possession of the land.

Coveting may be an old-fashioned word, but it has many modern practitioners. Nations justify war by convincing themselves they deserve what someone else already has. Gentrification drives poor people from their homes into even poorer neighborhoods. In some cases when a person can’t get what they covet – a relationship, a reputation, or even peace of mind – they settle for destroying it.

Coveting isn’t a passing glance or stray thought. It’s a cultivated intention. It’s replacing the only true object of our devotion with something that will not only fail to satisfy, but ultimately diminish us.

Perhaps if we are tempted to covet, we can remember Jesus being tempted by the devil in the desert. Jesus drove him away saying, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” We can’t control our thoughts, but we can choose which ones to follow.

Comfort: Coveting is something  you can avoid.

Challenge: Once a day say a prayer of gratitude for something you have.

Prayer: Merciful God, teach me to be content with what you have seen fit to entrust to me. Amen. 

Discussion: What do you think of when you hear the word covet?

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