Wednesday - January 31, 2024

The Reverend Dr. Neil G. Thomas

SCRIPTURE

Mark 5. 1-20

Jesus Restores a Demon-Possessed Man

They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.

When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!” For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you impure spirit!”

Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”

“My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.

A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. The demons begged Jesus, “Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.” He gave them permission, and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.

Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well. Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.

As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.

WORDS OF HOPE

At first glance, this scripture seems a little weird. Jesus arrives on the other side of the sea and is confronted by a man who has made his home among the tombs, among the dead. This is his environment and his expectation based of his circumstances and Jesus meets him. Mark says that the man fell to his knees at the sight of Jesus and is confronted by his own question, “What do you want from me?” In the ensuing conversation Jesus offers him freedom from the impure spirits that had tormented him and sends them into surrounding pigs who run off, rushing down a steep bank and into a lake where they are drowned.

Those who witnessed these events, those who saw the impact of Jesus’ encounter with the man were both confused and perhaps frightened, asking Jesus to leave their region. The man is left to witness to his own people just what Jesus had done for him and, with his testimony, the people were amazed.

Of course, as with all Scripture you must be able to contextualize them within the times that they are written. Pigs are not kosher and the book of Deuteronomy states that the Israelites shall not eat their flesh or touch their dead carcass. In their tradition they are unclean, and it is understandable why pigs are used in this miracle.

The bigger story, for me, in this miracle is in the question that the man asks of Jesus, ““What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?” While this is a question from within him, from the “legion”, this is a question that is vital for us all.

We are so often taught a theology of asking God for things. This is not a bad thing. In my daily prayers I often find myself asking God for things, for answers, for other people to be blessed. However, it is less regular that I sit in my own life and ask God to tell me what God wants from me. Is this your story as well?

The more I thought about this today, the more I realized that perhaps, if I spent more time asking God this question, perhaps I would have more clarity for my life and my vocational work.

Believe me, I am grateful to a God who has often rescued me from numerous situations that could lead me on a destructive path or a path that is not beneficial. I am grateful to God who has offered me ways to follow the call that I believe that God has placed in front of me. I am grateful to God who reminds me every day that my everyday actions can make a difference. Today, I am convicted by the question what more can I do for God and what does God want from me.

The conclusion of this story is a testimony to what happens when you are listening to God’s response to our question. For the man in the story, he found wholeness and healing. He found a new life that bore testimony to others, leading them to belief in Jesus.

Friends, our story is a testimony for others and Jesus calls us to live our story – a story that is still evolving and not yet finished. However, this story has an impact and will help others to see your changed life. This is the miracle.

In the words of one of my favorite hymns, Amazing Grace, “I once was lost but now I’m found.”

May we take a moment, amid our asking God for blessings, to also ask God, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?”

PRAYER

God, thank you for your faithfulness toward me, hearing my prayers and responding to my needs. Hear me today, O God, as I ask You – What do you want from me? Amen.

