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Devotion.al

Tag: tradition

  • Circle of Life and Death

    Genesis 2:4–19, Isaiah 2:11–22, Proverbs 3:1–18

    “…Ashes to Ashes; Dust to Dust…”—Book of Common Prayer, Burial Liturgy

    The Circle of Life was (and remains) a powerful song. Just the title itself reminds us that life is a circle. Adam (i.e., mankind) came from dust. That dirt swept off the floor or vacuumed out of the carpet is just a large amount of dust. We look around our homes and can see dust on books, or tables, or bookshelves, or other places. Dust. If being compared to dust thrown in the trash can bothers you, you can think of yourself being made from stardust (like Carl Sagan wrote/spoke, and musician Moby sang). It may not be much better. It’s still dust. It is (and should be) humbling that we are of dust.

    Lent revolves a lot around repentance. The greatest enemy of repentance is pride. Understanding that we are but dust and ashes helps us keep ourselves in the proper perspective. Hopefully, it helps us put aside our sinful pride. As Isaiah warns, God is not pleased with those who think too much of themselves. Humanity’s ongoing struggle is the warring of its own pride, both as a species and as individuals. The litany of items (cedars, oaks, mountains towers, walls, ships) were all things that people bragged and took pride in. Certainly, mankind had everything to do with the cedars, oaks, and mountains (that was sarcasm). People take pride in things that are not their own, and will often use that same pride against others. Everything will come crashing down around pride-filled humanity, and they will be reduced to dwelling in caves and holes. The passage in Isaiah ends with humankind only having the breath in his nostrils…the breath that God put there (Genesis 2:7).

    God’s breath in us…we who are made of dust. “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5). We often trust the dust and not the breath. We trust the filth and not the life that we have been given. In our pride, we rely on our own and others’ dust. When we trust God, and not our worldly knowledge and “wisdom,” we relinquish our pride. When we accept that we do not and can not understand it all, God is the only reliable answer. Once we arrive at that destination, true repentance can occur. With our repentance, we open ourselves to be formed and re-formed by the one through whom all things were made…Jesus Christ.

    One of the traditions of Lent is to give something up. It is not a rule or must do, it is a tradition. It is a good spiritual practice.
    1) If you have decided to give something up, what is it? Why that? How will it draw you closer to God?
    2) If you haven’t decided to do this practice, why not? Again, not that it is a requirement

  • Spirit of Ashes

    Spirit of Ashes

    Isaiah 58:1–12, Psalm 51:1–17, Matthew 6:19–21

    Ash Wednesday is the start of Lent, the reflective Christian journey to the cross. One of the symbolic pieces are the ashes themselves. The “official” tradition is that the ashes are from last year’s Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday is the day that observes Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem with the pomp and circumstance of a ruler. This jubilation is crushed that same week with his crucifixion. The ashes, therefore, are a somber reminder of earthly pride, joy, and power crushed. Often they are a reminder of our own prides and joys and their short-term nature.

    In the “spirit” of ashes, the following is a modified form of the Book of Common Prayer’s Burial liturgy:
    In sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ, we commend to Almighty God oursleves—our very beings; and we commit our bodies and lives to serve your kingdom on earth; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The Lord bless us and keep us, the Lord make his face to shine upon us and be gracious to us, the Lord lift up his countenance upon us and give us peace.

    It seems strange and morbid to share a passage from a burial rite, yet an integral part of Ash Wednesday is our mortality. Another part, the part which we often focus on during Lent, is our frailty. By frailty, we mean sin and the weaknesses inherent to the human condition. What we may “give up” during Lent is a reflection upon what we believe is one of our biggest “frailties” at the moment, meaning it can change.
    The importance of understanding our finiteness, our mortality, is summed up in Jesus’ words regarding the storage of treasures. The earthly stuff is stolen or rots. It doesn’t last. Only treasures that we store in Heaven last forever. Those treasures are people.

    1) We are all “given” treasures that we are responsible for that are not our children, grandchildren, or other family members. Who are those treasures in your life?

    2) Why is important to remember the quickness of life when as we approach the cross in our spiritual journey?

    3) What do you value: time, money, things, people? All of these have value. Which has priority?

