Daily Devotion for Lent 2021 - Day 35

Scripture Reading: 2 Corinthians 8

If this is what the preacher starts to 
look like to the parishioners, the
effectiveness starts to really drop!

Here we can see one of the earliest stewardship drives in the church.  Paul seems to be indicating that the church at Corinth may be better off financially than some of the other churches in the Mediterranean.  Corinth, as an important port, may have been a wealthier city and the church there may have had wealthier members.

There may have been questions about why Corinth had already given more than these other places and Paul is trying to show them that it was balanced with their ability.  As we look at percentage giving, if a person making six figures gives 10%, they would out-give in sheer volume someone making five figures who also donated 10%.  However, the person making five figures would likely find it impacting their lifestyle more.

Paul utilizes the idea of Jesus Christ becoming poor for our sakes.  We see here the concept of the eternal nature of Christ which stretches both ways in time.  The idea that he was at first rich indicates his heavenly glory prior to becoming mortal.  John's Gospel will later expound on this theology in the beginning of his telling.  But Paul relates to us how Jesus was willing to give up all for our sakes and how we should then be willing to provide the same for others.

This may have been as difficult in Paul's day as it is in ours.  If a person feels a disconnect with the ministry, it is much more likely that this person's support will wane.  But if they hear the story from the visiting missionaries from time to time, they are more likely to feel engaged.  Titus and other "brothers" are regularly making the rounds to the churches to keep them engaged in the mission.

As we think about this, would we even have the faith that comforts us today if they had not made these journeys and asked for support to expand the mission?

Today, we have some of the same difficulties.  Churches everywhere are trying to stay engaged with congregants during a pandemic.  We try to communicate the message in different formats and reach those who are unable to join us physically with varying results.  What might be effective for some - where they feel connected - may feel distant for others.  Fortunately, we are hopefully seeing the light at the end of this tunnel!

As things continue to change, how will we fund the ministries that will reach the generations to come?

Prayer for the day:

Generous God, we do understand that riches come in a variety of ways.  Some people who have great financial wealth may be impoverished spiritually.  Connect us with your mission once more so that our sense of purpose gives us greater peace.  May we see where our own generosity is connected with transformation.  We pray these things in Jesus' name.  Amen.

Photo by Mike Mozart 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 34

Scripture Reading: 2 Corinthians 7

As we have seen Paul's afflictions in the previous chapter, we get the sense that God has helped alleviate them - at least helped to make them bearable.  

How does God accomplish this?  Certainly through various means but here Paul shows that God is actually working through the Corinthians in order to lift Paul's spirits during hardship.  In verse four, Paul writes, "I have great pride in you; I am filled with consolation; I am overjoyed in all our affliction."

When we are trying to be change agents - and certainly, this was a change in the way many people came to know God - there is often great resistance.  For the most part, people are not excited to have you change their way of thinking.  They will often punish the inciter of the change and this often happened to Paul.  This work can be discouraging and this was likely happening to Paul in Macedonia.  Then he hears from Titus about the church at Corinth and his discouragement turns to rejoicing.

For Paul, leaving a new congregation must have been like turning over the keys to the car for the first time to a new teenage driver.  Before, you have always been in the car with them, tamping on imaginary breaks in the passenger seat while you suck in your breath and tell them to "SLOW DOWN!!"  But eventually they get their own license.  They have passed all the tests.  Are they really ready?  Only time will tell but we have to trust them to try.  When they come back from that first drive alone and the car is undamaged, we feel pride and some measure of relief and there may be some joy.  

The faith that lived in Paul has taken root.  It has sprung up in others and they did receive his disciple Titus with hospitality and anticipation just has he had hoped.  When we are vindicated in our hope, this is a cause for celebration and it does lift us up.  And we may think, the present troubles we are enduring are all worth it.

How are the seeds of faith being sown in the generation to come?  Are we trusting others to lead in ways that will provide enough risk for them to either succeed or fail?  As we think back to our best learning experiences, they may have been accompanied with a little fear and trembling.  But as we understand God to be with us, we often find that these are the lessons that stick with us the best.

Prayer for the day:

Living God, we give thanks that you continue to trust human beings and that you have specifically trusted us.  We are grateful for the times we have been able to step up and share your grace with the world.  And for those times, we have stumbled in our sharing, forgive us.  We give thanks that we can learn from our failures as much as from our successes.  May our achievements in the faith give pride and joy to those who led us along the way.  In Christ's name we pray.  Amen.

Photo by Gordon Bell 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 33

Scripture Reading: 2 Corinthians 6

Paul is pushing on toward salvation in Christ for the Corinthians.  He quotes from Isaiah 49:8 which reads in its entirety:

Thus says the Lord: In a time of favor I have answered you, on a day of salvation I have helped you; I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people, to establish the land, to apportion the desolate heritages;

The idea of God giving Israel as a covenant to the people is a strong theme in Isaiah and also becomes the narrative for the people following Christ.

I've always found going uphill 
is easier with friends.

Paul holds onto this mission as he lists all of the things he has endured through verses 4 and 5.  Many of that day might look at all of these things and ask, "Are you sure that you are doing God's will?"  

