Devotional 6-20-08

Passing the Mantle
The Summer Olympics are being played in 2008. The Track & Field relay races differ from other events in a significant way. In order to win (i.e. get a medal) each athlete must depend upon the performance of others! Participants in the first three “legs” must successfully pass the baton in a confined space—and having done so—after years of commitment, training, and sacrifice watch anxiously and helplessly. The athlete(s) running the “anchor” can only win for the team if the previous “legs” were effective.

Passing the baton is a part of life. Parents and teachers show us the way and then let go of the baton—passing it to us to do our part in our time before we pass it on to the next generation. The baton is passed in corporate leadership succession, in civic clubs, and in church congregations who pass the baton to their spiritual heirs. We rely on the work and the faith of those who came before us.

The Bible provides a history of spiritual succession. Abraham to Isaac to Jacob. Moses to Joshua. Elijah to Elisha. Paul to Timothy. These successions have survived for centuries beyond the pages of history and still are alive and vital, in spite of flawed leadership and stubborn laity.

Then there’s the spiritual succession that applies to us. It is recorded in Matthew 28:19, when Jesus passed the baton to you and me. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…” I like the way Teresa of Avila said it: “Christ has no body on earth but yours; no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ can look with compassion upon the world. Christ has no body on earth but yours.”

Johnson Memorial United Methodist Church is the heir of faithful servants of the Lord who decided to make disciples of Christ on the corner of 10th Street and 5th Avenue in Huntington. For generations, the people of Johnson Memorial of celebrated joys and lifted each other up in sorrows; they have enjoyed good times and endured difficult times. Now is our time.

Next month marks a clergy transition as new pastors begin their appointments to the ministries of Johnson Memorial. The mantle is being passed, so to speak, from clergy to clergy. Is the future of Johnson Memorial in Jack Lipphardt’s hands? No, it is in God’s hands. And Christ has no hands on earth but yours and mine.

Anonymous

Devotional 9-28-07

Please read Galatians 1:11-24

In this section of Paul’s letter, he is discussing his call by God and how it transformed his life. Through a revelation by Jesus Christ, he recognized that he had been set apart and called by God through grace to share the news with others.

I am struck by verses 22 through 24:

I was still unknown by sight to the churches of Judea that are in Christ; they only heard it said, “The one who formerly was persecuting us is now proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy.” And they glorified God because of me.

Look at verse 24 again. “And they glorified God because of me.”

They did not know him, yet because of the radical transformation his life had taken, they praised God because of him. Do others praise God because of you? Has your life been radically change by the recognition of God’s grace in your life and by the power of the Holy Spirit?

We praise God when we notice radical transformations, when we see a life completely turned around by coming to Christ. We celebrate Paul’s conversion. Or the story of John Newton, a slave trader who became convicted of his sin and joined forces with William Wilberforce to abolish the slave trade. His is the story of the hymn, Amazing Grace. We always seem to praise God when someone else—an ex-convict, a reformed alcoholic, a lost son—recognizes their wretched humanness, does an about-face, and dedicates her or his life to Kingdom living. What about you?

I’ll ask the question again. Do others praise God because of you?

If not, then perhaps there is a transformation yet to take place in your life.

What is keeping you from experiencing the nearer presence of God? Are you holding on to the traditions of your ancestors instead of letting go and soaring by the power of the Holy Spirit to where God is leading you today? Are you absorbed in self instead of reaching out to others in love? Do you ask for God’s blessing on what you do, or do you trust in God and obey his will? God set you apart and called Paul, you, and even me, by name since before we were born, by his grace, so that others might know him because of us. I pray that others may know him because of you, and even me.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of his glory and grace. And then, others will praise God because of you!

Anonymous