Devotional 7-17-15

“ ‘With what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?’
He has told you, O mortal one, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God.” – Micah 6:6-8

As I write this, it has been a week since I had the blessing of attending the Wednesday evening Bible Study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.  We had planned a family vacation in Charleston to visit and hold two new month-old babies:  a great granddaughter (our third) born June 1 and a grandson (our 17th) born June 2.  Since we would be there, I determined that I would attend the Wednesday Bible Study at Mother Emanuel AME Church, called “Mother Emanuel” because it was the first AME congregation in the south from which others were born.  The Johnson Memorial congregation sent with me nine prayer shawls into which people wove their own prayers as the shawls draped from the prayer rail during the Eucharist the Sunday we left.

The United Methodist Church and the African Methodist Episcopal Church are siblings in the broader Methodist family.  That makes JM and Emanuel first cousins.  It was a holy joy to meet my cousins.

The group was studying the prophet Micah.  Chapters 5 and 6 are full of God’s judgment against those who refuse to live in the ways of God.  The conversation often turned to events three weeks earlier when 9 members were gunned down and a 10th wounded.  The memory of the event was still fresh and raw, though the Emanuel folk exhibited remarkable grace and hope.  At one point, a woman stood and very quietly but directly said, “Our church is getting a lot of credit in the media and across the country for how we have handled this tragedy.  But we don’t deserve the credit; God did that.”  She sat down, and there was a moment of palpable stillness.  I know that in my feebled attempt to write this, I cannot capture the deep and wide spirit of that moment. But her comment, and the grace of the Emanuel congregation, are bringing redemption to a sacred space that had been fouled by violence and hatefulness.  Perhaps the lesson beyond that evening’s study is that wherever we are, there is the opportunity to sense the fresh blowing of the spirit’s wind, cleansing what humans have soiled.  Further, there is the lesson that we are all called to be redeemers in a troubled world.

“Breathe on me, breath of God.  Fill me with life anew,
That I would love what thou dost love, and do what thou wouldst do.” – Edwin Hatch, 1878
     
Rev.. Jack Lipphardt