Deuteronomy 8:7-18

“When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them…Do not say to yourself, ‘My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.’” vss. 12, 17

The book of Deuteronomy, presented in the form of a sermon by Moses as the Israelites are about to enter the promised land, anticipates that the people will enjoy a rich and full life. They are reminded to regularly give thanksgiving to the Lord and to never imagine that they have earned any of their wealth. Some of us are in that position now on the eve of our national Thanksgiving holiday. We live in fine houses and will be eating sumptuous feasts–there’ll be so much food that we can’t possibly eat it all. Whole villages in some parts of the world could eat well from our leftovers! As we take time to reflect on our material wealth and national prosperity, it would be good to heed the warning of this text. We live in abundance for a lot of reasons–some work hard, most are just lucky–but everything comes from God. Just that recognition is often enough to spark generosity in our hearts, and trigger a desire to share what we have with those who are hungry and homeless. It’s not that we need to wallow in guilt as we sit down to our overflowing tables, that does no one any good. But perhaps, as we head into the season of sharing, we can find new ways to share our wealth.

Thought for the Day: Many are asking, to whom will I be giving?

Psalm 95:1-7a

“Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.” vss. 2-3

Thanksgiving is on everyone’s minds today. At least the eating and drinking part! Most of us are preparing for an amazing feast, and in most of our homes we’re going to be eating pretty much the same things. It seems we all have our favorites and we have the idea that this holiday is for nostalgia, experiencing the same tastes and fragrances that we have in the past. Heaven help us if we forget the recipe passed down from our grandmother–even if the kids won’t eat it, it wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without it. And maybe there’ll even be a special prayer at the meal! Sometimes even dad will pray, and give thanks for family, friends, and country. It really is a special feast, full of memories and traditions. And it’s a particularly good time for remembering our great God. After all, that’s the greatest blessing of all! And it’s important to remember that our God is more than we even imagine. God is, and there is nothing that is not God. We encounter God with every breath and God is present wherever we are. All things came into being through God, and in God all people are born and live and have their being. Wow! No wonder the psalmist insisted on songs of praise. Our God is greater than great!

Thought for the Day: What Thanksgiving tradition is most precious to me?

Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24

“I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.” vs. 16

Ezekiel describes the Lord as a loving shepherd who one day will seek out the lost and strayed sheep, and bind up the injured and the weak. But then he adds these disquieting words, “the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.” It seems Ezekiel has the prophet’s nose for sniffing out injustice in places we’d rather ignore. He believed that the fat and strong sheep were responsible for the miserable condition of the injured and weak–and one day they would be punished. It’s tough to read Ezekiel’s words, and most will include them with other bible verses they choose to ignore. But like them or not, Ezekiel’s insight deserves to be taken to heart. The rich and the prosperous of any time or culture, including our own, have gotten to that position at the expense of the poor! The well-off exploit the disadvantaged at every opportunity with minimal wages, inadequate healthcare, insufficient benefits, and horrible working conditions. And because the poor have no power or clout, they seldom receive the advocacy they need and deserve. We may not like to hear that, but Ezekiel was no fool, and he prayed that one day the tables would be turned.

Thought for the Day: Where in the flock am I?

Matthew 25:19-30

“Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.” vss. 24b-25

The one talent slave brought back the money that he had been given by the master, but he had done nothing with it, and his excuse was fear. He was so afraid that he had gone and hid the money in a hole in the ground. The master was not pleased, and the parable has a catastrophic ending for the slave. The story of course has little to say about the nature of God, but it has a whole lot to say about how things are in the world. It’s true that those who have an abundance seem to end up getting more, while those who have only a little end up losing even that, not because God wants it that way, but because in the world wealth begets wealth. But it’s also true that fear is the enemy of excellence. All of us have been blessed with incredible gifts; some have more than others–and they use their gifts without fear. It doesn’t seem to bother them when they make mistakes or earn the ridicule of others. They simply smile and go on living. But uthers are paralyzed by their fears and refuse to risk failure. So they slink about, keeping their mouths shut, and no one ever knows what blessings they have to offer.

Thought for the Day: When has fear kept me from using my talent?

Matthew 25:14-19

“After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them.” vs. 19

Most of us have at least a passing familiarity with what is known as the Parable of the Talents. It’s the story of a rich man going on a journey who entrusts his property to his slaves. One gets five talents, another two, and the third receives just one. When the master returned, he summoned his slaves and settled accounts with them. The parable reflects a pretty basic reality within any population: not everyone gets the same amount of anything, but everybody gets something. Humans are not all the same; we have very different gifts, some more than others, but all we have comes from God. And all of us are accountable for what we have been given. Some don’t really like the notion of accountability. They’d like to believe that it doesn’t make any difference how they choose to use the gifts that they’ve been given. They’d like to be able to squander away all they have with no thought of consequences. The result of that kind of behavior has been appalling. Lives have been ruined, families destroyed, and probably worst of all, the environment has been damaged almost beyond repair. Fortunately many people, knowing that they are accountable, have invested their talents and abilities in the common good, and in their presence, life flourishes. Truly, these saints are a blessing to us all.

Thought for the Way: To whom have I been accountable in my life?

