Lent 2010 #14

Daniel 3:19-30 (NRSV)

¹⁹Then Nebuchadnezzar was so filled with rage against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that his face was distorted. He ordered the furnace heated up seven times more than was customary, ²⁰and ordered some of the strongest guards in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and to throw them into the furnace of blazing fire. ²¹So the men were bound, still wearing their tunics, their trousers, their hats, and their other garments, and they were thrown into the furnace of blazing fire. ²²Because the king's command was urgent and the furnace was so overheated, the raging flames killed the men who lifted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. ²³But the three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down, bound, into the furnace of blazing fire. 

²⁴Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up quickly. He said to his counselors, "Was it not three men that we threw bound into the fire?" They answered the king, "True, O king." ²⁵He replied, "But I see four men unbound, walking in the middle of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the fourth has the appearance of a god." ²⁶Nebuchadnezzar then approached the door of the furnace of blazing fire and said, "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here!" So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire. ²⁷And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king's counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men; the hair of their heads was not singed, their tunics were not harmed, and not even the smell of fire came from them.

²⁸Nebuchadnezzar said, "Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted in him. They disobeyed the king's command and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God. ²⁹Therefore I make a decree: Any people, nation, or language that utters blasphemy against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins; for there is no other god who is able to deliver in this way." ³⁰Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.

THOUGHTS:

This is an amazing story.  King Nebuchadnezzar wants everyone in his kingdom to worship and serve the gods.  But these three guys Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refuse.  They tell the King, go ahead throw us into the fire.  God will protect us.  I have to admit I don't know if I could have done that.  I don't know if my faith is strong enough.  The point is not to worry about how strong our faith is, but rather to place our trust in God.  And maybe, just maybe our trust in God will bring others to faith just like

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego trust in God brought King Nebuchadnezzar to believe in God.

PRAYER:      

O Lord strengthen my faith so I can trust you like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did.  Use me in whatever way is appropriate to witness to your love and care of all people.  Amen.

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Thoughts by Rev. Tom Knoll
Pastor First Trinity Lutheran, Washington D.C.

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These devotions for young adults are provided by:
Lutheran Campus Ministry at George Mason University http://www.gmu.edu/org/lutheran
Lutheran Student Association at the University of Maryland http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~lutheran/lsa/
DC Young Adults http://www.dcyoungadults.org/
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Lent 2010 #12

Numbers 14:10b-24 (NRSV)

Then the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites.

And the Lord said to Moses, "How long will this people despise me? And how long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? I will strike them with pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they." 

But Moses said to the Lord, "Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for in your might you brought up this people from among them, and they will tell the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you, O Lord, are in the midst of this people; for you, O Lord, are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them and you go in front of them, in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. Now if you kill this people all at one time, then the nations who have heard about you will say, 'It is because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land he swore to give them that he has slaughtered them in the wilderness.' And now, therefore, let the power of the Lord be great in the way that you promised when you spoke, saying, 

'The Lord is slow to anger, 

and abounding in steadfast love, 

forgiving iniquity and transgression, 

but by no means clearing the guilty, 

visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children 

to the third and the fourth generation.'

Forgive the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have pardoned this people, from Egypt even until now."

Then the Lord said, "I do forgive, just as you have asked; nevertheless—as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of theLord— none of the people who have seen my glory and the signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have tested me these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their ancestors; none of those who despised me shall see it. But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me wholeheartedly, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it.

THOUGHTS: 

I run into a lot of people who think that the so-called "Old Testament God" is an angry God more  interested in smiting people than in giving them the benefit of the doubt. At first glance today's text appears to fit right into that assumption. In verse 12 we read that the people have tried God's patience long enough. God is ready to strike the people with pestilence and disinherit them. It look like God is mad; get out of the way.

It's for this reason that Moses' response is so surprising, or at first glance stupid.  We might expect Moses to cut his losses and try to get out of Dodge (or at least the wilderness).  Instead, Moses takes God on; he argues with God. Moses ostensibly "mouths off" to God, using God's own words to make an argument.

If this were a scene in a play, I would imagine the cast running for wings while the audience gasped in fear for lone Moses standing there in the spotlight before God on an otherwise pitch black stage. And then, afraid to exhale, the audience would watch Moses neither run for stage right nor cower in fear, but fervently gesture towards the Most High as he reminded God of promises God already made: "The Lord is slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression but by no means clearing the guilty" (v. 18). And Lo and behold: God listens.

What I love about this is Moses' audacity to quote God back to God. And Moses can do this because he starts with an important assumption: God is just. Now Moses doesn't sugarcoat what this means. He knows that the actions of the people will not be without consequence; he knows that God will judge them as we read at the end of verse 18. But Moses presumes that God is just; that God always is who God is. Moses pressures that even in the worst situations, God does not change from love to hate but remains love even in the midst of human faithlessness. So Moses argues with God because he trusts that he is dealing with a just God who really wants love, forgiveness, and deliverance for his people.

I run into a lot of people who believe that God is angry; that God wants to smite them or damn them or punish them. But Moses reminds us of something different. God is just no matter how unjust or unfaithful we have been. God is faithful to the promises God made to us, even when we don't deserve them.

Now we're invited to trust God's justice enough that we hold God to it, too!


