August 19 Week Devotions

August 19-Ps.111-“the great works of the Lord are studied by all who delight in them.” For many Jews, to study the works of the Lord are a delight and aspiration. Christians have been resistant to that message. On the rare times we do work with religious material, it tends to be of a romantic, popular sort. When is the last time you read a serious piece of religious reflection? when was the last time you studied, pored over, Scripture? Monday- Kent Ira Groff wrote this week on diminishment. The word caught my eye. We live in a time of diminished expectations. We live in a time of diminished vision. I just heard a radio piece where a professor of political thought said that her students are astonished at the scope and confidence of social theorist a generation ago. One things I prize about Presbyterians is adherence to a magnificent God, not one put easily in a small box of our devising. After all, who wants to worship a diminished deity? Tuesday-We had an interesting moment in Bible class about the point or moral of a story finishes our look at a passage. I suppose that we can draw a vital lesson from a story, but one of the shining lights of story is that it works on multiple levels and pushes us to consider more than one point as we reflect on them. Look at Jonah. I sit not more than a fish story/ Is it not more than a story about making a response t9o the call of god? Does it not open doors to considerations of forgiveness, creation, prayer, and death itself? Wednesday-I flipped through a book on wishful thinking at the library recently. The author argues that we have moved our magical thinking to technology as a panacea. When facing a problem, we shrug our shoulders and figure that technology can handle it. We laugh at the magical thinking of children and primitive cultures, but we have merely transferred the wishful thinking to a new source. How do you distinguish prayer from wishful thinking? Thursday-Shared experience helps make a community, even negative ones. I told both of our daughters that they will make more friends in a poor college class as you have a common enemy. One of the reasons that church outings and projects are good ideas is that they build community through shared effort. Shared experience becomes a glue for community, as it guides us into common purpose and common effort. It can be a form of prayer in action. Friday-No Biblical book emphasizes justice as resolutely as Amos. It is one of the earlier books in the entire Bible. When it imagines punishment for the sins of Israel, it is injustice that garners the attention. It blasts the complacency of wealth, its self-satisfaction and blindness (ch.6). Look at the beginning of chapter four and see if it does not give a chill in 2012 America. Saturday-I had a difficult evening recently, as in quick succession I learned that an elderly gentleman killed himself in front of his visiting grandchildren, and then an old friend was a possible suicide as she stepped out in front of a city bus. I tend to look at suicide as an outcome of mental illness, not a rational choice, not a moral filing. In that light, I see God’s compassion pouring over a suicide and family and friends in the same way as when cancer or diabetes strikes down a life.