Scripture

Matthew 10.14

And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town.

Words of Hope

I live in Texas, which one of the hottest places one can be in the Summer, in case you didn’t know. A few years ago, I was joking with my good friend, Sue, who operates our church’s bookstore. It was about whether she would be going to the Annual Pride Parade in Dallas, for which I was hoping for her witty reply. I got it. “I don’t do heat!” was the response. “I’ve done my parades, picnics, 4th of July’s…these days I can’t stand the heat anymore.” she added. I love talking to her about anything. She has enormous amounts of experience and has been running the bookstore since the 70s. She was a schoolteacher for many years, I recall.

Anyway, this began a line of thinking I began calling ‘drawing a line’ which is about the things we decide we no longer do; a sort of ‘been there, done that!’ moment. Think about it, you may have had a few of those, too. I thought Sue’s answer was brilliant. It offers creative license to get rid of burdensome habits or obligations; the stuff in life that you’d like to give yourself permission to never do again, without looking back. What would one of those ‘never do again’ things be for you, if you took the chance?

Not doing heat is a good one. It’s a fun game in the world of law of attraction. Think it, do it. Think it; be it. Think it; live it. I know there are things we all must do, but other things that are definitely optional. Jesus, in today’s Bible verse, instructs his followers to “shake the dust from their feet when they left the presence of people who were not open to hearing their message. In other words, “don’t push yourself into a situation where you are not wanted.”

I’m not suggesting shirking responsibilities, of course. Most of us would like to have a pass on bill-paying. Again, give it some thought. Perhaps in your life it’s not giving up something but taking on something; adding a something new to your life such as eating at a new restaurant or having a walk at the lake. Maybe you’d like to dive into a short Bible study?

Let us consider, once again, being open-minded with what freedom we may have to choose new paths by enhancing our lives to be more positive.

Whatever it is, I’m enjoying not doing heat, but I may enjoy a dip in the pool.

Prayer

Creator of us all, sometimes life becomes so predictable, we feel our choices are limited, if only by habit. Remind us that we are not only co-creators of our lives, but co-creators of our world. Teach us to be the change we wish to see in the world. Amen.

Devotion Author

Charlie C. Rose
Order of St. Francis and St. Clare

Scripture

Job 6. 24-26

Teach me, and I will be quiet;
    show me where I have been wrong.
How painful are honest words!
    But what do your arguments prove?
Do you mean to correct what I say,
    and treat my desperate words as wind?

Words of Hope

Today’s reading is from the Book of Job, that Hebrew Scripture epic poem of suffering, bad advice, and the true nature of God. As you will remember, Job has lost everything dear to him, both material and personal. For most of the Book, he sits in complete despair receiving judgmental advice from some know-it-all “friends” who eloquently explore every reason imaginable about why Job’s inconceivable misfortune is all his fault.

I have had a few friends like that. Have you? -People who seem to take actual pleasure in reciting an inventory of the failures of others; their bad judgements, their acts of thoughtlessness, their repeated habits of showing up late, of forgetting special events, their apathy, their selfishness; whatever fatal flaws that contributed to their current misfortunes.

Often the friends even conclude that our habitual bad behavior has resulted in some sort of judgment and punishment from a frustrated God. We are just plain no good.

Though the Book of Job doesn’t delve into the details of the personalities of his “friends”, I imagine that they were not too different from our judgmental acquaintances today. Usually, people who can easily and immediately list our every fault are projecting on us a list of their own deficiencies. The satisfaction that they receive is an imagined relief from the burdens of the nagging memories of personal failures, especially the ones they have carefully hidden even from themselves.

Today’s reader of this ancient Book is tempted to put it down about halfway through the first friend’s condemnations, but because of the iconic patience of Job, we hear all of them. Finally, God talks directly to Job toward the epic’s end, assuring him that all the bad stuff we must endure are not owed to check marks on the divine judgement list. They just happen. Sometimes terrible or unexpected events for which there are never logical explanations enter our lives.

One thing these occurrences do have in common however is that none of them are beyond the empathy and assurance of the eternal presence of our Holy Comforter. Remembering that truth is not easy sometimes. It takes a lot of faith, but almost always, it takes patience.

Prayer

Thank you for your patience with each of us, for never forsaking us, and for those in our lives we can assuredly call our friends; the ones on whose honest words we can depend, and whose advice can help us grow.

Devotion Author

Dan Peeler
Order of St. Francis and St. Clare

Scripture

Joshua 1.9

I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

Words of Hope

Joshua, son of Nun, had assisted Moses in guiding the liberated Hebrews through some of the years of wondering in the desert regions of Sinai. He helped lead their ragtag band of fighters as they defeated and marched through several Bedouin kingdoms east of the Jordan River. Now Moses was dead, and Joshua was the leader.

Across the Jordan lay the lands and grassy hills of Palestine which God had promised would become their homeland. However, its inhabitants were strong, and their cities were well defended with fairly sophisticated civil society. The prospect for defeat was real. But Joshua had always realized that the Hebrew army’s main strength lay in God’s protective and guiding presence with his forces. It was God’s desired purpose and strength which allowed them to defeat the Kings of Edom and Moab.

