An American Denomination

As we celebrate Independence Day in our country once more, it is interesting that the beginnings of our Methodist roots in America coincide with the beginnings of our country.  While the Declaration of Independence from British rule was adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4th, 1776, the war continued until we signed the Treaty of Paris on September 3, 1783.

As a British colony, we often think of freedom of religion in the colonies with the pilgrims as well as other Protestant seekers of independence.  But as an empire, wherever the British established colonies around the world, the Church of England (Anglican Church) followed.  John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, was a priest in the Church of England.  He spent some time in the colony of Georgia but that was not his finest moment of ministry.  Methodism was originally meant to be a method of accountability for members of the Church of England – helping them to deepen their faith in Jesus Christ.  And because it was so popular, wherever the Anglicans went in the world, Methodists soon arose.

When the fighting in the American colonies broke out, many of the Anglican priests returned to England.  Methodist members may have filled the pulpits as lay preachers, but they did not baptize or offer Holy Communion as these sacraments were reserved for the clergy.  So Wesley sent Anglican priest, Thomas Coke to ordain the lay preachers in the new United States of America in 1784 during the Christmas conference from December 24 to January 2nd.  The Methodist Episcopal Church was born as a separate denomination from the Church of England.

Wesley truncated the Articles of Religion (adopted by the Church of England in the 16th century) from 39 to 24.  One of the articles that didn’t make the cut dealt with the power of the King of England!  Instead, the new denomination added what is now article 23 which states: 

“The President, the Congress, the general assemblies, the governors, and the councils of state, as the delegates of the people, are the rulers of the United States of America, according to the division of power made to them by the Constitution of the United States and by the constitutions of their respective states. And the said states are a sovereign and independent nation, and ought not to be subject to any foreign jurisdiction.”

The fact that a new denomination put this in their own Articles of Religion shows how unique this was at the time for a government to be set up as a representative democracy.  It was groundbreaking at the time and is still powerful today.  

Since our beginnings occurred close together, we can see how we have influenced one another through the years.  United Methodism also has three branches of governance, and the United States has been influenced by Methodism’s emphasis on free will and equity.  

The United Methodist Church continues to support our Constitution’s first amendment giving freedom of religion.   We appreciate being able to govern our own affairs and believe that others should share this same right.  I’m proud to be an American and a United Methodist and believe that they each refine the other.  That is something to celebrate!

Daily Devotion for Easter Sunday 2025

Today's Reading: Job, Chapter Forty-two

It is fitting to finish this study on Job on Easter as we see that resurrection comes in today's conclusion.

Job is finally vindicated just as he has been asking for throughout the book.  It is interesting that we see Job is responsible for praying for his three friends.  Their fate is in his hands.  I can see them saying to him, "Remember how we came and sat with you in silence for seven days?"

Of course, Job forgives them because Job is a righteous man.

Or it could be that it would be nice to have his friends around so he could rub their noses in his victory for the rest of their lives!  This is written tongue-in-cheek (and doesn't fit with his righteousness) but is funny to think about nonetheless.

Job's fortunes in livestock are restored to twice what he had before.  We assume his boils and sores also heal nicely.

One difficulty for modern readers is the ten replacement children that Job sires.  Job's wife may not have felt that this was such a great blessing at her age (and already birthing ten previously)!

This reminds us that this story is told from a patriarchal lens.  The restoration has more to do with the honor of the head of the household.  The family name and prosperity are secured with these new offspring.  In this culture, the individual is minimized to the point where an ancient reader would be fine with the idea that ten new children are acceptable replacements for the former children.  They are regrettable losses and it is sad to be sure, but what matters is the security of the overall family line.

Another odd thing about this ending is that this is actually the argument that Job's three friends were making all along: the righteous receive earthly blessings while the wicked are punished in the here and now.  If you are blessed materially, you must have God's favor for good behavior.  If you are suffering, you must have done something offensive to God.

The argument that Job (and the theme running throughout the book) is that faith is not always transactional.  Sometimes the wicked get away with their bad deeds (at least at a surface glance) and sometimes people are good but are not necessarily rewarded for it.

We see this new way of thinking through the Easter story.

Judas dies but is not killed by God.  Rather, Judas takes his own life.  

Peter gets off the hook for his denials.

Thomas isn't told to go to the back of the class for his doubting - he receives the same assurance as the other disciples.

The eleven disciples who deserted Jesus are promoted to apostles who will lead the church.

We see grace offered in spite of their failings.  But this doesn't mean that being a disciple is a get-out-of-suffering-free card.  What we find is that our faith helps get us through the difficulties of life.

A resurrection faith is optimistic - we believe that life is ultimately stronger than death and that God will eventually win out.  This seems to be the point of Job.  This would be especially true if we see Job as a metaphor for Judah.  The exile is not permanent, and God's people will have a future.

For a people that are more community-oriented rather than individual-oriented, this is enough.

Prayer for the day:

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.  Amen.

