Devotions for the Eighteenth Week of Pentecost

Monday of Pentecost 18 – Prayer of the Week

Almighty God, You exalted Your Son to the place of all honor and authority. Enlighten our minds by Your Holy Spirit that, confessing Jesus as Lord, we may be led into all truth; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

The “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams is one of the few contributions to the Science Fiction genre which is also comedic. In one scene the main characters of the story land on a planet and find the capital city in a military lockdown. The downtown area has been evacuated; soldiers ring the central plaza with weapons at the ready, all trained on the courthouse. Within that building is a harmless man. He had been summoned as a witness and swore to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And he did! He told the whole truth, all of it.

No one could bear that whole truth which he told. At first it was alright, but soon no one could tolerate it. They evacuated the building and called in the military. It was just too much for people to hear the truth. Adams, the author of the story, was noting how convenient lies are for us and how much they seem to make our lives easier. We can tell ourselves that we are basically OK when we are not. The truth is hard to bear. Adams does not think we can stand it. He wrote that in 1979, over 40 years ago. What would he say about this time in which we have “alternate facts” and wild conspiracy theories abound?

Are you truly ready to pray this prayer? We ask God to enlighten our minds so that by the Spirit’s guidance we be led into the whole truth. That truth will have some difficult things to say about you and me. We are not OK. Our problems go very deep and are inescapable. The solutions are unpleasant and, frankly, unbearable. This is where we need the other parts of this prayer. The enlightenment is an act of the Holy Spirit, and we are led to the truth confessing Jesus as Lord. We can bear the truth of ourselves and confront reality only at the direction of that Spirit and in the light of Christ’s work. Otherwise, like the people on that planet in Adams story, we must flee the truth.

Tuesday of Pentecost 18 – Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32

1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge’? 3 As I live, declares the Lord GOD, this proverb shall no more be used

by you in Israel. 4 Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die…

25 “Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way not just? Is it not your ways that are not just? 26 When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it; for the injustice that he has done he shall die. 27 Again, when a wicked person turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he shall save his life. 28 Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions that he had committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die. 29 Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ O house of Israel, are my ways not just? Is it not your ways that are not just?

30 “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, declares the Lord GOD. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. 31 Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? 32 For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD; so turn, and live.”

“You should not have put it on the table when I was coming home from school!” Indeed, his parents should have known that he was coming home from school in a bad mood and would fling his pack onto the table and thereby bump the vase off the table and onto the floor. It was surely his parents’ fault that the vase now lay broken on the floor. At least in that teen’s logic it was their fault.

In Ezekiel’s day the people were in a terrible Exile and felt that they had been punished for their parents’ sins. That is the meaning of the proverb Ezekiel quotes, the fathers eat sour grapes, but the children’s teeth are set on edge. God rejects this line of reasoning. You cannot blame someone else. That is a truth which we would do well to remember. It is not just children who like to blame their parents. Many of those who march and even riot in the streets claim that the injustice of the past makes violence and destruction permissible in the present. On the other side of that equation, some imagine that because they did not directly participate in oppression, they have no responsibility to help the neighbor in need. Both are wrong.

The soul who sins shall die… Because the mortality rate for being human remains stubbornly at 100%, Ezekiel’s words should make anyone who would pass the blame to another hesitate. I knew a man who had been born with a degenerative disorder which trapped his sharp mind in a body which progressively robbed him of mobility, speech, and control of basic bodily functions. It was not fair. Had he inherited some genetic defect? Should he blame his parents? Was there some environmental cause – should he blame the nearest factory? If anyone had a reason to be angry and bitter, it was this man. He was not. He was in fact a ray of sunshine wherever he went. He had heard the last line of this text. God takes no pleasure in the death, suffering, or misery of anyone. He had heard God’s gracious invitation in Christ to turn and live. His problems were his own problems. God saw them and offered his help. He took that help and lived the life God had

given him in joy, knowing that in God’s time, at the resurrection of the dead. God would make everything right again. We cannot undo the past, but we can love our neighbor in the present. Ezekiel called his generation to see that their own lives were distorted by sin. Yes, they suffered in the current situation. But the real question was then and remains today, what shall we make of this situation. Blaming another solves no problems. Repenting, changing, turning to God, and living – that has a future.

Wednesday of Pentecost 18 – Psalm 25:1-10

1 To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul. 2 O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exult over me. 3 Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame; they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.

4 Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths. 5 Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.

6 Remember your mercy, O LORD, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. 7 Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O LORD!

8 Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in the way. 9 He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way. 10 All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.

It was one of those hot, humid, summer days which afflict the residents of Missouri. We were taking a much-needed break from baling hay, sitting in the shade of a spreading oak tree. Neil, whose hay we were baling, also ran a service station in town. The farm was more of a hobby for him. He asked me with some disbelief in his voice, “you mean you don’t understand how air conditioning works?” The topic had come up rather naturally considering the temperature in the barn. I had to admit that I did not have this knowledge. Air conditioning was a mystery. One pushed the button, turned it on, and cold air came out. I can still remember him patiently and thoroughly explaining how a liquid converting to gas absorbs heat and makes air-conditioners work. As a man who fixed cars for a living, he thoroughly understood the subject.