    FD) On Ash Wednesday a cross of ashes is put on our forehead. Why ashes? Why a cross?

  • Legacy of Enemies

    Psalm 35:11–28, Exodus 35:1–29, Acts 10:9–23

    Sometimes the greatest evidence that we are doing well is those that oppose us. Another way of perhaps saying that is that the measure of one’s success is the quality of one’s enemies. Some scholars have claimed that part of the reason why David had so many power struggles was the jealousy of others that we don’t read about.

    Whether it was the counselors of Saul or (later) David’s son Absalom, some scholars believe that there must have been more than Saul and Absalom in the picture. Many times there are those that we are no looking at that are truly the ones guiding things…the power behind the throne, so to speak. We could think of such people positively, as there were and are many counselors who believe their greatest success is the successful leader. On the other hand, there are those who hide behind the leader, using the leader as a distraction from themselves, so as to hide their deeds in the shadows.

    These last ones are in the same spirit as those about whom David laments. David has cared for them. Lamented for them. Prayed for them. How did they repay the care? By piling on when David was down. Not only did they mock him, but they also made it worse by saying bad things about him. They celebrated his misery and misfortune, they who had benefitted from his love and care. As David looked forward, he relied on God to see him through it all. David’s legacy was at stake, and his response was to turn to God. David, like all people, wanted personal success, yet understood that his true legacy relied upon the faithfulness of God.

    Moses understood that everything relied upon God. While in the desert, God called upon the Israelites to give to something greater than themselves. Through Moses, God called upon the Israelites to give from their hearts so as to make a temple to their God, a symbolic reminder that their God was among them. If you’ve ever read the list of items required to make the tabernacle, it’s easy to see how monumental that list was. It also speaks to where the hearts of the Israelites were at that moment. They had escaped slavery with much of the Egyptian wealth. For the most part (there are always exceptions) they freely gave of this newfound wealth to the creation of this temple, rather than hoarding it. Instead of holding on to what would make them individually rich, they gave to something that made them collectively richer than material goods. Yet, if they had just piled all of that stuff at Moses’ feet, nothing would have happened. Instead, people of skill (particular skills of varying types) were required. God just so happened to have blessed some people with those very skills. Out of the collective goodwill, in addition to skills of certain people, and through the faithful leadership of Moses, something greater than they could have imagined came into being. How could a bunch of slaves tasked only to make bricks make something as intricate and amazing as the tabernacle? Through God.

    This amazing event that helped to define a people for generations also captured the hearts of the people, and not in a good way. They had become so ingrained with the outward appearance that when God did a new thing, they were still blind. People important to the seemingly insignificant were so blinded by the wrong legacy that they could not see the truth that was never hidden by God. It had been wrapped so tightly and so much by human will and tradition, that God’s love could not be seen through it all. When Peter had his vision, he too was still captured by the traditions passed down. It was not that God’s law was wrong or ever invalid it was just that the deeper (and Truer) truth could not be seen. God is love. Peter had to have an experience that challenged the legacy he had been handed that God was a God of (rigid) Law. Peter had to have an experience that showed God meant what he said to Abraham, “you will be a father to the nations.”

    1) Legacy is important and must be part of how we frame our lives. However, we must be careful to hand off a good legacy. How can we work to make sure we leave a good legacy?

    2) What makes a legacy good or bad? What makes a legacy live-giving or not?

    3) What are your thoughts about what legacy you will leave behind?

    FD) What family traditions were (or are being) passed down to you?

  • A Day Off Or A Day For

    Psalm 99, Deuteronomy 16:1–17, 1 Corinthians 10:23–11:2

    If you look at the calendar of any country, you will find a number of secular (i.e, non-religious) observances. Sometimes these to get mixed into religion, and some are just odd. Today, for example, has the following “observations”: Day of Unplugging; Pig Day; Employee Appreciation Day; Salesperson Day; Horse Protection Day; Fruit Compote Day; Plan A Solo Vacation Day; World Compliment Day; Refired, Not Retired Day; Dress in Blue Day; Wedding Planning Day. Whew! Did you know so many things/people were “observed” today? That doesn’t even include the week or month observances that March 1st occurs in. Yikes!

