[Dailydevo] Daily Devotion Tuesday March 7, 2006

[Barry Ludwig]

Daily Devotions Tuesday March 7, 2006

The Daily Devotions are this week are written by Pastor Barry Ludwig. During
the season of Lent, the theme of Zion's Wednesday services (5 & 7pm) is
based upon our congregational set of values. Those values flow from the
person and name of Jesus (Justice, Energy to witness, Spiritual maturity,
Understanding the radical nature of Grace, Service to those in need). This
week we explore Justice.

 

Luke 11:42

"But woe to you Pharisees! for you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and
neglect justice and the love of God; these you ought to have done,  without
neglecting the others.

 

Thought

In 1978 when Lutheran pastors were introducing the then "new" green Lutheran
Book of Worship, a woman of the parish I served asked if we were going to
use the new translation of the Lord's Prayer or the old one. I broke the
first rule of discourse and answered her question with a question, "Why do
you ask?" I replied.  "Because," she said, "If we are doing the new one I'm
leaving this church."  We are easily attracted to the superficial side of
life aren't we?  It is the content of the prayer that Jesus was teaching,
not the words. Yet I do understand that it is safer to "talk about" than to
be compelled to do something. 

 

In the Scripture text above, Jesus expresses his frustration with those who
prefer the safety of private religious ritual to the risk of publicly living
God's understanding of justice. Today may we again be led to do whatever is
in our power to live and act out God's will of mercy and justice for others.

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://zlc-aa.org/pipermail/dailydevo_zlc-aa.org/attachments/20060307/d4f43ceb/attachment.htm