Thursday Devotion: Ezekiel 37:1-14

A reading from Ezekiel, the 37th chapter:

1 The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. 3 He said to me, "Mortal, can these bones live?" I answered, "O Lord God, you know." 4 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6 I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord." 7 So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8 I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live." 10 I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude. 11 Then he said to me, "Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, "Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.' 12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. 14 I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act, says the Lord."

***

To prophesy.

To foresee.

To foretell.

To speak.

Have you ever been minding your own business when all of a sudden the urge to communicate with somebody overcame you? Well, if not, don't be surprised because there aren't a lot of accounts of such a prophetic unction being passed around these days. However, the need to speak life into "dry bones," is everywhere.

We find ourselves sitting in the church pews waiting to be brought back from the land of bones. We have depleted our reserves throughout the work week and we are looking to be brought back to life, refueled for the upcoming week, to be lifted back to our feet to continue the work that we have been called to do. However, where does this life, this fuel, this lift up come from? Where do we find the sustaining power to keep on fighting the good fight?

The word of God.

From the very beginning of our holy text, the word of God has moved across the void to bring into existence all creation. This very word continues to move across our world to bring into life new creations all around us. The trees, the wind, the new born babies, the job opportunities, the ministry opportunties, the kind words from a stranger, the written word, the spoken word, the loving look of a child to a parent.

The word of God.

We often hear in church the phrase, "...as a called and ordained minister of the church of God..." or some such thing, and this is the power that is bestowed on the pastor of our congregation. They have been set apart in order to facilitate certain ceremonies and rites, however we are all called to speak life into the world. In times like now, we need to speak MORE life into the world. We are residing in the valley of the dry bones, and God has placed a hand upon our shoulder and bekoned us to prophesy life into these bones, that they would come to life, full of muscle and tissue, full of spirit, so that they may fully realize the love and power of the all mighty.

We have it in us.

We have been called.

We have been empowered.

We can do it.

Let us pray:

Lord your word moved across the void in the beginning, which brought into being all the we have before us and more. Allow your word to flow through our mouths, minds and hearts as we encounter dry bones on our journey. Allow your word to flow into our own dry bones so that we might be revitalized to do your will. In our times of struggle and need you are ever present to speak life into us. Continue to do this so that we might remember your name in our darkest of days. Strengthen us, enliven us, and set us on our way to bring your glory into our world. Amen.

Thursday Devotion: John 9:1-41

The holy gospel according to the book of John, the ninth chapter:

1 As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" 3 Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him. 4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." 6 When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man's eyes, 7 saying to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. 8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, "Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?" 9 Some were saying, "It is he." Others were saying, "No, but it is someone like him." He kept saying, "I am the man." 10 But they kept asking him, "Then how were your eyes opened?" 11 He answered, "The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, "Go to Siloam and wash.' Then I went and washed and received my sight." 12 They said to him, "Where is he?" He said, "I do not know." 13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. 14 Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15 Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, "He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see." 16 Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath." But others said, "How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?" And they were divided. 17 So they said again to the blind man, "What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened." He said, "He is a prophet." 18 The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight 19 and asked them, "Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?" 20 His parents answered, "We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; 21 but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself." 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. 23 Therefore his parents said, "He is of age; ask him." 24 So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, "Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner." 25 He answered, "I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see." 26 They said to him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?" 27 He answered them, "I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?" 28 Then they reviled him, saying, "You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from." 30 The man answered, "Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. 32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing." 34 They answered him, "You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?" And they drove him out. 35 Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" 36 He answered, "And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him." 37 Jesus said to him, "You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he." 38 He said, "Lord, I believe." And he worshiped him. 39 Jesus said, "I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind." 40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, "Surely we are not blind, are we?" 41 Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, "We see,' your sin remains.

***

Wow.

To be able to witness a miracle and still find the gusto to deny that it actually happened.

Welcome to the world of the Pharisees. Everything outside of their socio-religious realm of operation simply could not be accepted as fact. Here we have a man who was born blind, lived his entire adult life as a beggar, because what else was he to do? Then along comes Jesus, wipes some mud in his eyes and allows him to truly see the world. However, when brought before the religious council they are seeking empirical evidence to explain away the miraculous nature of what happened.

Surely this is merely a different man.

Surely he wasn't born blind.

Surely his parents will side with us.

Surely... surely.... surely it was a miracle (albeit performed on the sabbath).

So, what does this have to do with us? What does this have to do with our faith? In a word, everything. We see more miracles in a given day than we will ever be able to comprehend, and yet we are still ever seeking the empirical evidence to justify things away.

Every morning the sun rises--miracle. 

Every morning we wake up to an alarm--miracle.

Every breath we take--miracle.

Every beat of our heart--miracle.

Every moment--miracle.

But not really! We get so caught up in the way we have to accomplish things, get things done, achieve great works, that we forget to realize the miracles of this life for the gifts that they truly are. Every moment is a gift from God, a moment that we are provided to make this world just a little bit better. Miracles are everywhere, but we refuse to allow the presence of God to embolden us, and work through us.