    Our word holiday—as you might have guessed—is a conjoining of holy and day. Just the conjoining of the two words creates a problem. In the British Commonwealth (the UK, Australia, New Zealand, India, Canada, etc.), holiday has come to mean vacation. That came into being as holy days were the days people didn’t work. It became associated with leisure rather than God. Even in the US, we use the word holiday to note a day off (except for Holidays, when we mean all the observances starting with Thanksgiving through New Year).

    As the Israelites are about to enter the Promised Land, certain days are being set aside as Holy Days. Some of these Holy Days are non-working (Sabbath) days, but they are not all required to be. What is common across all of them is that God is part of the day. In fact, God is the focus of each of these days. What elevates them over the “normal” Sabbath day is the purpose of their observances, whether it be Passover (salvation/escape from Egypt), bounty of the harvest (that God blessed them), or remembering the wilderness wandering (God lead and took care of them in the wilderness for 40 years).

    Why we remember is as important as what we remember. As we quickly approach the season of Lent (Ash Wednesday is March 6th), it is easy to dismiss holy days as either a mindless or fruitless activity. This is especially true with Lent, as many people use Lent to stop/pause an activity (Facebook, certain foods, etc.) that they need a healthier relationship with anyway. This is not to dismiss these actions (for they can be very good), but to understand the why. Lent is a time of reflection intended to identify with Jesus’ 40 days in the desert, to set our minds to look to the cross, and Good Friday. In other words, it’s about Jesus, Jesus, and Jesus (respectively).

    Why do we remember Holy Days? For the same reason the Israelites were to…God. What do we remember? What God has done, and how God has done it. As a Jew, Paul was very much aware of the power of Holy Days and traditions (Lent is both a group of Holy Days and a tradition, for example). Paul valued them as part of his identity, and also part of his formation. While Gentile Holy Days were minimal (versus Jewish ones), there were still plenty of secular days of observation, and they all mattered.

    1) Have you ever been bored by a holiday? If not, how do you stay excited and engage with a holiday? If you have, how will you become engaged again?

    2) Does recalling or focusing on the fact that a Holy Day (holiday) is about God change how you view them?

    3) Holy Days and their rituals can be empty of any value or meaning if you let them. What will you do to maintain or put value and meaning back into them?

    FD) What is you favorite Holy Day? Why?

  • Growing Knowledge

    Isaiah 5:18–24, Luke 11:37–44, 2 Corinthians 11:1–11

    Much of today’s passages revolve around religious leaders, religious know-it-alls, and egotistical maniacs using religious language. It is really easy to point out the flaw of our and of course everybody else’s religious leaders. Oddly enough, they’re human too. The easy thing to point out is when their pride gets the best of them, and it becomes about them, and not God. We should not be so quick.
    In Jewish tradition, just accepting one’s faith was being a child (which was good). Yet, owning one’s faith meant digging into God’s words and ways, especially with others. Ignorance was no excuse. Christianity continued that tradition (despite what many naysayers would have you believe). We weren’t just to inherit the faith, we were to embody the faith. There is one point where Paul admonishes his charges to be eager to stop being children (“spiritual milk”) and become adults (“meat of the faith”). We are not to have a milk toast kind of faith.

    The flip side, however, is that there are those who take their knowledge to the extreme. These aren’t even the, “so heavenly minded, they’re no earthly good.” These are the people whose quest for knowledge or pride in having knowledge overrides their relationship with God and others. These people are often the religious leaders that Jesus struggled with. Their knowledge or legalistic formulae were perfect. Their walk was anything but.

    The “super-apostles” that Paul wrote about were people who were great debaters or scholars. They believed they have the corner on the right spiritual knowledge. They certainly had the rhetorical skills to make Paul acknowledge that he wasn’t good at public speaking. Yet, while he was religiously well-trained he set it aside to have a relationship with Corinthians so that they could see how the life was to be lived out. Paul took his knowledge and applied it to their lives. He also lived with them. He loved them. When we talk about #Framily this is what we are talking about. Milk knowledge is starting knowledge. It is not supposed to stop there. That’s just the beginning. As we walk in the Christian life, we learn from and teach others. We struggle together. We live life together. Great religious knowledge is the flip side of great religious ignorance. That little space between them is where we need to be.