DEVOTION AUTHOR

The Reverend Dr. Neil G. Thomas

Senior Pastor

Pronouns: he/his/him

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Monday - June 15, 2026

By Charlie C. Rose • June 15, 2026

SCRIPTURE 1 Corinthians 13.13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. WORDS OF HOPE How do you feel when you lose something important? I have different levels of replacement value that I put on different things. For family album pictures and things regarding the people I love among the highest valued things… Those irreplaceable objects of my affection. It’s almost like losing a memory of who I am; my origin. There are other things like work related items such as my calendar that I lost recently. I’m a hybrid old school/new school. I love to have a paper calendar back up, while also using a Google Calendar that can remind me of things I may clearly forget. But since I was a young child I remember looking feverishly for things that I had lost. Some things I never found again and by default would either forget about them or choose to let them go. It’s always difficult choosing to let go of a personal treasure. We all know what our particular feelings of loss are regarding material value versus people, friendships, and relationships. I don’t take losing the people I care about very lightly. There are so many friendships and relationships that I refuse to let go of, especially for loved ones that have passed. I have come to this point in my life in my mid-sixties, when I have begun categorizing and bullet pointing a list of those various losses and sometimes gains. Even when relationships come came to a close, I couldn’t help but think, like the eternal optimist I am, about cherishing the good and happy memories, before we ended our time together. I know more realistically sometimes it’s more difficult to move on and let go, but I know I’m not one of those people. It takes a lot for me to give up all hope. A lot. I think about what that means in the bigger picture… Maybe that’s just a taste of Jesus’ example of unconditional love. But I know in my heart, the creator of the universe does not consider any microbe of creation as “OK to lose”. That goes for you and me and all the things that exist in the space between spaces. And the only way I can justify believing that is this crazy little thing called love, that drive within us that the Apostle Paul calls the greatest. What will you do today to lose the negative, the toxic, and the things that simply don’t serve your time well? In the same regard what are the things that continue to bear fruit in your life, bring you joy, and lead you to practicing your greatest love? PRAYER May we have the faith to go forward into the ends and beginnings of life, always in hope and in love, remembering the assurance of your guidance along the way. Amen DEVOTION AUTHOR Charlie Rose Order of St. Francis and St. Clare

Friday - June 12, 2026

By Weber Baker • June 12, 2026

SCRIPTURE Acts 7:35-42 It was this Moses whom they rejected when they said, “Who made you a ruler and a judge?” and whom God now sent as both ruler and liberator through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. He led them out, having performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years. This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, “God will raise up a prophet for you from your own people as he raised me up.” He is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai and with our ancestors, and he received living oracles to give to us. Our ancestors were unwilling to obey him; instead, they pushed him aside, and in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, saying to Aaron, “Make gods for us who will lead the way for us; as for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.” At that time they made a golden calf, offered a sacrifice to the idol, and reveled in the works of their hands. But God turned away from them and handed them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘Did you offer to me slain victims and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? No; you took along the tent of Moloch and the star of your god Rephan, the images that you made to worship; so I will remove you beyond Babylon.’ WORDS OF HOPE In this passage, Stephen is reminding a crowd in Jerusalem of how their ancestors had given up on Moses after he had disappeared on the mountain. They called upon Aaron to make a God for them to worship and to follow. Since this comes following Pentecost, Stephen’s implication, (and in the next verse, his direct accusation), is that the people to whom he is speaking have essentially done the same thing with the power of the Holy Spirit who has come among them. We think of ourselves as beyond that kind of idol worship that the Israelites fell into in the time of Moses and again at this juncture, in the new life that Jesus and the Holy Spirit have brought. How often, however, do we create idols, ideas or things that we “worship” and forget the God who guides us? How often do we unconsciously think God has abandoned us and we replace our worship of God with some other focus? We, perhaps, do not think of it in that way. But whenever we overlook or ignore the call of God in our lives for anything of this world; we have created an idol. And while we tend to think of these idols as physical, like the golden calf or money in our time, we can create idols of most anything. Anytime anything stands between us and God, or in some way replaces God; we have created an idol. It might be technology; it might be the busy times of our day; it might even be Family. So, for our reflection today, we should take some time to stop whatever we are doing, close off all noise, and external stimulation and take a moment to simply sit with God. This too is a form of worship. And hopefully it will bring God into the focus of our worship. PRAYER Gracious God be with us always so that we can worship you in fullness. Forgive us when we doubt you and replace you in our hearts and our minds with idols of our own creation. Fill us with your Holy Spirit. Amen. DEVOTION AUTHOR Weber Baker. Order of Saint Francis and Saint Clare

