[Dailydevo] Daily Devotion Thursday March 16, 2006

[Barry Ludwig]

Daily Devotion Thursday  March 16, 2006

The Daily Devotions are this week are written by Pastor Dave Hendricks.
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 Energy to Witness.

 

Matthew 12:9-13 NRSV

He left that place and entered their synagogue; a man was there with a
withered hand, and they asked him, "Is it lawful to cure on the Sabbath?" so
that they may accuse him.  He said to them, "Suppose one of you has only one
sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath; will you not lay hold of it
and lift it out?  How much more valuable is a human being than a sheep!  So
it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath."  Then he said to the man, "Stretch
out your hand." He stretched it out, and it was restored, as sound as the
other.  

 

Matthew 5:34-36 NRSV

But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the
throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem,
for it is the city of the great King. 

 

Thought

Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch add another thought about the church in the
book I quoted from yesterday. A second "principle" states, "The missional
church is messianic, not dualistic, in its spirituality.  That is, it adopts
the worldview of Jesus the Messiah, rather than that of the Greco-Roman
empire.  Instead of seeing the world as divided between the sacred
(religious) and profane (nonreligious), like Christ it sees the world and
God's place in it as more holistic and integrated." (TSTC p.12)

 

I recognize the need for people to have a sacred space.  In fact, I like to
have a special place to pray.  (When I was a child I made a place near a
railroad ditch my special place to pray.)  The danger is that we sometime
believe that God can only be found in these sacred spaces/places.  Such
thought can also allow us to believe that some places/spaces are more
special to God than other spaces/places.  (We might even be tempted to
believe God is with one nation and not another.)  What happens to us when
these lines are erased?  How do we view others when we begin to believe that
God's love is poured out for the entire world? We might even come to believe
that "God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in
order that the world might be saved through him".

 

Prayer

God of all creation, you love this world and universe.  Help us to love it
as you love it.  Take us to a place/space which allows us to see you in the
places/spaces in which even our enemies move and live. Amen.

 

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