    1) Have you ever experienced a Christian that saw themselves as so knowledgeable about the faith that you disliked them? What about that was uncomfortable for you?

    2) Have you ever experienced a person that called themselves a Christian, but as you talked with them, you realized they didn’t really understand what that meant? What was the feeling you had?

    3) The biggest thing about #Framily is walking beside one another. How can you walk alongside another in those situations above?

    FD) Isaiah uses the word “woe”. There are 2 primary meanings: sadness and beware. Which do you think Isaiah meant?

  • Great Expectations

    Psalm 55:1–7; Luke 2:21–38; 2 Corinthians 11:18–30

    Families are often quick to share their expectations of a newborn (or coming) baby. The pressure can be on pretty quickly. The parents, too, have expectations of their children. They are often called “dreams” or “maybe someday.” As much as this can put pressure on the child, it can also put as much (or even more) pressure on the parents. Children are, through no fault of their own, the extension and legacy of their parents. Social media puts pressure on both, for the child to be a star performer, and the parent to be the parent of the star.

    Pressure can take on many forms, but there are only 2 types: inside and outside. In the Psalm, we can almost feel the stress and strain that David is under. Many scholars think that this was written while Absalom was in the midst of the overthrow of David (2 Samuel 15–19). That being the case, it makes sense that David is feeling betrayed, and feels very much under pressure. He’s supposed to be the leader of the country and leader of his family, and now he is neither.

    In the days of Jesus, the firstborn son would receive the majority of the family property, take over the occupation of their father, lead the family, and strengthen the family legacy. There was no expectation that the son would change occupation (more like pressure to retain the occupation of their father). Joseph and Mary would have this cultural expectation of their son. Yet, on top of it, there is this awareness that this son is not normal, and something unusual is foretold to happen with them. In honor of the Law and tradition, they go to the Temple to have Jesus circumcised. If they had any expectation of this being just a normal thing, the words of Simeon and Anna remind them that all is not normal with Jesus.

    We can only imagine the interesting dynamic this created in the immediate family, but also the extended family. The extended family would have the expectation that Jesus would be the leader of his immediate family and follow in his father’s trade, and repeatedly reinforce that expectation. Joseph and Mary would have to be both soft and firm toward the extended family. They probably also lived with an underlying tension that the earthly expectation of Jesus was not the heavenly expectation they had been repeatedly told.

    Based on the gap in Scripture regarding Jesus’ life, we are pretty certain that Jesus did follow his father’s, Joseph, trade prior to commencing his ministry. For the family, this would have put off the inevitable, yet it was still coming. The longer Jesus did everyday things, it would be understandable for Mary and Jesus’ siblings to anxiously await for Jesus to up and leave. If we re-read the scriptures, it is quite understandable for the family to be concerned that their entire legacy would be lost, as the powerful don’t like to be taken down. With the example of the Roman power around them, they could have been very afraid that Jesus’ call would negatively affect them, if not cause them to die.

    In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul mentions all the troubles he has gone through as he has traveled. There are natural, criminal, and cultural troubles. Then are troubles of hunger and clothing. While it seems to be almost a tag-on of troubles, we read about Paul’s “pressure” regarding the church. Other than following Jesus, Paul’s biggest concern, his biggest pressure, is regarding the churches. He loves them. He is concerned about and for them. While this phrase seems to be just tossed in there, Paul’s heart shows up in the 13 books of the New Testament that he wrote, THIRTEEN! His heart is for the churches and the people he loves that are in them. He feels responsible for them as leader, shepherd, teacher…and parent.

    Jesus came to earth as one of us. He took responsibility for us. As an infant, there wouldn’t be any pressure purposely put on him, but it would still be there.