Now as the people looked across the Jordan in preparation to open these occupied lands for their inheritance, God spoke reassurance to Joshua… words which we should fix in our memory for these difficult times of transition. God spoke in the reassuring language of a commandment. “I hereby command you.” This was immediately followed by more encouragement. “Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” How often do we need to remember those words of reassurance today? Do we have the faith of Joshua to listen to God’s words and proceed into the uncharted challenge that so often face us?

Joshua and the Hebrew people crossed the river and in so doing entered the promised land. Once again, Joshua had to listen for God’s guidance, and the Hebrew army had to work in cooperation with God’s purpose in order to succeed. Over several years, they conquered various regions in Palestine, built cities and developed an active worshiping society. They were transformed from a ragtag group of wanderers into a stable and flourishing new Hebrew Nation.

Consider the atmosphere of our own nation today. How many of us feel like ragtag wanderers? How many of us are willing to accept the challenge to make a difference, always with a faith like Joshua’s to guide us?

Prayer

May I be strong, may I be courageous, may I always remember that wherever I go, whatever I do, I have no reason to be frightened or dismayed. I have your promise that you will always be with me to guide and to comfort me.

Devotion Author

Donald (Luke) Day
Order of St. Francis and St. Clare

Scripture

Mark 2.1-5

When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door, and he was speaking the word to them. Then some people^[a^] came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Child, your sins are forgiven.” 

Words of Hope

In Hollywood during the 1930’s when sound had come to movies. A young choreographer named Busby Berkeley arrived from a successful career on Broadway. He was charged with directing and choreographing the dance numbers in several musicals, but he had a problem.  Cameras in the early days of sound were paralyzed. Often locked inside huge glass fronted booths to minimize the noise of the camera itself.  Musical dance numbers were often shot much like you were watching the show from an audience in a theater. 

Berkley took his cameras out of the booths and put them on cranes and dollies and choreographed their movements just like one of the dancers.  It was a revelation for the motion picture art. 

Once he created a kaleidoscope-like arrangement of dancers on the floor and he pulled the camera as high as he could get it to reveal the intricate and mesmerizing movements shot from above.  The crane couldn’t get high enough to take in the picture, so he had a hold cut in the roof of the sound stage and put the cameraman on the roof to get the ultra-wide-angle image.  It was a hit, and the “top shot” became a standard in his repertoire and cameras were never condemned to being locked in place again.

Jesus followers were just as brave, and they literally removed the roof to un-paralyze their friend.

Sometimes you must be unafraid to raise the roof in order to perform miracles.

Prayer

God, may we find courage to raise the roof when needed, in order to bring healing to our broken world.

Devotion Author

Hardy Haberman

Scripture

1 Samuel 21.5-6

David answered, “Women have indeed been kept from us, as is usual when I set out. And the equipment of the young men is holy, as it is even on common missions, and all the more at this time.” So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, since there was no bread there but the Bread of the Presence, which had been removed from before the LORD and replaced with hot bread on the day it was taken away.

A Word of Hope

David, a hungry man, sought refuge and help from the tabernacle of God on the day that Saul pursued him. He needed food, and the only bread that could be found was the bread set apart for the priests of God. This consecrated bread was to be used solely for the Lord’s purpose, for the bread was on His alter. Uncommon uses for the sacred bread were altogether against the law and sinful. It was considered an act against God for anyone other than the priests to eat this bread. Yet, because God would prefer mercy over sacrifice the bread was given to David by the priests; proving that love is not surrender to religious duties, but to the service of compassion and mercy.

I am the hungry man. As a gay man, my food is not the woman, for I cannot digest her. I did not crave her company, nor could I be satisfied by her. From childhood I went hungry hiding my desires, for I was told that they were an abomination. When finally, the man was brought before me, my hunger, like David’s hunger, was satisfied. Does not God prefer mercy over sacrifice? Will he let the homosexual, who cannot control his or her desires, go hungry? No, for it is not good for one to be alone or to go hungry.

The LGBTQ community has been hungry for too long. We shame ourselves because of our appetites. No one shames the rest of God’s creation for homosexual behavior; from insects to mammals there is a range of homosexual behaviors observed in the animal kingdom. The female Macaques, a species of primate, practices homosexuality almost exclusively in some areas. Would it not be considered animal cruelty if we stopped allowing animals like the female Macaques to mate with other females? Are not even the animals showing us that homosexuality is natural?

Prayer

Lord,

Your people hunger for romantic love. We look to You to be our God and feed us. Help us to be unashamed. There are those of us that hate themselves and would rather go hungry. Help them; help them see that you prefer feeding us rather than letting us starve. Lord, we ask that

You give us our desires and everything we need. Lord, let us walk in the light of truth. Thank You Lord for these wonderful gifts. Amen.

Devotion Author

Jonathon McClellan
Order of St. Francis and St. Clare