Wednesday - January 31, 2024

SCRIPTURE  Ezekiel 36: 25-28 I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. WORDS OF HOPE This passage from Ezekiel sounds a lot like the rite of baptism. I guess it shouldn’t be surprising since Jews of the time of Ezekiel, which was during the Babylonian exile, took ritual baths, Mikvahs. These were used as a purification ritual, and most likely were the roots of baptism. The idea that after this ritual cleansing you had a new heart and spirit sounds like the spiritual renewal of Baptism to me. Considering that I am reminded of my own Baptism. I was sprinkled not immersed but the significance was just as profound. I knew it was not magical, but symbolic, yet I still felt changed afterward. It gave me a reference point to remember, a stake in the ground of my spiritual journey and it meant a great deal to me. I like the prophets of the scriptures. They spoke in visions, metaphors and sometimes rants, but their words resonate with me. Like the one “shouting in the wilderness”, the prophets often are trying to get the attention of a people who have lost their way. Their words and actions are wakeup calls intended to be guideposts to a better life. Maybe that “sprinkling” Ezekiel speaks of was meant more as a splash of water in the face, to get the attention of his listeners as well as a cleansing. PRAYER May we hear the words of the prophets as both cleansing waters and a splash in the face to wake us from our slumber as we move through the world. Amen. DEVOTION AUTHOR Hardy Haberman

SCRIPTURE  Revelation 19.6-8 Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give God glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and the bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” WORDS OF HOPE Today’s reading is a joyful one, especially coming from the Book of Revelation, a collection of scripture usually known for its disasters, deadly decrees, and dastardly dragons. In its typical poetic language, the passage refers to the happy ending longed for by its original readers who had lived under various incarnations of oppression and national dysfunction for their whole lifetimes. The subject is the holy union of God’s Church with their Christ. The church is pictured as the bride decked out in the finest white linen, which stands for the pure and righteous acts of God’s holy people. All is well, not a weed among the impeccable blooms in God’s eternal garden. The writer of Revelation tended to deal in absolutes. In this case, absolute goodness has finally overcome absolute evil. In our present day, and from our point of view, we can often easily determine exactly who is good and who is evil on the world stage. It is fair to see leaders of countries who unabashedly invade other nations as evil. So many of them even look as if they have been cast for the part. It’s also easy to label anyone who supports or promotes these leaders as being evil. We can congratulate ourselves for being the good guys, the flowers of the world’s garden threatened by their weeds of ruin. It is no challenge to recognize and condemn these obvious villains, but what happens when prejudice, bigotry, envy, or hatred define and denounce us as the evil ones? Undeserved or not, almost everyone on the planet is a weed in somebody else’s garden. I know I am and you probably know a few disagreeable gardeners yourself. So, one of my favorite weird holidays is National Weed Appreciation Day, when we recognize that some weeds are quite beneficial in our ecosystem. They can even be nutritious herbs for food. Some of them even have healing properties. Remember, the weeds have the same Creator as the Gladiolas and we can rejoice and be glad that even though we may sometimes be judged as weeds, everything has a purpose in God’s Creation. PRAYER Help me to know who I am and guide me to know your purpose in my life. Remind me that even though I may be judged by others, the final judgment is yours. DEVOTION AUTHOR Dan Peeler Order of St. Francis and St. Clare

SCRIPTURE Hebrews 10.22 Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. WORDS OF HOPE Of all the spirits I have encountered, Guilt, is the worst. If you can defeat Guilt, then you will overcome every evil. Guilt teaches you that you have to hide to protect yourself when the only danger is forgetting how to fly. It is better to take the easy way up the mountain. If you only forgive the deserving, then you are a poor judge, for God forgave without discrimination when Jesus gave himself for the forgiveness sin. Consider that before we ever had a chance to repent, Christ died. He forgave us before we ever earned our forgiveness. Could there be any guilt if we taught that we are born forgiven, or does God require payment? How then does a person earn forgiveness? God, knowing your mistakes from afar off, gave us Jesus on the cross not to condemn us, but to say, “I love you”, to anyone who was listening. If God loved us before we loved God, then we were already forgiven. Guilt is not the absence of a mistake, but it is the presence of an accusation with the desire to condemn. Do not accuse the blood of Christ of not being enough to forgive everyone, for his gift was for everyone. Why then, does guilt remain? It is altogether confusion. Parents punish their children to teach them discipline, not to imply that they are worthless. God is not saying that you are worthless, but the cross says that you are worth more. When you realize your worth, no one can ever make you feel guilty again. It is time to forgive yourself because God already did. God never stops loving you no matter how many mistakes you make. Beware those who teach that love is given to the deserving, for no one deserves, yet God loves everyone…this is the heart of what Jesus taught. PRAYER God, Help us to accept Your love and learn to love ourselves. Free us from guilt and the desire to make others guilty. Thank You for the message of the cross. May we never forget. Amen. DEVOTION AUTHOR  Jonathon McClellan Order of St. Francis and St. Clare