Thursday - June 11, 2026

By Dr. Pat Saxon • June 11, 2026

SCRIPTURE Gensis 13:18 Then Abram moved his tent and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and there he built an altar to God. Now the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day. Gensis 18:1 WORDS OF HOPE I used to say—only half-jokingly—that I hoped I died before she did. Over the years our relationship had become, well, intimate in a way I hadn’t thought possible. I’d always loved her long-limbed beauty, the way her branches stretched across space as if she were yearning for the light. But I think that it was after the arborist broke the news that she had a disease that would eventually take her down that my heart opened to her even more deeply. I ordered special organic nutrients to be injected into the soil several times a year to bolster her system. As with any other loved one, I would try to extend her life as long as I could. Greeting her every morning as Sage and I go for our walk, I speak my love and gratitude for her strength and beauty. She has endured for 65 years through thunder storms with strong winds, lashing rains, and even hail. Sometimes I slide my palm over her rough bark and tousle the leafy green clusters which wave their greeting. And oh, how her fall glory electrifies! Perhaps my Irish heritage imbued me with the blood of Druids, a people for whom the great oaks are sacred sanctuaries. Last week while talking to a neighbor, I heard a lightening-scale crack and thunderous thud as the fissure in her massive trunk split open and she crashed to the ground. When we arrived at the house, the great sheltering canopy of Grandmother Red Oak lay splayed and broken all over the yard. That night, after a skilled tree removal person had been secured, grief came. Tears fell and memories surfaced—like the summer a mother owl and her four fledglings held vigil in her branches at night. At dusk I walked among the beautiful wreckage and prayed and spoke to her. Tears washed my cheeks again in the morning while Isidoro and his son set about their work. I asked him if he would cut me a few pieces to keep. He did not think that was foolish and produced strong, solid, beautifully grained sections. Sometime in the second day of my grief, I thought: This is not just my loss. The Mississippi Kites who have been perching in some bare branches before their morning flight have had to relocate. The blue jays who year after year raise their families there have lost their home—and the squirrels who rest in the heat of the day on her broad branches and scramble about in play and harvest her acorns for food are displaced. All have lost something. Even the young cotton tail who finds shade and water underneath her looks confused as she sits on the edge of the yard and peers into a transformed landscape. As I pray for these creatures, the lessons of adaptability and resilience come to mind, teaching me as well. And I take some comfort in the one remaining section of Grandmother that is still alive and green and in the hope that even after the terrible breaking she will thrive. A new sitting area graces the front yard—centered around the large oak sections cut for me, and now holding aloe vera and summery petunia, with small agaves at the base. It will be a kind of outdoor altar for the sacred oak, for all the beauty and strength and grace and blessing she brought. At the thought of the welcome this new setting offers, I smile in gratitude. Receive this blessing: “Blessed are the ones who trust in the LORD, whose confidence is in God. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. They do not fear when heat comes; their leaves are always green.” Jeremiah 7-8 adapted DEVOTION AUTHOR Dr. Pat Saxon

Wednesday - June 10, 2026

By Jonathon McClellan • June 10, 2026

SCRIPTURE James 1. 2-4 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. WORDS OF HOPE God’s Kindness It is in the human experience that we often live without knowing all the facts. The future, God’s purpose for our lives, and the choices that we should make are all at times things shrouded in mystery. Yet, without knowing, somehow, we live without this knowledge every day. There are times, however, when our questions and desires for the answers burn within our hearts so much that it consumes our every waking thought. In these moments, it is easy for us to be dissatisfied with God. At times, we would rather relieve the stress of our minds by following the instructions of people who claim to have the answers. With no clear direction or clarity, how could we possibly have peace of mind? Instead of looking for the sun to shine every day, what if we became comfortable when it rains? In a perfect world the weather would never pose any threat. The temperature would always be comfortable and white puffy clouds would offer us plenty of shade. It is a fact that most people thrive on days like this, but when the weather changes unexpectedly and we become inconvenienced by it, we become uncomfortable. We look to God to give us a good weather report but would be uncomfortable if God gave us a bad one. We have not learned how to be comfortable when the forecasts for our lives show us failing, making mistakes, and struggling. God does not give us all the answers, and by not doing so, does us a great kindness. How many of us would enter a competition that we knew was going to be a great struggle with many mistakes made, and that would eventually end in our failure? Most of us would not see the point in entering a race that we had no chance of winning. However, even when we fail, we gain experience, and with experience, knowledge, and with knowledge, understanding, and with understanding we gain the ability to be wise. If God told us everything, then we would avoid hard times, the very times in our lives which builds our character. I would rather not know and struggle, than to know how to avoid the very things which are meant to grow me. PRAYER Creator God, Help us to trust You. Remind us of Your love and of Your desire to prosper us. We do not know the way in which we should go, but we know that You are guiding us to where we should be. Lord, grow our faith. In the fiery trials, we know that You will fashion us into pure gold. Help us to believe when we do not see and to have peace in You, our mighty God. Amen. DEVOTION AUTHOR Jonathon McClellan Order of St. Francis and St. Clare

