Blog Archives

ELOGOS for Wednesday

5/31/2017

I Corinthians 12: 4-7
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
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A typical job interview question is "What are your strengths and weaknesses?" One comes prepared to lift up one's strengths to match the job requirements. One also comes prepared to identify a weakness that sends a message of humility and yet, does not flag a flaw so great it overwhelms the strengths. What is least anticipated is that no matter what the weakness we reveal, if we are given the job, we are expected to get over our weakness. Try as we might to nullify it, our weakness more than likely dogs us throughout our working lives. It is a testimony to the fact, as if we needed more evidence, that none of us is perfect. Why are we so surprised by imperfection? Honesty and integrity speak saying, "Look, this is the gift I have to offer for the common good....it is not whole but I offer it all for the sake of being a part of something in which I do not have to be all things to all people. I trust the one who gave us these gifts knows how this all works together."
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Holy God, all that I am and the best I can ever be is in your service. Amen.

ELOGOS for Tuesday

5/30/2017

John 20: 22-23
When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
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The teaching tool that Martin Luther wrote, The Small Catechism, describes this verse as the "Office of the Keys." The power to forgive or not to forgive are the keys that are put into the hands of those who have received the Holy Spirit - the one who walks alongside us as we follow the Way of Christ. It is an important rite of passage. Parents feel the weight of responsibility and anxiety when they place the keys to the car in the hands of their newly licensed driver. Will they follow the rules of the road? Will they look out for those who are careless? Will they be respectful of law enforcement? Will they be responsible stewards of their parents' property? Will they come home in one piece? Will they come home? The one who created this world and created us in a unique relationship with power and responsibility knows how vulnerable we are to damage and to causing damage. God puts into our hands the keys that will be our greatest tool to live well and to heal the world. God's Spirit comes with the keys to forgive, the power not to and the grace to remember that we don't deserve God's trust.
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Holy God, bless us with wisdom and grace on the road. Amen.

ELOGOS for Thursday

5/25/2017

Acts 1:6-8
So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
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Even after the resurrection, the disciples were only half-right with their question to Jesus. They knew now that the one who had power to rise again from the dead could restore what needed restoration. That part, they got right. Where they fell short was thinking too small - that God's plan was intended to restore the primacy of Israel. They were also compelled with the human curiosity of wanting to now, "Are we there yet?" The power that we received through Holy Spirit is not one which will answer the "Are we there yet?" question. The power will, however, expand our understanding of neighbor to include the planet. When I consider the times in which we live, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are not "there yet." When I consider the Risen One who sends us to witness to what we have seen and heard, I have hope.
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Holy God, may we do the work you have given us to do and trust you with the timing. Amen.
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ELOGOS for Wednesday

5/24/2017

Psalm 68: 4-6
Sing to God, sing praises to his name; lift up a song to him who rides upon the clouds—his name is the Lord— be exultant before him.
Father of orphans and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.
God gives the desolate a home to live in; he leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious live in a parched land.
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We are daily living with the realities of a great division between us. Yes, humanity has always experienced divisions. They are all awful. Comparing one to another is a useless exercise. The one we currently live in is awful enough and is ours to deal with in our time. There is little room for compromise when the choices are life and death, home and homeless, slave and free. The only thing we can do together is to stare into the abyss, the fissure, the chasm between us. It is a mystery. It is frightening. There where we cannot see the boundaries or the bottom. There, in the abyss, is the great unknown and the great fear - a death that can swallow us all. There, into the abyss, we as children of God are called to meet the God who beckoned us to move beyond our fear, through death, to a life where no one is separated by death, poverty, or prison walls. In the leaping into the abyss is our best and only hope.
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I stare into the abyss, Lord, and I hear singing. Amen.

ELOGOS for Tuesday

5/23/2017

I Peter 4: 6-7
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.
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Humility and humiliation are as attracted to one another as aligned magnets and are repelled by the slightest movement of those magnetic poles. Humility is a genuine self-awareness of those who acknowledge as greater than ourselves. Humiliation happens when the one who claims greatness uses that bolt of power to level any competing for that power. To be humbly self-aware in the presence of God is to find being small as temporary, being afraid as liberating, and being loved as empowering.
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Holy God, may we find ourselves under your hand. Amen.