PRAYER: 

God, so often we carry our sins with us and try to hide them from you. Lord, teach us not to fear but to trust you and your justice…for ourselves, our loved ones and our world.  Amen.

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Thoughts by Rev. Amy Sevimli, Assistant to the Bishop, Metro D.C. Synod of the ELCA, www.dcyoungadults.org

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These devotions for young adults are provided by:

Lutheran Campus Ministry at George Mason University http://www.gmu.edu/org/lutheran

Lutheran Student Association at the University of Maryland http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~lutheran/lsa/

DC Young Adults http://www.dcyoungadults.org/

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Lent 2009 #12

Hebrews 11:1-3,17-19  1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. 3By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible. 

17 By faith Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac. He who had received the promises was ready to offer up his only son, 18 of whom he had been told, "It is through Isaac that descendants shall be named for you." 19 He considered the fact that God is able even to raise someone from the dead—and figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

THOUGHTS:

Hebrews is in interesting book in the Bible.  Scholars can't agree on when it was written or who the author is.  It was probably originally a sermon rather than a letter.  The main image developed in this sermon to a mixture of Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians is of Jesus the Christ as the eternal high priest who fulfills and completes the Jewish system of sacrifice.

In the passage above, we see Abraham's faith that God could raise Isaac from the dead if he went through with the sacrifice.  (If you don't know this story, see: http://lentendevotions.blogspot.com/search/label/Isaac ).  

The writer here is almost like saying "Abraham knew God could resurrect someone before it has been done, and now it has been done..."  Abraham's faith in God is so great, that he is the bedrock character of faith for Jews, Christians, and Muslims.  Many of us read the story of Abraham in Genesis 12-25, and seeing Abraham's faith, we are blown away.  The amount of trust he places in God seems utterly crazy!  

Yet, we too are called to place our trust in God.  Most of tend to want to call the shots ourselves.  (I know I do sometimes.)  Take some time to think about how you can more completely trust in God.  Think about how your faith is your conviction in things that cannot be seen.

 

PRAYER:

God, sometimes we think we already have all the answers, and we want to take control of our world.  Thank you for reminding us in scripture an din our lives that everything belongs to you.  Help us to trust you more, and to follow where you lead us.  In Jesus name we pray, AMEN.

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These devotions are provided by Lutheran Campus Ministry at George Mason University .  Feel free to share them with your friends!  For more information on our ministry and events, see http://gmu.edu/org/lutheran  

You can subscribe to these devotions by RSS or email from http://lentendevotions.blogspot.com

Lent 2009 #9

Genesis 16:1-6 

1 Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bore him no children. She had an Egyptian slave-girl whose name was Hagar, 2 and Sarai said to Abram, "You see that the Lord has prevented me from bearing children; go in to my slave-girl; it may be that I shall obtain children by her." And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. 3 So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her slave-girl, and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife. 4 He went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, "May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my slave-girl to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me!" 6 But Abram said to Sarai, "Your slave-girl is in your power; do to her as you please." Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she ran away from her. 

THOUGHTS:

Um...whoa.  This is one of those stories that I don't get at first.  Let's start with some quick background info:

1. Back in Genesis 12 , God basically told Abram at age 75: "Trust me.  Leave your family and the only home you've ever known behind and follow me, I'll tell you when you reach your destination, and you'll have more descendants than you can possibly imagine or count."

2. Abram followed, and he and Sarai have now been in Canaan for 10 years.  He's now 85 and he and Sarai are pretty old to be having kids.  

My Bible commentaries also tell me:

3. In the ancient middle east, it was an acceptable practice for a wife who could not conceive to give her slave-girl to her husband as a concubine.  Any offspring of this union were legally children of the wife.  In this case, that means that the child that Hagar bears will belong to Sarai after birth.  

4. Motherhood is highly respected at the time.

     So looking back to the passage above, we see that Sarai got impatient waiting for God to deliver on the promises that caused them to uproot and leave everything behind.  Sarai takes their destiny into her own hands and has her husband sleep with Hagar.  Her plan works, but it somehow backfires, too.  Hagar's loses respect for Sarai (because Sarai couldn't conceive) and this led to the slave-girl usurping the rightful place of the wife.  To combat this role reversal, Sarai complains to Abram that her slave-girl is getting uppity.  Abram effectively responds: "Not my problem, this was all your idea."  

     Phew, that's a lot of back story to explain that this brief passage may be saying: Trust God.  Don't try to take destiny into your own hands.  This doesn't mean to be complacent or apathetic: God works through people like you.  I think it means that we should always be listening for God's direction before we act.  It's OK if you never feel like you hear any direction, just keep doing what you think is right.  I think God communicates subtly and we don't always know when we are hearing.  It's when we stop listening that we tend to wander into traps of our own making...  

 

PRAYER:

God, thank you for your subtle whispers, and for your spirit moving in our community as we journey together.  Keep our hearts and minds firmly focused on you, and guide us in humble service of all those that we meet.  Use us in ways that we might not even notice to do your will on earth.  For the sake of Christ Jesus, AMEN.

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These devotions are provided by Lutheran Campus Ministry at George Mason University.  Feel free to share them with your friends!  For more information on our ministry and events, see http://gmu.edu/org/lutheran  

You can subscribe to these devotions by RSS or email from http://lentendevotions.blogspot.com