Prayer from the Gloria Patri: Lesser Doxology, 3rd-4th centuries

Photo by Jason Thompson on Unsplash

Daily Devotion for Lent 2025, Day 40

Today's Reading: Job, Chapter Forty, verse fifteen through Chapter Forty-one

This reading is a bit longer, but I thought the verses concerning Behemoth and Leviathan fit together nicely.  Humans were thought to be unable to contend with Behemoth or Leviathan, but they are not mightier than God.  These great monsters would have been among the mythic creatures that dotted the pantheons of the surrounding cultures to Judaism. 

If we can imagine Job representing Judah during the Babylonian exile, then Behemoth and Leviathan may represent the Babylonian empire.

We know that the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple and took the most powerful families back to Babylon.

As many saw the Temple as the place where God lived, its destruction may have caused some to question, "Are the Babylonians mightier than God?"

As we see Behemoth and Leviathan as less than God, this indicates that even the mightiest empires fall in line and show subservience to God.

This is helpful when we feel small in the face of changes we can't control.  Empire today might be political forces at work in the world.  Empire might be economic forces such as market woes.  Empire could be systemic forces that demean certain people.  Empire can seem so large that it may make one feel insignificant.  God reminds us that even empires are finite.  Behemoth and Leviathan are not eternal.

The disciples experienced Empire as well.  Jesus ran into the Roman machine that decided he was not only expendable but detrimental to their well-being as the latest Empire in their time.  The disciples are trying to figure out what comes next.  We know the end of the story, but they are sitting in their grief on this Holy Saturday.  

They will soon discover what we have seen in Job, that God is mightier than any Empire.  

As we finish Lent, we have discovered that God is not as predictable as Job's friends would suggest.  We'll finish the book on Easter as we anticipate an ending for the faithful.

Prayer for the day:

Gracious God, we often find that our problems seem mountainous.  We forget that through faith, Jesus reminds us that we can indeed move mountains.  Help us to see the possibilities more often that the difficulties.  And when the difficulties do arise, may we find that they are insignificant compared to the power we find available in you.  We pray these things in Christ's holy name.  Amen.

Photo by Ravit Sages on Unsplash

Daily Devotion for Lent 2025, Day 39

Today's Reading: Job, Chapter Forty, verses one through fourteen

As we see the humbling of Job, we may find that Job represents humankind in our efforts to put ourselves in the place of God.  This has long been a theme in the Bible and we see it many times over in Genesis with:

• Adam and Eve putting their own will above God's
• Cain playing God with the life of his brother
• The Tower of Babel where the technology of humanity has exceeded their wisdom and allowed them to seek to upstage God.  

This also becomes a lesson in grace versus works as we determine that our "own right hand" will not be able to give us the victory.  Certainly, death always looms large for mortals.

On Good Friday, this may read a little differently if we imagine Jesus in Job's place as he quotes Psalm 22 from the cross:

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

The Psalm goes on to ask further, " Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?  O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night but find no rest."

Yet, this quote from the cross would also cause a reader who knows the Psalm to remember verse 27 which states, "All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before him."

Jesus hasn't arrived yet.  He must suffer first, just as Job suffered.  They both have expressed the human dilemma of the seeming absence of God.

God seems to put Job (and humanity) in his place in chapter forty as we see him cowed.  But within Christian understanding of the Trinity, God (in Jesus) is the one to experience the absence of God.

On Good Friday, God enters that place on the cross.

Prayer for today:

God, thank you for wrestling with us during all the times we have put ourselves in your place.  And thank you for remaining with us in our time of need - even those times we could not perceive you.  As we remember your suffering on the cross today, may we not abandon you.  Amen.

Photo by Alicia Quan on Unsplash

New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Daily Devotion for Lent 2025, Day 38

Today's Reading: Job, Chapter, Thirty-nine

God continues to extol the variety of the created order.  We are reminded in Psalm 24:1 that "The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it".  The author of Job includes all of the wildlife in the earth as well as the human beings.

A part of our work as human beings is to act as stewards for all life on earth on behalf of God.  This work was tasked to us at the beginning of Genesis which should emphasize its importance.  Genesis 1:26 states that people shall "have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the wild animals of the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”

As we see Job at the beginning, we are told in 1:3 that he owned "seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East."  Wealth would have been gathered in livestock in that day.  Of course, later in the chapter, they are either all killed or stolen.  

Job doesn't speak explicitly about his own stewardship of the domesticated animals under his care, but he does mention his stewardship of the earth in 31:38-40:

"If my land has cried out against me and its furrows have wept together, if I have eaten its yield without payment and caused the death of its owners, let thorns grow instead of wheat and foul weeds instead of barley.”

So, Job does claim to follow God's law concerning stewardship of the land.  It would make sense that he would care for his animals as well.

Sheryl standing in front of the Ceiba Tree in Vieques, Puerto Rico.
  This tree is a little over 300 years old!

As I think about humanity's care for God's creation, I wouldn't be excited to receive our grade from God.  As Sheryl and I enjoy the outdoors and seek to do our part to care for it, I usually find myself picking up trash in some pretty obscure spots.  It's pretty disappointing to find evidence of someone else's laziness.  The recent cuts in environmental guidelines by the United States government are short-sighted and negligent in what God has asked us to do.