Tuesday - June 9, 2026

By Carole Anne Sarah • June 9, 2026

SCRIPTURE Matthew 5:16 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your God in heaven. WORDS OF HOPE It is easy to feel helpless in the face of big problems like child abuse or a war, or persistent racial injustice. Our helplessness results in anger and depression. Sometimes it feels like our efforts have been futile and there is nothing we can do. But we must do something if we are to live with ourselves. A song from my childhood, "Brighten the Corner Where You Are" reminds me we can all do something. We can pray, we can ask God to help us recognize opportunities for actions. We can write letters, make phone calls. We can be generous with our smiles. Yes, even a smile can make a difference. I used to be a frustrated, overworked social worker for Child Protective Services. On one especially challenging day, I took the elevator to the basement where our office was located. A young man held the door while I rushed on. He looked me in the eye and his smile was so genuine it drew me out of the dark place my last appointment had brought me. To my surprise he turned out to be my secretary's brother. She introduced us briefly and went to lunch with him while I met with my next appointment. The smile stayed with me, cheered me up, and gave me energy to face the next problem. He never knew his smile would affect the rest of my life. The very next day, my secretary learned her brother had died in an automobile accident. I attended his funeral. I had known him for only a moment. He taught me how important a smile can be. Even during the pandemic, I thought to smile at strangers even behind the mask. My eyes carried the message. PRAYER May we always remember to brighten the corner where we are and never forget that sometimes the smile we give can be a gift that lasts forever. DEVOTION AUTHOR Carole Anne Sarah

Monday - June 8, 2026

By Jan Nunn • June 8, 2026

SCRIPTURE Proverbs 27:9 Sweet friendships refresh the soul and awaken our hearts with joy, for good friends are like the anointing oil that yields the fragrant incense of God’s presence. WORDS OF HOPE Today is National Best Friends' Day. What a wonderful day to celebrate! Friends are the most amazing gifts from God! We have a multi-color sign in our backyard that says FRIENDS in big letters! It was a gift from friends. They knew what brings us joy. Going through tough times, God knows that we are weak beings. Though we have faith in God, we need some Earthly beings who give us big hugs that help put us back together when our pieces are beginning to scatter! Those are gifts from God that no money can purchase! When my brain goes out of control, my friend texts or calls me and first says BREATHE! Then she says have you tried this, or I will help you find a solution! She talks me off the brink of losing my mind! She is my prayer warrior, as well. As soon as I text her with a concern, I receive a reply that prayers have been said. Some may talk about fun and shenanigans they have with friends. There are those experiences too. Sport events - especially with Special Olympics athletes - are shared joys we have together. Attending church is our special time together. Our life group of amazing women is a very special treat each week. All those women are amazing friends. And I am blessed to have other friends as well who bless my life in good times and bad. The number of friends who checked on us during my knee surgery and brought food is amazing. Our group of amazing friends who gather for Easter lunch is also the same group of people who gather the Sunday before Thanksgiving and work together to collect and prepare 500 baskets of Thanksgiving meals to be donated to families in need. And it’s the same prayer group who lifts our prayers to God when we have concerns. You may say I can't have that many best friends. These are the BEST people, and God gave them to me and shares them with others and my awesome church and with those who received those 500 Thanksgiving baskets! My cup runneth over with the love of best friends! PRAYER God of perfect gifts, I thank you for the wonderful gift of the amazing friends you have given me. I know how much you love me because of the loving friends in my life. DEVOTION AUTHOR Jan Nunn CoH Volunteer