    1. What puts the most “pressure” on you? Job performance? Child performance? Financial success? Material success?
    2. When you are under a high amount of pressure, what is your normal response? Do you “just deal” with the pressure? Do you work through to resolve the pressure? Do you surrender it?
    3. Jesus bore the “weight” of the world, yet said that his burden was light. How do you think that works?
    4. [KD] Did someone ever tell you that you had to do something that you felt you should not do? What did that feel like? What did you do?
  • Beyond Hope

    Beyond Hope

    Luke:1:46b-55, James 5:7-10, Hebrews 12:1-2

    Mary’s song/poem of praise is often called the Magnificat in the Protestant/Roman Catholic tradition, or the Ode of the Theotokos (Bearer of God) in the Eastern Orthodox tradition. It is a joy-filled response to God by Mary that appears to be a response to Elizabeth’s joy-filled pronouncement of the Sprit-filled joy of John the Baptist (in utero, of all things) to hearing the voice of the Mother of God (Jesus).

    The double-meaning of Mary’s praise of “…my spirit rejoices in God my savior…” is the Jewish understanding of God (the Father) as the savior of their people, along side the coming salvation of Jew and Gentile through the death of Jesus (God the Son). There is the reality of God as past, present and future savior.

    The Jews knew many experiences of God as savior. The expectation for the coming Messiah was built upon an understanding of a God that was faithful and would fulfill promises made.

    As a Jew, James had the same Jewish understanding as pregnant Mary, and he had seen fulfillment of the Messiah’s coming and salvation. Now James is passing the hope on. It is the expectation based upon God’s faithfulness that the Messiah will come again and the hope that remains strong in the face of adversity.

    In Hebrews, the author notes that Jesus went to the cross joyfully, not because Jesus was looking forward to the pain, anguish, betrayal and death. Jesus was looking beyond the cross, beyond the grave, and even beyond the Resurrection. The author notes that Jesus’ prize was the throne of God. Though the author doesn’t say it here, the other prize was you and me before the throne of God, not in fear of judgement, but as Children of the Most High God.

    Elsewhere, the author of Hebrews notes that Jesus, our Savior, is continually interceding on our behalf and for all eternity. No matter how you feel about yourself being worthy, it doesn’t matter. As shirts and bumper stickers read, “I may not be perfect, but Jesus thinks I’m to die for.” That is our hope and joy.

    1) Are hope and joy the same thing?

    2) Why are having hope and joy important for a Christian?

    3) Why is it important to look at the Old Testament in regards to salvation?

    KD) Why does the author of Hebrews compare faith to running a race?

  • Learn and Apply

    Learn and Apply

    Psalm 25:1-10, Nehemiah 9:16-25, 1 Thessalonians 5:12-22

    “Make your ways known to me, Lord; teach me your paths.” (Psalm 25:4)

    “You sent your good Spirit to instruct them…” (Nehemiah 9:20)

    “…test all things. Hold on to what is good. Stay away from evil.” (1 Thessalonians 5:21-22)

    Psalm 25 is viewed by many scholars as a solid instruction in the faithful covenant life. Many also view this as written by King David toward the end of his life. If we take these two views together, we can see a man who, though very flawed, pursued God and did his best to understand God, and who continued to seek guidance to know God’s plan and fulfill it faithfully.

    Nehemiah reflects on the Israelite exodus from Egypt as part of his reflection upon the return of the remnants of Israel from exile. Nehemiah acknowledges that God never stopped trying to guide the Israelites from their bad habits taken from Egypt. Those that he leads after their exile have brought habits from Babylon that are not of God.

    Paul writes to the Thessalonians, people who were deeply embedded in a culture that did not know God. He calls on them to bear the struggles they are currently going through and to not abandon the faith. Indeed, he calls on them to live it even more deeply, using the faith to filter the world around them and their lives.

    Advent counts down until God comes down. Advent is not just about a child in a manger; it is also about God coming back at the end of the story. Christmas is about the never-ending gift that changes lives, given to us by someone who came and lived just like us.

    When the culture around us counts down the days until Christmas, the culture is really counting down until the time when material things triumph. It is so easy to succumb to the pressures of fitting in. It is so easy to follow the habits and traditions of our culture, which drowns out the hope and light of God with stuff, or shares light-hearted stories without the God of the Universe whose love shines through. Often our biggest challenge during Christmas and Advent is for us to keep Christ in Christmas.

    1) What family traditions do you have in this season?

    2) How do you use those family traditions to bring God in?

    KD) What is your favorite family Christmas tradition? How do you see God in it?