Paul's faith is an optimism that allows for suffering in the world and may even expect it.  But Paul's faith transforms suffering.  Paul sees hardships through the lens of faith in Christ as opportunities to show others how they too can overcome suffering.  

The challenge for us comes when Paul speaks of his love being wide open without restriction for the Corinthians.  But he also acknowledges that this affection may not be reciprocated.  

Have you ever loved a child that was angry with you?  In our most immature moments, we may yell back if they have hurt our feelings with a particularly effective barb.   But at our finest, we don't regress to that level and continue to remain calm and offer love and guidance.  Paul references this image as he states, "I speak as to children" and implores them to "open wide your hearts also."

It is important for us to remain open hearted to those who may not be at the same place.  This is a characteristic of Christians and our interactions may give us our own list of hardships and endurances!  

Paul's letter takes a turn here to speak of marriage with a non-Christian through 7:1.  Then it picks back up where verse 13 left off in 7:2.  Some scholars think that this was a fragment from another letter that was inserted here.  It seems to refute what he said to them earlier in 1 Corinthians 7:14: 

For the unbelieving husband is made holy through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy through her husband.

Paul finishes with words from the Hebrew Bible.  The material seems to be a mashup of Leviticus 26:12, Ezekiel 37:27, Isaiah 52:11 and 2 Samuel 7:14.  

Why the seeming switch in thought?  Possibly, the community during his earlier letter was not large enough for marrying within the congregation.  As the church began to branch out, it also might be difficult for a fledgling faith to hold onto its identity if there was a lot of pagan thought influencing the church through multiple spouses that believed otherwise.

Today, we do not prohibit marriage with non-Christians.  For this we tend to rely on the earlier thought of Paul rather than the latter!  Maybe this is the way that we are opening wide our hearts today!

Prayer for the day:

Blessed God, we give thanks that you live in us and walk among us.  You are our God and we are your people.  Help us to remain faithful to you no matter the hardship.  May our suffering be transformed so as to remove any obstacles that would cause someone to stumble.  Amen.

Photo by Gordon Bell 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 32

Scripture Reading: 2 Corinthians 5

For some people, this is 
more like the image of God
to them - waiting for them
to mess up and then striking
them down.

What does it mean to stand before the judgment of God?

Paul gives us this image of our souls being swept up to heaven when our earthly bodies fail us.  But while we may have been worried about appearing before God and being found wanting, we find that we are reconciled to God in Christ.  Yet the image of judgment doesn't leave us but Paul shifts it to our appearing "before the judgment seat of Christ."

Is this a softer judge who will be easier on us or is this out of the frying pan and into the fire?

I think it may depend upon how we have used these earthly bodies we have been given - or at least that's what Paul seems to indicate.

Much of the time, when we talk about justification by faith, we have often substituted belief for faith.  In other words, our salvation becomes an idea that we must hold in our heads and our hearts.  If we but claim Jesus as our Lord and Savior, then all is forgiven and the doors to heaven swing wide for our entry!

But there is a little more to faith than just belief.  Faith leads us to growth in love.  Love leads us to reconciliation with God but also with others.  Faith allows us to infuse the earthly with the spiritual.  We see with eyes of faith and this allows us to find hope where none existed before.  Faith allows us to forgive where any fool can see that we should be holding a grudge!

This faith is what allows us to become a new creation in Christ!  And so we would have others to know this faith in Christ because it is life giving.  And as we are reconciled to God in Christ, we understand that the heavenly life doesn't really start when we die but it begins as we take on this faith for ourselves.

And so as I begin to look around and think, "Who do I know that needs some reconciliation in their lives?" I then have truly adopted this faith for myself because I have become an ambassador for Christ.

Prayer for the day:

Beneficent God, we give thanks for the grace we have difficulty comprehending.  Help us to be transformed in gratitude.  If there be any hurts or wounds that remain in our lives, close them up and knit them together.  Let us not be afraid to look upon or touch the scars but to know that these make up who we are today.  May we see how they make us strong in the faith and able to offer this grace more freely.  We pray these things as ambassadors of Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Photo by Andy Hay 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 31

Scripture Reading: 2 Corinthians 4

Some things we encounter
are more permanent than others.

How do we understand ourselves in the midst of trouble and turmoil?

As Christians, how do we define ourselves and how do we understand God at work among us?

During every age, we may redefine our identity depending upon the circumstance.  Certainly in the midst of the pandemic, we have faced the greatest pause in the life of faith within our lifetimes.   Those rural areas have not quite faced the same kind of pause that urban congregations have faced simply because the caseloads in these places have been so dissimilar.  But even in these places where worship has continued fairly untouched, there have been members who have refused to attend in person and so the gathering has been diminished.

Within Paul's day, he sees his own afflictions as serving the greater good.  Their purpose becomes to glorify God and so it allows the one who is suffering to come to terms with the pain.  Paul writes of our bodies being as clay jars containing treasure.  The vessel containing the treasure is temporary and wears out but that which it holds is eternal.  

