Daily Devotion for Lent 2021 - Day 14

Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 3 (NRSV)

Raising up leadership is never easy and sometimes frustrating.  But it is also the source of great joy!

Paul is experiencing this through the church at Corinth.  He's bringing them along slowly and understands that they are still experiencing jealousy and quarreling.  I hate to break it to Paul but we still deal with these today and it's been almost 2000 years!

So while most leadership would try to dispel these traits, Christian leadership lifts up the opposite values of trust and peace as things we actively pursue.

Paul is trying to remind his new church that grace need not be territorial.  We each have our part to play and if we see God as active within our lives, we find that glory and accolades don't matter as much.  God is the one we ultimately praise for our successes.

His example of planting, watering and growth reminds us that we are never the sole authors of our own achievements.  The question becomes can I become a big enough person to admit the help I've received along the way or am I so insecure that I must claim it all for myself?

And as I see God helping me, it reminds me that I should be a vehicle of God's help for others.  This is the beauty of Christian leadership.  We understand fundamentally that we are never left to our own devices.  God walks the road with us.

I like how Paul ends the chapter with a kind of Zen approach:

For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all belong to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

This allows us to step out of the rat race in a way.  As Christ is in all and we are in Christ, we are connected to the planting and the watering and the growth.  So the territorialism doesn't matter because God transcends territory.

And in the 21st century, can we still see leadership functioning in the same way?  In a flattened world, where hierarchies don't function with the same authority, does this decrease or increase our sense of territory?

We all influence each other and we are influenced by lots of voices.

So ultimately, if we look for how God is present in the surrounding voices, this may help us to decide  which voices more clearly articulate God for us.  Maybe this is the discernment we need to remind us that we are in Christ and Christ is in us.

Like Paul indicates - you are a holy vessel.

Prayer for the day:

Ever-present God, we find that your presence surrounds us through even the mundane.  We may recognize you in the blessing and we may find courage and strength to battle difficulties.  But it is in the daily routine that we often forget to look for you.  Help us to not only see you in the small things but to allow our small actions and words to bring great joy.  We pray these things in Christ who is in all.  Amen.

Photo by It's No Game via Flickr.com.  Used under the Creative Commons license.

All scripture quoted is from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Daily Devotion for Lent 2021 - Day 13

Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 2 (NRSV)

The Spirit is what gives us the ability
to have confidence even when
we may not feel it.

How do you know when you are spiritually discerning and not just confident in your previously held beliefs?

That is the difficult question for us as we try to determine the best way to live our lives.

Paul indicates that he came to Corinth "in weakness and in fear and in much trembling." This is not how modern motivational speakers would advise you to inspire confidence in your audience!  Except that Paul must have lit something within them because they came to faith in Christ and continued as a church.

We begin to see the miraculous in Paul.  He speaks of the power of God, not as something out there, far away or beyond us.  Rather, we have access to this power through the Spirit of God.  As we have shaped our understanding theologically of the Trinity, we see the Holy Spirit as part of the Godhead - fully God and yet distinct from the Father and the Son.

So it is often through the Spirit that we understand ourselves interacting with God.  

But, how do we discern if we are spiritual or unspiritual as Paul says?  How do we determine if the leader we are following is spiritual or leading from their own self-interests?  I am aware that there are times in my life when I was just fooling myself.  Worse yet, I have followed a fool or two.

We are attracted to leaders who are able to connect with us.  We like to see confidence in them and their message (certainly, we prefer that to weakness, fear and trembling).  But sometimes manipulators employ these very tactics.

Paul gives a hint at the end of this chapter.  He states, "we have the mind of Christ."  We often speak of being the body of Christ but we seldom speak of having the mind of Christ.  Maybe we should emphasize this more often. The mind of Christ means that we are familiar and comfortable with the teachings of Jesus.  We remember the parables and can paraphrase them if someone asked us to summarize them.  We remember how he treated people.

This allows us to look at a leader and ask ourselves, "Does this person seem Christ-like to me?"  Do they say and do the things that make me think, "Jesus would do that."

As I consider my own spirituality, I must then turn my gaze upon my own words and actions.

And if I find myself lacking, this may not mean that I am not spiritual.  In fact, the very awareness of my own lack may mean that the Spirit is working in me.  

The real question is will I fan that flame and let it grow?

Prayer for the day:

Loving Spirit, teach us to trust.  Instruct us in our speech.  Give us all confidence so that we will not be afraid to share power and praise and joy.  And if we begin to doubt your presence, let us breathe deeply and pause.  And then wash over us once more.  Illuminate in us the mind of Christ.  For it is in Christ's name we pray.  Amen.

Photo by Chris and Karen Highland via Flickr.com.  Used under the Creative Commons license.

All scripture quoted is from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Gentleness

Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year A

Lectionary Reading: Matthew 20:1-16 (NRSV)

Gentleness is described by Paul as a Fruit of the Spirit.  It is a valuable trait to have.  Anyone dealing with horses or dogs understands the need for a gentle hand in working with them.  Are people so different?

By contrast, we seem to value aggressiveness in our society over gentleness.  Aggressiveness is what wins the day in sports.  Now that football season has started, we would never want to encourage our team to be too gentle.  In fact, the opposite is true.  If a team is seen as too "soft" the coach may have some work to do in toughening them up.  In the old days, a coach might keep the team from drinking water in practice to help them learn discipline over the needs of the body.  We have since recognized that to condition players in this manner is actually dangerous and not worth dying over.

Still, there are those who may consider this an unfortunate loss.

Aggression can lead to leadership.  Sometimes we follow the person who "takes" the job.  We may admire their tenacity and willingness to put themselves out there.  These people are sometimes seen as "go-getters."  After all, we don't want to follow someone who's not willing to lead!

Dominating another human being sometimes leads to hurt feelings.  I've stepped on people's feelings many times as a leader - most of the time it was unintentional.  I confess that sometimes in the heat of the moment, it wasn't.  

What does a gentle leader look like?

This dog could easily take this
child in a fight.  His assurance
that there is no threat allows him to be gentle.

I think a gentle leader is respectful of the crowd.  A gentle leader isn't swayed by the majority if he or she believes that they are in the right.  A gentle leader has a quiet assurance that we will all move forward together.

The parable in today's reading shows, I believe, gentle leadership by the owner of the vineyard.  He is willing to risk his reputation among those whom he hired to make sure everyone has enough.  These late arrivals had mouths at home to feed just like everyone else.  The owner is willing to take a stand but he does so without disrespecting those complaining.  

Gentleness is probably needed at home more than usual because we are kind of stuck with one another right now.  There is less getting out and so we are getting to know each other better.  Unfortunately, sometimes our worst traits emerge when we are stressed.  If you have teenagers, they are still jockeying for position and maybe more so as the isolation time stretches on.  Are you allowing them to grow into maturity or freezing them in time while all this is going on?

How do we speak to one another?  Is it respectful?

Would you categorize it as gentle?

To be gentle is not to be weak.  It is acting with an assurance that you can handle yourself.  There is no need to be aggressive because there is most likely not a threat in real life situations.  As we stay connected with God, we recognize that gentleness is a by-product of that connection.  Maybe that's all the reason we need to re-assess its value.

In Christ,

Sam

Photo by Josh Ward via Flickr.com.  Used under the Creative Commons license.