Skip to main content

Devotional notes for a devotional I delivered just after the election

What I learned through my obsession over the US election.

Tell the story of the facebook fiasco that went on in my family and the call with Dan and Joe…  and I’m a 9 on the enneagram

POSTURE & ACTION

POSTURE - humility

Richard Rohr

[We need to grow] ... as... spiritual seekers [in qualities] such as love, charity, compassion, and respect for the otherness of others.

the poster child in my head of the otherness of others

Someone I know and American Tribal Christianity…

It’s easy for me to dismiss, but I need to be reminded, as Greg Boyd pointed out in his podcast, that there were very intelligent, spiritual, God-seeking people on both sides

1“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Matthew 7:1-2

No labels. What all major religions have in common. Don’t judge. More commonly
translated “Don’t label”...

With people like… 2 dudes I know..., if at the end of the day, no matter how gracious we want to be, we still reach the conclusion that they’re fools, we have to remind ourselves they’re created in God’s image. God doesn’t see them behind the minimizing label “fools”. He sees them as those for whom Christ died… the cross was for them too

ACTION

Now that the shake-up has occurred, it is our calling to use our heads and hearts in a broader... sort of way, to look at what is needed now and how we might collaborate with it to creating new possibilities in our world.

9And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,10so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, Philippians 1:9-10


The tension is between a humble posture, a slowness/reticence to call stuff out

And speaking out and/or acting for justice when we need to

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

King Rehoboam

I Kings 12:6-8 Then King Rehoboam discussed the matter with the older men who had counseled his father, Solomon. “What is your advice?” he asked. “How should I answer these people?” The older counselors replied, “If you are willing to be a servant to these people today and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your loyal subjects.” But Rehoboam rejected the advice of the older men and instead asked the opinion of the young men who had grown up with him and were now his advisers. The old men who advised... Solomon. Solomon? The dude who had a worldwide rep of being the wisest man in the known world. That Solomon? And junior goes to his advisers for advice and then? He rejects their advice and asks his buddies whom he grew up with (read between the lines; somehow, I don't think these were buddies he studied the law with) and asks them for advice. Hmm, you gotta wonder if this was the son who Solomon wrote the proverbs for. What's the lesson here? If you have a choic...

The Bull Exchange

They exchanged their glorious God for an image of a bull, which eats grass. Psalm 106:20 Well when you put it that way. I mean, it would've been one thing if David had written that "They exchanged their glorious God for an image of a bull..." and left it at that, but when you tag it with "which eats grass" it makes them look so much more stupid. Um, nah, I'm trying too hard. No matter how you cut it, it sounds pretty pretty dumb to a modern reader. Mabye it would have been different if they'd exchanged their glorious God for power, fortune or fame and not the image of a cud-chewing bovine. Still not right, but much more tragic. That would've been the stuff of a great movie or novel. But wait. Let's not be too hasty in our judgement. I teach high school English and whenever I teach a historical text, I like to introduce my students to the concept of cultural determinism. Ie. "...the belief that the culture in which we are raised det...

Cutting Down Asherah Poles

2 Kings 17:28-29 " So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel and taught them how they should fear the LORD. But every nation still made gods of its own and put them in the shrines of the high places that the Samaritans had made, every nation in the cities in which they lived." When I read Kings and Chronicles, I'm struck by the repeated stories of kings that were bad and had other gods, people that were bad had had other gods (who even sacrificed their children as burnt offerings) and then kings that were good and followed God like David did, oh, but some of those "good" kings still had other gods. And let's not forget the Asherah poles . Lots of Asherah poles that were being erected (bad) or being cut down (good). The above makes me wonder, How much of what I've been taught about "how [I] should fear the Lord" defines who I am and how much is defined by the gods of my history, culture, and ethnic...