Devotional 7-29-11

Scripture: Matthew 16:24-26

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  ²⁵For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.  ²⁶For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life?  Or what will they give in return for their life?”

Finders Weepers, Losers Keepers

Once upon a time there was a woman who had a beautiful gold bracelet with inlaid diamonds.  Every day, when she woke up, she put it on her arm.  Every night, before she went to bed, she put it on her nightstand.  One day she woke up and realized that her bracelet was missing.  It was not on the nightstand.  She did not remember taking it off her arm the night before.  She tried retracing her steps from the day before, but to no avail.  At the end of her failed search, she sat on the edge of her bed and cried.

Once upon a time there was a woman who went to the grocery store.  While she was shopping, she saw something glisten on the floor.  She reached down and picked up a beautiful gold bracelet with inlaid diamonds.  She placed it on her arm and rejoiced at her good fortune.

Whenever I found something as a child, I used to say, “finders keepers, losers weepers.”  It is a saying made up by finders as a way of laying claim to a find.  It is devoid of compassion for those who have the painful experience of losing.

In Matthew 16:24-26, Jesus says, “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”  Jesus’ saying is more like “Finders Weepers, Losers Keepers.”

What does Jesus mean when he says, “those who lose their life for my sake will find it”?  Does he bid us to die?  The short answer is: YES!  Notice that Jesus tells us to take up our cross and follow.  The cross may be for us today a symbol of resurrection, but there can be no resurrection without death.

All of this raises the question: What are you willing to die for?

I have heard people say thing like, “that chocolate cake is to die for.”  However, I have a feeling that any restaurant that sells chocolate cake and demands that the person who orders the cake die shortly thereafter as the price, will discover that no matter how tasty, that particular chocolate cake is not a big seller.

What are you willing to die for?  Family?  Friends?  Your faith? How about a stranger?  Or a murderer?  How about your enemies?  Or atheists?  What are you willing to die for?

In Romans 5:7-8, Paul wrote that, “Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die.  But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.”

Jesus did not die for the Methodists, or the Christians, or people with the right belief, or people who do good deeds.  Jesus died for the best of the best and the worst of the worst, because all are sinners and Jesus died for sinners.

What are you willing to die for?  Jesus says, “those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”  Read that line again, but this time emphasize the word “their.”  How does that affect your reading of the text? 

How many of us are preoccupied with our selves?  Preoccupied with our looks, our success, our wealth, our health?  Oh, maybe we include our families and our friends.  But do we include all the people that God created? 

One interpretation of the text for our day may be that when Jesus calls us to lose our lives, he wants us to die to selfishness so that we can begin to live in a way that focuses not on self, but on others (even our enemies).

Once upon a time there was a woman who found a beautiful gold bracelet with inlaid diamonds.  She wanted that bracelet.  She pictured wearing it on her arm.  But she knew that it did not belong to her and that somewhere there was a woman missing her bracelet.  Instead of placing it on her arm, she went in search of the woman who lost it.  She put a stranger’s pain ahead of her own desire to keep the bracelet.  She put another ahead of her self.

How are you losing your life today?

Prayer

Almighty God,
You made the earth and the sun and set them in motion.
Help us to remember that the earth revolves around the sun.
Break us of the desire to have both the earth and the sun to revolve around us.

Help us to die to our selfish ways.
Help us to live in love that places others’ needs and dreams ahead of our own.
Help us to love those who are easy to love as well as those who are hard to love.
Help us to love the least, the last, and the lost.
Help us to love others, as Jesus loves us.

Until we have died to self.
Until we live for the good of your creation, including all of the people you have made.
Until people can see the kingdom of God through our living.
In the name of Jesus the Christ.  Amen.

David A. Stackpole, M.Div., J.D.

Devotional 7-22-11

Please read Matthew 7:25-34

Last night Tim and I took a man to Mannington because he did not have a ride there. It is his home. He was in Fairmont all day shopping.  He asked for a Bible, and Tim had one laying in the backseat of the car, along with an “Upper Room” devotional magazine for him to read when he wanted. He knew both publications well. He picked up the Bible and began paging through the Psalms. As we traveled, he read beautifully about God being in a magnificent thunderstorm. The language itself was powerful and amazingly descriptive. His reading was perfect. Intonation and cadence joined to make this an experience I will never forget. So many people are intimidated about reading the Bible aloud. Maybe he couldn’t have done it as well in a public place. His voice was powerful, yet not loud. I could see lightning and rain as he read. I could hear thunder.

He told us a little about himself. “I’m really slow,” he said. “I can’t hold down a job because of that, so I’m on disability. I finally got my GED.” I told him that that was not my impression of him and that he seemed very intelligent to me. He did. “I go into Fairmont about once a month or so to do a little shopping or just to clear my head”, he said. “Sometimes I eat at McDonald’s then go down to the river and watch the boats or the ducks and geese swim. If it’s hot I go somewhere I can put my feet in the water and keep cool. It’s quiet and I need to reflect a lot. I drink coffee to stay awake all night so the police won’t arrest me for vagrancy. I like the solitude.”