ELOGOS for Monday

5/22/2017

John 17:4
[Jesus said] I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do.
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Several months ago I gave a piece of my artwork to a local show where the proceeds from the sale could be sent directly to a charity. I assumed that had happened. Recently at a conference, a person came up to me saying she was thrilled to see me because she had been the one to purchase the artwork but she hadn't yet sent the check to the charity. On the spot, she wrote the check and put it in my hands for me to direct to the charity. She was genuinely excited to check off a task that had been burning a hole on her to-do list. We love it when we can cross something off the list of our responsibilities. The list grows longer and many things are on-going and not easily checked off. Jesus brought glory to God by finishing the work he was given. Our to-do list from the Lord is not long but it is never-ending: Love God - Love One Another.
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Holy God, our work never ends but neither does your love. Amen.

ELOGOS for Wednesday

5/17/2017

I Peter 3:13b-16a
But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence
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To be demanded an accounting for the hope that is in you means that someone can SEE the hope that is in you. How is hope seen? When we consider the lives of other people, who would we describe as "hopeful?" What is the evidence? Do we display similar traits? There is the old question passed around in Christian circles.....if you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? Most Christians I know do show evidence in their lives of mercy and grace. They just don't like to talk about it. It is not that we aren't deeply grateful and devoted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. More often than not, we are intimidated or fearful to speak with conviction about what we believe. We don't want to get into a fight. We don't want to be disrespectful of other beliefs. We keep the peace by keeping to ourselves and allowing the hope within us to remain unlabeled. The risk we take in silence is missing the opportunity to kindle hope in the hopeless who are too afraid to speak of their hopelessness. With gentleness and reverence, never underestimate the power of naming the hope with us - Jesus.
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Holy God, may the hope within us reach out for the sake of those in need of hope. Amen.

ELOGOS for Monday

5/15/2017

John 14:21
They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me, and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.
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I don't know why it always surprises me - the simple fact that life is, in physics terms - in its natural form, a fluid not solid or a gas. Our bodies are the shape of life, in the right conditions, a solid form. Our words, dreams, thoughts when stimulated give life a spirit, a gaseous nature. But in its natural form, life is fluid. I have no scientific paper to show research and proof. I have only a half-dozen decades of spotty observation. Life is fluid. It is more like blood and water enough to make us motion-sick, enough to make us long for something solid to steady the motion we cannot seem to stop. We make foolish choices to that end. Things, power, money, land, structures. When we listen, we discover the life blood of a divine Son flowing with us, in the same form but giving love a substance that in its natural form is all things - solid, fluid, gas. Love flows from God to us to one another to God again and the life it picks up along the way is eternal. It is worth the ride.
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Holy God, does this life come with seat belts? Amen

ELOGOS for Wednesday

5/10/2017

Psalm 31:1-5
In you, O Lord, I seek refuge; do not let me ever be put to shame; in your righteousness deliver me. Incline your ear to me; rescue me speedily. Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me. You are indeed my rock and my fortress; for your name’s sake lead me and guide me, take me out of the net that is hidden for me, for you are my refuge. Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.
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It's you and me, Lord. Well. It's you. And that works for me.

ELOGOS for Tuesday

5/9/2017

I Peter 2: 9-10
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
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As I listen to the discourse on the national and global political scene, I find myself regularly looking more closely at definitions of words and phrases that I thought I understood or took at face value. Just to name a few - populist, globalist, white supremacist, identity politics, racist, feminist, oligarchy, republican, democrat, American. The question of "Who are we?" is one that surfaces often, over an expanse of time and locations. We embrace the labels that best fit. When the label shifts in definition or no longer fits us, we embrace something else or we fight for the right to carve the definition in stone. It is exhausting and a never-ending process. For those who follow the way of Christ, our identity documentation is defined and known to God. The only way to know our status is based on how much personal experience we have had with the definition of mercy.
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Holy God, May I look and act this today like someone who understands mercy. Amen.