On this Maundy Thursday, we remember Peter's predicted denial of Jesus at the Last Supper.  It may be that we are collectively denying the Creator's tasks for us.

As we read this chapter with eyes of faith, we should be able to see the wonder and beauty of all that God has made.  It's important that we understand our role in saving safe spaces for other living things to co-habit this world with us so that the generations to come will also share in the wonder and beauty of all that God has made!

Prayer for the day:

Creating God, as we walk in your world, teach us to tread lightly.  And as we stop and look and listen, may we take joy in the knowledge that we do not inhabit this world by ourselves.  Help us to love what you love.  And may our love spur us to action.  Amen.

New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Daily Devotion for Lent 2025, Day 37

Today's reading: Job, Chapter Thirty-eight

Well, God does finally show up again in Job - and for the first time in the prose section.

God comes across with a haughtiness that presents as more aloof than reassuring.  How could God possibly be concerned about your affairs when God is busy tending to the ordering of the universe?

This feel is very different from Jesus' telling us that God knows the number of hairs on our head.

As we are reminded that Job experiences this from a sense of grief, it may feel different to imagine Job coming to this realization about God as a self-discovery rather than God berating him verbally.

We see at the beginning that God answers "Job out of the whirlwind."  This seems counter to how Elijah experiences God on Mount Horeb where he experiences a terrible wind, an earthquake and a raging fire but God was only present afterwards in the sound of sheer silence.

For Job, the whirlwind may have been all of the terrible losses he experienced all at once.  As he moved through denial, anger, bargaining and depression, he may have painfully arrived at acceptance.  Within this acceptance is often a realization that we are not at the center of the universe.

This can be a painful, difficult journey (and some people never get there), but it often leads to greater maturity. 

It may be that out of our pain, we discover God in the vastness of the created order which surrounds us.  And rather than feel smaller and insignificant, as we remember and realize that just as God counts the stars (Pleiades and Orion), God also counts the hairs on our heads. 

How does our faith coincide with the vastness of God in order to provide you connection and meaning rather than the opposite?

Prayer for the day:

Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name throughout the earth! You made your glory higher than heaven!  From the mouths of nursing babies you have laid a strong foundation because of your foes, in order to stop vengeful enemies.  When I look up at your skies, at what your fingers made— the moon and the stars that you set firmly in place— what are human beings that you think about them; what are human beings that you pay attention to them?  You’ve made them only slightly less than divine, crowning them with glory and grandeur. You’ve let them rule over your handiwork, putting everything under their feet— all sheep and all cattle, the wild animals too, the birds in the sky, the fish of the ocean, everything that travels the pathways of the sea.  Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name throughout the earth!  Amen.

Prayer is Psalm 8 from the Common English Bible © 2011 by Common English Bible

Photo by Klemen Vrankar on Unsplash

New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Daily Devotion for Lent 2025, Day 36

Today's Reading: Job, Chapter Thirty-seven

Elihu continues to "teach" Job about the nature of God.  We move into the natural world as the handiwork of God's domain.  

He easily sees God in the storm and the wind and the rain.  

When God sends the torrential downpours, the animals have no recourse but to hide in their dens.  This gives a strong sense of the sovereignty of God over even the wild beasts.

There was a sense of mystery regarding the natural world that we have lost today.

When Elihu asks in verse 15, "Do you know how God... causes the lightning of his cloud to shine?", Job would not have a response.

Today, a quick google search reveals, "Lightning shines because the massive flow of electrical current during a lightning strike rapidly heats the air to extremely high temperatures, causing the air molecules to become incandescent and emit a bright, blue-white light."

I'm not supporting a return to ignorance, but scientific explanation does take some of the mystery out of the world.  

As a person of faith, I think it is important for us to acknowledge the Creator even as we may see evolution as a tool in the Creator's belt!  But if we see God working with all of the forces in nature or maybe, as a part of these forces, it can restore the sense of awe and wonder.

I know atheists who still find a sense of awe in the universe when the night sky is on full display.  The connection to that sense of vastness for me is one of the ways I see the Divine at work.  

As we see spring unfolding all around us, where can you see God acting as a part of this and take joy from it?  We, too, are a part of the created order and it is good to acknowledge our distant cousins all around us.  I believe that this can be an important spiritual discipline for us to add to our tool belt!

Our prayer was written hundreds of years ago from what would now be modern Turkey.  It could have been written yesterday.

Prayer for the day:

O God, enlarge within us the sense of fellowship with all living things, our siblings the animals to whom you gave the earth as their home in common with us.

We remember with shame that in the past we have exercised the high dominion of humanity with ruthless cruelty so that the voice of the earth, which should have gone up to you in song, has been a groan of travail.  May we realize that they live not for us alone but for themselves and for you, and that they love the sweetness of life.  Amen.

Prayer by Basil the Great, Caesarea of Cappadocia, 4th Century

Photo by John Fowler via Flickr.com.  Used under the Creative Commons license.

New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.