“So what kind of pots did you buy today?” I asked him. “Are thy hand made for display or what?” He replied that he was going to plant roses in them. “I just love to grow things,“ he said. “I live with my dad. He used to travel around fixing sewing machines, but he doesn’t do that anymore. He’ll have supper waiting for me. I plant all kinds of flowers in our yard. Roses, tiger lilies, azaleas, peonies. It’s calming to be outside. It helps me be quiet and think. I have a cousin like me who’s slow. She can’t keep a job either.” He sounded resigned.

Every word that came out of his mouth was thoughtful and deliberate. His grammar was perfect. (Snob that I am, I always notice that first when I meet anyone. Anyone.) We took him to his house and let him out. “Very nice to meet you,” he said. “Yeah” Tim replied. “Come by the church anytime. Hope to see you again.” “Me, too!” I echoed. Tim turned the car around and we headed home. “Gentle soul” he said. “Yeah,” I agreed. “He’s not slow. He’s just too gentle for this world.”

How many other people are like that? How quick are we to judge them? Why do we think everybody has to be like us?

Rev. Dorcas L. Conrad

Highland Avenue UMC
Fairmont, WV

Devotional 7-15-11

Free us for Joyful Obedience

I have had to make lots of phone calls this month, asking people if they would be willing to do this or that. I really don’t like to make those kind of phone calls, but I have found myself doing it a lot lately. I’m the lay director of the next Emmaus women’s walk, so many of the phone calls have been to ask community members to serve on the team.

It has been a joy to speak to everyone I’ve called, and even though not everyone can say “yes,” everyone is resting in the middle of God’s will, and we are all finding grace in the process.

Even though I don’t like to call people to ask them to serve, I am finding joy in obedience.

There is a line in the Prayer of Confession that is part of the United Methodist Communion Liturgy that says, “Free of for joyful obedience.” It’s one of my favorite parts of communion.

Free us for joyful obedience.

It seems like it would be a paradox – to be made free so that we can obey. We shouldn’t be surprised, though. Faith in Christ is full of contradictions and paradoxes. We are Christians – people who have received forgiveness we do not deserve, through grace of unlimited value that we did not earn. We follow a Lord who has died but is alive, a God who created the universe but loves us each in a personal way, and we walk with a Holy Spirit we cannot see, hear or touch, but who surrounds us with love. We know our God in three parts, and yet our God is one. We are mortal beings who will live forever. Nothing should sound like a paradox – everything is beyond our imagination. We are made free so that we can obey, and in that obedience we find joy.

We are asked to serve – in our communities, in our churches, in our families, at our places of work, with our friends. We pray about service, and we try to listen to God’s call on our lives, and yet, if you are like me, there are times when I am held back from answering the way God is leading me. What is it that prevents you from being free for obedience?

Is it fear? Selfishness? Worry? A lack of confidence? Unwillingness? Unhappiness? What is it that is keeping you from saying “yes” or “no” in obedience to God? What does God need to free you from so that you can find the joy in obeying him?

Perhaps we all need to make that line part of our prayers each day. Free me for joyful obedience.

When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word,
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will, He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.
Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

(Trust and Obey, lyrics by John H. Sammis, 1887)

Kim Matthews

Devotional 7-7-11

Watching the Royal Wedding was high on my “to do” list. To feel surrounded by the grandeur of Westminster Abby was once again a thrill. I remember the feeling of walking amid the grandeur of the beautiful cathedral but on this special day to see the sun shining into the Abby was also thrilling, and made the setting so appropriate for a very special wedding. The words that were spoken, addressed to the young couple, were so meaningful. The words that they heard and we all heard at a distance were—“Be who you were meant to be, and you will set the world on fire! “ WOW—Can we really do that? Set the world on fire? Imagine what we could be if we could just figure out what we are meant to be. It seems like a lifetime of searching --What are we meant to be? Then as we search it slowly becomes more clear. Just listen to God as he tells us what he would have us to do and to be. Talk to God, he will help us figure this out. I think that what the speaker was trying to tell the young couple and all of us is that we can do more with our lives, we need to be intentional, and if we do more we can make a difference. The Duke and Duchess will do much that we would never ever dream of doing. We can still do things that we may never dream to do, there is the force within us to achieve. God wants the very best for us. Read again some of the scripture that was used at the wedding. It was a challenge to the couple and can also be to us.

Romans-12 “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God- what is good and acceptable and perfect”

Spiritual life grows as we give ourselves to each other, and to God’s will. We become richer in soul. And our prayer this day is that we will be able to discern what God I s saying to us, and what it is that he would have us to do. There may be some surprises for us, and we may go in an entirely different direction from what we expect. Just remember that God is good.

Peace and Joy to each of you,

Marilyn Holleron