I thought about Neil the other day. We were making ice-cream and I was pouring rock salt onto the ice. Neil had used ice-cream making as an example of the principle of air-conditioning. Against all my intuition but along the lines of what Neil taught me, ice-cream firms up faster on hot days than on cold days. The reason is that the ice melts faster. That means it absorbs the heat from the churn faster. And the cream freezes faster. You would think it would take longer to freeze ice-cream on a hot day. But it is the other way around. You must melt the ice to freeze the cream.

The psalmist asks God to teach him his paths and to make know the ways of the Lord to him. If you remember the Isaiah 55 reading from not long ago, God reminds us that his ways are not our ways; they are higher and better. I would never imagine that more salt and a hot day will get me ice-cream faster. But it does. God, who is holy and just, approaches sins and sinners with love, compassion, and forgiveness. Who would have imagined it? Yes, God, teach me your strange and upside-down ways that do not remember the sins of my youth or my middle age. Instruct this sinner in your ways and I will rejoice with your psalmist that God’s ways are steadfast love and faithfulness.

Thursday of Pentecost 18 – Philippians 2:1-18

1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

17 Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. 18 Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.

Sometime in 1614, we are not sure the exact date, a French mother and father welcomed an infant boy into their home. They named him Nicolas. His parents were peasants and economic straits pushed him into the military where he would get regular meals and clothes. But the price would be high. He fought in the Thirty Years War, left the army with an injury to his leg and pain in his soul. He took a job as a valet in the household of the French national treasurer but, by his own admission, was bit of a clumsy oaf, but also due to his injured leg. When his time of service was done, he decided to pursue holiness in earnest. He entered a Carmelite monastery as a lay brother and spent the next fifty years cooking and making sandals. (The vows of his branch of the Carmelites mean they do not wear shoes, even in winter, so there was always a need for more sandals.)

Upon taking his vows, as is usually the case, he took a new name. He became Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection. Even though his duties were humble and his education minimal, people began showing up in the kitchen and the workroom where he made sandals. They came just to talk to him. If they could not be there, they sent letters and he replied. He knew peace and was wise. When he died the Abbot collected his letters and the records some had made of his conversations. You can still read this little book. It is called “The Practice of the Presence of God.” The bishop who approved the book for publication said this about Lawrence:

He forgot himself and was willing to lose himself for God, that he no longer thought of virtue or his salvation ... that he had always governed himself by love without interest.

In this reading today, Paul notes his absence from the Philippians, but he also notes the presence of God “who works in you, both to will and to work for his pleasure.” In the middle of the 17th century the presence of God meant this young French veteran joined a rigorous monastic community where he shone as a light in the world. In this day, your life of humble service will be different, but the same God calls you to shine with Christ-like humility. We work out our faith with fear and trembling for it is God who is at work in us. You might add Lawrence’s little book to your reading list. Certainly, read these words of Paul and know that they are also directed to you.

Friday of Pentecost 18 – Matthew 21:23-32

23 And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” 24 Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you one question,

and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. 25 The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?” And they discussed it among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 26 But if we say, ‘From man,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.” 27 So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

28 “What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ 29 And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. 30 And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. 31 Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.

What makes for a marriage? My father was once confronted by that question in an adult membership class. One of the women in the class had been faithful to her cohabitating boyfriend for over 25 years. At least two others in the class had been divorced and remarried. It was a typical cross-section of the folks who show up in these sorts of classes these days. My father was a little stymied by the question, he admitted to me. She had been far more faithful than many of the marriages over which he had presided. He would have been delighted to celebrate a 25th or 30th anniversary with this person. Was there something to celebrate? While an official marriage would have been better, my father had to admit that this woman and her boyfriend in fact were far more faithful to whatever promises they had made to one another than many of those who had been officially married. Did that make them married?

Jesus poses a question to his hostile and pious audience today in the form of a parable. A man with two sons. One says no to the father’s request but then goes out and does what the father asks. The other son says he will do it, but he never puts down the videogame controller to do what the father requested. Which of those sons did the father’s will? Of course, deeds speak louder than words. Jesus points out that the reprobates got John the Baptist right. They had not gone to synagogue every week or taken their bar-mitzvah vows seriously, but when God called them to repent, they did it. The churchly types who fought John’s ministry claimed to be faithful but did not repent at God’s command.

It is that same uncomfortable moment you have when you talk to a street person or some tattooed biker only to discover that they have been far more loving to neighbors than you have been for all your proper, church-going piety. We started this week with a prayer to be led to the truth. Jesus is leading all of us to the truth and sometimes it packs a punch. But having dislodged us from our pietistic perch, Jesus leans over us while we lie in the straw and filth on ground with a

smile on his face. He reaches out his hand to pick us up anew, every time. The woman who was living with her boyfriend could get married and Jesus would smile on that. The prostitutes and tax collectors who came to John were forgiven and told to sin no more. Even self-righteous elder brothers who say the right thing but hypocritically do not do it, find a place in that long line of sinners for whom Jesus died and rose again. Jesus tells this story to those same people who rejected John and later that week killed Jesus himself because he still wants them to repent so they can be forgiven. He wants that for you too.