1 Thessalonians 5:6-11

“Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.” vs. 11

Paul knew that all would be well with that little congregation in Thessalonica because they understood that life is communal. We’re not on our own in this world, a bunch of singles laboring toward a celestial goal, but we are one body in Christ. The Holy Spirit has called us into a community of faith, and for better or worse, we are enmeshed with one another. Now for those who love their privacy, that may seem a burden, but in the long run there is nothing better than knowing we have brothers and sisters who will be present for us when times get tough. Likewise, there is nothing more sad than seeing people trying to deal with adversity on their own. In community, when problems come to one member of the body, others quickly respond with encouragement and support. If we stumble or fall, someone who loves us will be there to lift us up, and hold us close. Many people move frequently, and they may even welcome getting away from childhood homes, but the wise realize that the sooner they make connections, the better it will be for them. As Genesis puts it so succinctly, it is not good for humans to be alone. We need companions on the journey, and if they share our faith, all the better!

Thought for the Day: How has community been important for me?

1 Thessalonians 5:1-5

“But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness.” vss. 4-5

Like other followers of Jesus in the mid-first century Paul was looking for the Day of the Lord, which he understood as the imminent return of Jesus. But as he wrote to his friends in Thessalonica, he described that time for them, not as a day of wrath, but as an occasion for celebration and joy. And he knew that it would not take them by surprise, because they were all children of light. We perhaps have a different notion of how the future will roll out, but wouldn’t it be wonderful if we knew that there was nothing ahead that we can’t handle? And that’s how it is for all who walk in the light and who trust that in Christ there is nothing to fear. Oh we know that there will be valleys and mountain tops–that’s just the nature of life. So it really shouldn’t surprise us when those days show up–as children of light that’s what we’ve come to expect, and we’ll roll with the punches, knowing that one day we will be surprised by the joy God wants for all people. When that’s what lies in our future there’s really no need for anxiety or despair. It might be tomorrow, it might lie far down the road, but in the end, God’s biggest surprise awaits!

Thought for the Day: The biggest surprise life has given me.

Psalm 90:7-8, 12

“So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart.” vs. 12

To be alive in this spectacular universe is a great blessing no matter how long or how short our lives may be. But it is also acknowledged that there is value in having a long life. In fact, some people adopt healthy lifestyles in order to increase their odds of living longer. They’ll willingly give up artificial sweeteners and carbs in hopes of achieving triple digits. And as long as our minds and bodies retain at least some measure of agility, those platinum years can bring great joy. The psalmist prays that with the added days we would also gain a wise heart. Obviously that’s a worthy intention, but we all know that getting old doesn’t guarantee wisdom. We all know folks who are just as foolish as seniors as they ever were in their youth. If we do want wisdom in our elder years it is important to treat each day as a gift and relish every hour as an opportunity for learning and service. Many of us have lived longer than we ever expected and are still feeling vital and alive. What a blessing it is when we can learn from the Lord and become known in our faith communities for our wisdom! The constancy of our faith and the serenity of our lives provides a continual witness to the goodness of God and the joy of living.

Thought for the Day: How did I get to be so wise?

Psalm 90: 1-6

“Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” vss. 1-2

From the beginning star-gazers have pondered the origins of the universe and have wondered how all things have come into being. Probably every ethnicity and ancient culture had their own perspectives on creation and early religious groups adopted these stories as a part of their worldview. We have the ancient Hebrew account in the book of Genesis and some Christians have absorbed those creation narratives and made them their own. In these latter days astronomers and astrophysicists, using powerful space telescopes, have come up with more scientific, constantly evolving, ways of understanding our place in the universe. With all the advances though, there’s something compelling about a perspective like the Psalmist’s prayer, “before (all things), from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” There’s such simplicity and beauty in those words, especially since our little minds can’t begin to comprehend the complexities and contradictions proposed by the scientific model. All the talk about the “big bang” and “black holes” simply makes our heads spin. The knowledge gained does nothing for the concerns of our hearts. How much better it is to give thanks for the gift of being alive in such a spectacular universe and simply affirm that undergirding it all, God is! Nothing more need be said!

Thought for the Day: What speaks more clearly to me, Genesis or science?

Zephaniah 1:7, 12-18

“The great day of the Lord is near, near and hastening fast; the sound of the day of the Lord is bitter, the warrior cries aloud there. That day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish…” vss. 14-15a

There was a time when preachers and revivalists regularly invoked the vivid pictures of the day of the Lord that are found in the Hebrew prophets. These passages paint a bleak description of judgment, a day of wrath from which only a few will be preserved. Zephaniah even wrote that “in the fire of his passion the whole earth shall be consumed; for a full, a terrible end he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth.” Preachers like Jonathan Edwards used these passages to terrify and warn their listeners that this would be their fate unless they turned to Christ, their one and only hope of avoiding the fires of hell. Believe it or not, such techniques worked! During the revivals of the 18th century, known as the Great Awakening, thousands of sinners dedicated their lives to Christ. Some did it multiple times! There are some who would like to see a return to that kind of preaching in our congregations. They believe that fear is a powerful motivator, and that people would clean up their lives if preachers would “scare them straight.” They’re tired of “grace-filled pablum,” and yearn for the “good old days.” Others aren’t so sure!

Thought for the Day: What’s my reaction to fire and brimstone preaching?