The pandemic has reminded us of our own mortality.  It has served our world almost like a prolonged Ash Wednesday service telling us, "Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return."  But even as we understand our mortal nature, we also hear the words of Paul telling us, 

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;

As we go through physical affliction, we are reminded of the suffering of our Lord.  We see that God has solidarity with humanity in Jesus Christ.  This allows our "inner nature" to be "renewed day by day." 

Even as we mourn those we have lost, we take heart in their "eternal weight of glory beyond all measure."  

We take heart because while things will not return to exactly to how they were prior to the pandemic, the important pieces of our lives will surely endure.  Our faith will strengthen because of what we have endured.  I believe that this is what Paul is celebrating in today's reading.

Prayer for the day:

Eternal God, we grow tired of our lessened public life.  We are weary of conflicting views about it.   We long for relationships without second guessing either their safety or their anxiety in gathering.  Yet, we give thanks that in all of this change, you walk with us.  Help us to see one another as gifts once more.  And as we take heart, may we find that as we are uplifted, this renewal gives you glory.  Amen.

Photo by Christine Warner 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 30

Scripture Reading: 2 Corinthians 3

As we read Paul today, it is important that we understand that he was having an intra-faith argument rather than one faith critiquing another (as it is often seen today).  Christianity was still viewed as a Jewish sect within Paul's day and it was definitely from a minority position as Paul wrote it.

Today, with Christianity being the majority and with the kind of persecution we have seen against the Jewish people (such as the Holocaust), it is highly important that we see Paul's words within the context of which they were written.

If we said today that Judaism kills while Christianity gives life (verse 6), it would likely be lifted up as hate language.  However, Paul never saw this as anything but a Jew who has a new revelation of the Messiah informing other Jews by utilizing the same faith.  There was always a Jewish understanding of being a light to the nations and Paul sees himself within this tradition.

As he speaks of the veil of Moses, he is talking of where Moses speaks directly with God and it causes his face to shine.  Exodus 34:35 states, "the Israelites would see the face of Moses, that the skin of his face was shining; and Moses would put the veil on his face again."

Karl Barth said to "Take your Bible and take
your newspaper, and read both.
But interpret newspapers from your Bible."

Paul uses this story to say that when we are in Christ, the veil is removed or the glory of God is revealed.  It is one way of saying that as Christians, it is important for us to look through the lens of Jesus Christ.  The old question, "What would Jesus do?" should actually be key for us as we consider our interpretation of any Biblical texts as well as our responses in life.

This question actually relates to my opening response to Paul.  As we have become the clear majority and hold power over minority religions, I believe that Jesus would have us tread with caution as he calls us to love our neighbors.  The parable of the Good Samaritan reminds us that it is not always the supposed religious superior that follows through with action regarding the will of God.

So as we move through Lent, where do you perceive that you have power over another?  How do you use the lens of Christ to shine a light upon this relationship?

Prayer for the day:

Mysterious God, I find that you draw me into deeper relationship with you constantly.  A lot of the time, I believe that I'm trying to draw closer to you with the prayers I pray or the scripture I read.  Help me to understand the difference and to see that my actions are a response to the grace I receive.  May this spill over into my relationships with others.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.

Photo by Ken Walton 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 29

Scripture Reading: 2 Corinthians 2

Here we see the maturity of Paul even in the midst of his insecurity.  Whenever we have conflict with others, it may be that we want to cut off emotionally from them.  It is easier to write them off and justify our (possibly hostile) responses to them as deserved.

This comes out of a "there's plenty of fish in the sea" mentality.  Another way of thinking about this is, "life's too short to spend time with jerks."  

But as we come from a resurrection faith that prides itself on reconciliation, Paul understands this as key to his mission.  And so, he doesn't cover over the "painful visit" and the damage done.  He recognizes it and bids those who were damaged by the conflict to forgive the perpetrator.  This is not necessarily easy for them to do because, unlike Paul, they were living with this person.  What if he does it again?

But as we see a different kind of community in Christ where sins do not disqualify one from participation, Paul writes in verse eight, "So I urge you to reaffirm your love for him."

For the Christian, it is important for us to see forgiveness as a tool of resurrection faith.  Practical mercy is in fact the epitome of resurrection.  The relationship under conflict may have indeed died.  As I forgive, the relationship may spring up into new life.

This idea of giving wings to our faith has been lifted up for centuries prior to Paul by the prophets and he continues in this important tradition.  He concludes the chapter by reminding us "we are not peddlers of God's word" but "in Christ we speak as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from God and standing in his presence."

We bring the presence of God when we offer forgiveness.  This idea reminds me of Jacob's words to his brother Esau after Esau graciously received Jacob in Genesis 33:10, "for truly to see your face is like seeing the face of God—since you have received me with such favor."

How can we embody the presence of God?  How do we overcome the pain of conflict and offer forgiveness?

Prayer for the day:

Gracious God, we have been wounded by strangers and friends alike.  Help us not to see ourselves as weak and put upon but tough and hardy.   It is in Christ that we can find strength to offer forgiveness.  Let the healing that comes from this forgiveness touch us and touch the offender.  May it be transforming so that we experience resurrection here and now.  In the name of Jesus, who forgave those who harmed him, we pray.  Amen. 

Photo by Olivia Steele 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.