SCRIPTURE J ohn 1. 3-5 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it. WORDS OF HOPE This is the last devotion for Black History Month. I specifically asked to be able to write this devotion because I have a concern about Black History Month, and Hispanic history month, and Pride Month and any other month that has been designated to honor the history of any people in the United States. Although I easily fit into the category of privileged white guy, my concern is not “why is there not a white history month?” Let me see if I can illustrate my concern through a story from my life. After some years in the business world, I decided to go back and get my teaching certificate. As I was an English major in college, that is where I started, even though I had spent my years in business working with computers. In my fourth year of teaching, I had just moved to a new school in a new district. This is back in the days when part of the language arts curriculum included an entire block of study in mythology. And to be fair, we were not limited to Greco Roman mythology, but we also read some stories from Asia, Native America, and Africa. This was when it was understood that studying mythology would teach students why narcissist are called narcissists, and where the days of the week got their names, and why the volcano near Mexico City is called Popocatépetl; and would not teach paganism. But at some point, that was no longer deemed necessary; but back then it was still part of the curriculum. As we approached the end of the mythology unit, my colleagues and I were brainstorming ideas about how to bring it to a close. I suggested that perhaps we could read Langston Hughes well known poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”. I felt it brought into modern terms the flow and the placement of story in the same way the Ancient myths we had studied had done. But I was told that while it was a good poem, we could not use it. Not because it was inappropriate to the subject. Not because it was not part of the written curriculum. I was told we could not use it because we were in November and we “could not study a black author until February”. In other words, the works of black authors, had to be segregated into the month designated for them. I was fairly new as a teacher, although I was a bit older than the fresh out of college teachers. And frankly, if it were today, my first response would’ve been that perhaps Langston Hughes had another poem we could read during Black History Month, which would allow us to use “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” in November. But I was new and did not do the right thing. So now, perhaps, you see my concern about these various designated months. There is a tendency to remove the people‘s being honored from the day-to-day world in which they worked, and in which they worked to this day. We segregate people and do not recognize them outside of “their” month. It implies that those works can not possibly influence what goes on day-to-day. It goes farther and implies the same of the authors and the culture of those authors. There is the possibility that people can say “your month has not yet come yet I don’t need to worry about you“ or “your month is passed you’ve had your turn“ So as we close out Black History Month, I ask that you stop and consider the contribution that all people, regardless of skin color, place of origin, or belief system, have made to the everyday world in which we live. Relegating those contributions to one month a year without recognizing them in the day-to-day and flow of the world and history would mean, skipping over the contributions not only of writers, but of scientists and inventors and space, explorers and business people and politicians and the people who labor day to day in factories and fields that sustain all our lives. Don’t let that happen. And also, go find a copy of “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” and read it.  PRAYER Loving God, you have given life and love to all people. You created all people in their many manifest forms. Help us to see that of you in every person we meet, looking past the superficialities of the physical world and seeing each human being as a valuable loved creation of God. DEVOTION AUTHOR Weber Baker Order of Saint Francis and Saint Clare

SONG LYRICS From the dawn of Texas skies/Robes of saffron start to rise,/Walking safely mile by mile, /Carrying peace in every smile. Wind is whispering on the road,/ “Spread your love across the world.” Silent prayers in every stride, /Hope becomes their gentle guide. Step by step we carry peace,/Let the suffering slowly cease./Hearts awaken, fears release. /Together we walk for peace. Step by step in harmony,/Boundless love for all to see/Let compassion never cease.  /Together we walk for peace. Song written by Snehashis Priya Barua https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGQFC709qLs WORDS OF HOPE With her mother’s hand on her shoulder for encouragement, a small girl holds out a flower to the saffron-robed monk. He looks kindly into her eyes, smiles a gentle smile, and speaks words known only to the two of them. The monk is the Venerable Bhikkhur Pannakara, leader of a group of 19 Buddhist monks who have made their 108 day, 2300 mile Walk for Peace. He would become the voice for this holy band as they walked mile after mile, sometimes through treacherous winter weather, suffering a car accident which would send one monk to the hospital for a leg amputation, and companioned by Aloka, the spirit-dog who would be by their side in his own “robes” of cold weather vests and sweaters, who paused for head scratches, belly rubs, and treats, and who was sidelined for a while by knee surgery. But through it all the monks’ faithful commitment continued, carried on prayer and the welcome of thousands of people in this country. A man in a wheelchair, yearning for more independence, joins the group for a week and finds the embrace of community. A stage four cancer patient feels a life force in this pilgrimage that helps him bear the diagnosis. As the devotees of peace pass through rural towns and urban thoroughfares on their trek from Fort Worth to Washington DC, people of all ages, ethnicities, and religions press their palms together prayer-like and bow in reverence. They hold posters of blessing and gratitude and speaking peace. Some offer gifts. As the group progresses, the crowds begin to grow. Hospitality blooms in the shared experience, the meals offered, the stories exchanged. Something profound is happening here and, like the bleeding woman who would touch the hem of Jesus’ garment to be healed, the wounded of our nation, torn by division and hostility, come—in person and virtually. In gatherings along the way, the Venerable Pannakara speaks of our need for mindfulness—the key to peace-- to calm the disorder of our monkey minds. He urges us to put away our phones more, to breathe peace and walk in loving kindness and compassion. Rather than waking up with anxiety and fear, he invites us to a new mantra: Today is going to be my peaceful day. * In confidence, he asserts that if each person just takes a second to ask if this [word or action] would hurt anyone, the world would already be kinder. The monks are clear that this walk is not a protest or even an advocacy. It is a spiritual offering. People feel it and are deeply moved. As we begin our own holy season of Lent, I pray that we might make our own commitment—to return to God with all our hearts and to breath in peace, breath out compassion. PRAYER Holy God, May these seeds of peace flourish in us and through our acts of loving kindness. May we together walk for peace. Amen . DEVOTION AUTHOR Dr. Pat Saxon *This link holds a brief but powerful teaching on this mantra by the Venerable Pannakara. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXVq7pfgCQk