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Tri County Lutheran Parish

Taking Christ's Love to the Parish

January 18, 2021 by brendat Leave a Comment

Where Nothing Is Expected

Devotional for the week of January 17th, 2021

At one of his life’s worst intersections, when legs trembled and steps were mired in bogs of doubt, his companion looked into the man’s hollowing eyes and said, “I believe in you. I know you.” Have you ever needed such a word?

The list is painfully long that names all of the circumstances and places from which it is assumed nothing good can come. Perhaps you have compiled your own catalog of those who fall short, the irredeemable neighborhoods, or the situations beyond hope in the life of others. Perhaps you find yourself on someone else’s list, among those whose life and plight has been dismissed as “nothing good.” So it was thought of Jesus, whose life was rooted in the hillside soil of a sidetracked town—Nazareth—where nothing remarkable, not much at all, was expected to grow up. That town and its people were on the “unfavorable” list.

It is a riddle of scripture that the likes of Philip (or Peter, John, James, and Andrew—those gospel familiars) would, seemingly without discernment or a second thought, leave everything when Jesus interrupted his settled life and bid him, “Follow me.” For Nathanael, it was different. He took an honest and reasonable step back. He knew all the talk about nothing good coming from Nazareth.

So many of our stories wither and so much of who we are dies when we are confronted with the “I know about you” list of painful failures instead of a loving, hopeful invitation to “come and see” (John 1:46).

There is a mighty mercy, an opening of heaven itself before our very eyes, a retelling of each “Nazareth” in our lives if we dare to “come and see” Jesus. Then that painful, long, imposed or self-inflicted list is no longer our truth because we, in seeing Jesus, begin to see ourselves and others as Jesus does. An epiphany happens: “I believe in you.”

 

Devotional message and art based on the readings for January 17th, reprinted from sundaysandseasons.com.
Copyright © 2019 Augsburg Fortress. All rights reserved.

Filed Under: Adult Devotion

January 4, 2021 by brendat Leave a Comment

Truth Beyond The Facts

Devotional for the week of January 3rd, 2020

There are many questions today about facts. Who do we trust to give us the facts? What sources and individuals are reliable? Social media can be a great tool for sharing, but it has also become a means of spreading misinformation, false beliefs, and bad advice. Many people today are suspicious of what some claim to be the facts.

Even if we have the right facts, we might not have something more important: the truth. Facts can be a partial representation of the truth. Facts might tell us that it is sunny and warm this morning, but the weather forecast might say thunderstorms are coming in the afternoon. The latter statement is truth. Truth is the larger reality that smaller facts don’t capture, and sometimes contradict.

John tells us that Jesus is God’s Word, full of grace and truth. In Jesus we get the full truth of God, not merely the facts. What are the facts we might see? We are all sinful and have strayed from God’s just and loving ways. The world is a mess. Left to our own ways, we are surely lost. These are the facts, as if we woke up to a dangerous thunderstorm but don’t know what the weather forecast is after that. Jesus is the fuller truth that in spite of the stormy mess of the world and our individual lives, God’s grace is a gift to us in Christ. There is a blue sky and a safe calm that is ours through divine love.

Some of us live with messages that tell us we are not the right kind of person to receive God’s grace because of our past mistakes, or ethnicity, or gender identity, or level of education, or poverty. The truth of Jesus Christ tells us we are children of God. “From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace” (John 1:16). This is the truth that gives us life.

 

Devotional message and art based on the readings for January 3rd, reprinted from sundaysandseasons.com.
Copyright © 2019 Augsburg Fortress. All rights reserved.

Filed Under: Adult Devotion

December 14, 2020 by brendat Leave a Comment

Who Are You?

Devotional for the week of December 13, 2020

John knows who he is. When the Pharisees’ messengers demand that John give his credentials, he confidently responds that he is on a divinely appointed mission to witness to the light of Christ. He references the Hebrew Scriptures, orienting himself within the wider story of God’s relationship with Israel. John knows that his testimony is important.

It is notable that John also knows who he is not. In this conversation alone, he clarifies that he is not the Messiah, nor a reincarnation of Elijah, nor a prophet. He emphasizes that he is not even worthy to untie the sandals of the one who comes after him. In other words, John has the humility to admit that he is not Jesus.

The gospel writer says that John “confessed” these declarations about who he was and who he was not (John 1:20). This means that he freely gave public testimony, going “on the record,” so to speak.

Today, many Lutheran churches include a rite of communal confession during Sunday worship. When we confess together, we publicly declare who we are not by naming our captivity to sin. We are not God. We have not loved God wholeheartedly and have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. Yet, confession also reminds us who we are. We are children of God. In the words of absolution, we hear the truth that we are completely forgiven by God, we are made alive in Christ, and we are strengthened with the power of the Holy Spirit (Evangelical Lutheran Worship, pp. 95–96).

The practice of repentance is a return to our baptismal vocation. We declare not only who we are but whose we are. We belong to God, who renews us to live in service of the gospel. Like John, we are witnesses to the light of Christ, and we are called to reflect that light as it shines in our lives and in our world.

 

Devotional message and art based on the readings for December 13, reprinted from sundaysandseasons.com.

Copyright © 2018 Augsburg Fortress. All rights reserved.

Filed Under: Adult Devotion

December 8, 2020 by brendat Leave a Comment

Pointing to Christ

Devotional for the week of December 6th, 2020

Mark’s gospel opens with fanfare: a herald announcing the good news that the Lord is on the way! It’s time to prepare for the Savior! The role model for this process of preparation is an unusual character. He lives in the wild, wears animal skins, and eats insects. Because of his extreme lifestyle, John the Baptist is often portrayed as a madman living on the fringes of society.

Yet, the text makes clear that John was a respected faith leader. People from all over the region were coming to him to be baptized. In John’s context, living in the desert and eating a foraged diet were signs of spiritual commitment, not lunacy. We might imagine John as a precursor to the Christian desert mothers and fathers who came after him, wise teachers who lived in voluntary isolation. People made a point to come hear what these teachers had to say.

John used his influence to point to Jesus. Although he had a popular ministry of his own, John understood that his call to prepare the way for Jesus involved humility and service. He told others he wasn’t even worthy to untie Jesus’ sandals, a sentiment that was meant to elevate Jesus, not to demean John. He wanted to communicate how transformative Jesus’ ministry would be. “I have baptized with water,” John proclaimed, “but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (Mark 1:8).

As we declare in our baptismal rite, that same Holy Spirit calls us into baptism and seals us with the mark of Christ forever. We, like John, are called to humble service for the sake of God’s mission in the world, to use our unique gifts and vocations to point to Jesus. We become messengers proclaiming the good news: God has come to dwell with us.

 

Devotional message and art based on the readings for December 6th, reprinted from sundaysandseasons.com.
Copyright © 2019 Augsburg Fortress. All rights reserved.

 

 

Filed Under: Adult Devotion

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Grace Lutheran Church

1302 2nd Street
Chappell, NE 69129

 

Gloria Dei Lutheran Church

1011 McCall Street
Lodgepole, NE 6914

 

Sullivan Hills Summer Camp

4236 Road 149
Lodgepole, NE 69149

 

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