Let us pray:
Our heavenly miracle worker, we take this moment to thank-you for the all of the miracles that you bestow on us. Especially the mighty miracle of grace... without your gifts we would be forever lost in the darkness. So, we come to you this day to thank-you for all of these things, known and unknown that you have provided for us. It is with these gifts that we are empowered, strengthened, and sent into the world to proclaim the good news to the rest of the world. Amen.

Thursday Devotion: John 4:5-42

The holy gospel according to John, the fourth chapter:

5 So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. 7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." 8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, "Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." 11 The woman said to him, "Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?" 13 Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." 15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water." 16 Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come back." 17 The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, "I have no husband'; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!" 19 The woman said to him, "Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem." 21 Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." 25 The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us." 26 Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one who is speaking to you." 27 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you want?" or, "Why are you speaking with her?" 28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29 "Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?" 30 They left the city and were on their way to him. 31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, "Rabbi, eat something." 32 But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." 33 So the disciples said to one another, "Surely no one has brought him something to eat?" 34 Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. 35 Do you not say, "Four months more, then comes the harvest'? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. 36 The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, "One sows and another reaps.' 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor." 39 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I have ever done." 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world."

***

In a perfect world everything would make sense.

No riddles.

No puzzles.

No quandaries.

No questions.

We're not so lucky, because our world is full of uncertainty, full of doubt, and full of questions that will remain unanswered until the end of time. However, there is an answer if we just look to the well... the place where the woman meets the messiah. The well of life, the place where the water is always flowing, that is where we will find Jesus.

Now, instead of talking in riddles about a magical well where there is water for everybody to drink, we direct our eyes to the cross where the water was ultimately poured out for us--the blood of Jesus. It was poured out so that we might live, it freed us to love our neighbor with everything we can muster and then some. We are charged with taking this message back to our home and telling people about it. We are to be like the woman at the well.

The woman in this story is hesitant in picking up what was being told to her--granted it was kind of cryptic--but when she put all of the pieces together she got the message. Following this eureka moment, she was instructed to go back and tell all her friends. In doing so the entire town was brought to Jesus for a little talk about living water.

No riddles.

No puzzles.

No quandries.

No questions.

Jesus is the water that sustains life. We can buy into all of the promises of this world but we will ultimately remain thirsty. There might even come a time when the water from the worldly well will dry up, and to whom will you turn then? Will you seek out the next best thing, or will you turn to the source of life? These are the questions that make us wonder, what am I buying into? What am I putting my faith into? I have been given access to an ever present flow of life and I have returned to the world for my sustenance. To what end? Death, that's the end.

Return to the well of life so that Jesus might sustain us and make us whole again...

Let us pray:

Our most gracious heavenly host. You pour out the living water for all to partake in for the ultimate cost--you sacrificed your son so that we might know eternal life. We ask that you allow your spirit to guide us to drink from the well of ever flowing water and be sustained for life. Guide us, strengthen us, and sustain us in the days to come as we grow weary from the water from the worldly well. In your son's precious name we pray. Amen.

'Tis the Season for Updates // Making Moves

Well, well, well... fancy meeting you here.

I realize that I've been M.I.A. for a couple weeks now and haven't been updating you very much either. So, I have decided that now, on this Sunday, would be a good time to do just that. A lot has been happening in the life of this pastor's husband, and I want to let you know what those things are. However, the question is, where to begin? Let's just make a list and see where that gets us!

1. I have been doing a long term substitute job since before Christmas, and it is coming to a close this week.
2. I have officially mailed the paper work to begin the entrancing process for becoming a Pastor.
3. Instead of writing devotions for the past couple of weeks I wrote my entrancing essay, and was lazy for a day.
4. Lent has begun and I have wanted to do any number of things as a spiritual discipline, but haven't really landed on anything in particular.
5. We bought a brand new, 2017, car. The first brand new car of my entire life.
6. We are planning a trip to California.
7. I am visiting Wartburg and Luther Seminaries in the "final" steps in my discernment journey.
8. My wife and I are starting to push forward with some difficult conversations: relocating, having kids, making more life together.
9. I'm struggling to stay ahead of the reading game, consistently falling behind on my Goodreads count.

So, that wasn't as meaningful as I would have hoped, and it didn't really update you on any meaningful piece of information. However, it is something of an update. I could take the time to expand on each of the things listed above, but I'm not feeling it tonight. I'm not really sure what it is that has been going through my mind as of late. There has been so many things going on, personally, professionally, spiritually, mentally and emotionally. In order to really capture the essence of what has been going on, to really update you, it would take a long time and a lot of words. However, considering I'm not sure how many people are actually going to read this, I can't be sure how many words I want to put on this screen.

Let us just say this. In the coming days I am going to need your prayer and support as my wife and I take steps together down this new life path. She is finding her place as a pastor, I'm starting down a similar path, and we're both trying to figure out what it all means and what it will look like--together. It is my hope that in the upcoming days I will get back on the update train, the devotional production, and hopefully start advancing some of my other project ideas that have been floating around in my head for a while. Now, we all know that talk is cheap and my follow through isn't very good. So, we shall see what comes of this next stage of the journey.

We'll see. Together.

Sincerely,
A Pastor's Husband