Devotion for November 30

O that you would tear open the heavens and come down…Isaiah 64:1

The Christian season of Advent begins with this plea from the prophet Isaiah. Sitting in exile in a strange country and feeling estranged from his God, the prophet prays: tear open the skies and make your presence felt, O God. Break the chains of your people and bring us peace and healing and freedom.

This prayer prepares us for the coming of the Christ-child. The heavens would be torn apart but not as the prophet had imagined. Instead of an eruption of heavenly wrath, complete with shaking mountains and nations trembling before the presence of God, there was an angel choir on Bethlehem’s hillside. Heaven had opened and a child had been born – just a child whose birth cries were lost amid the lowing cattle and the braying ass.

This Advent text reminds us of two wonderful promises of God. The first is that God does answer prayer. The deepest hopes and needs and dreams of our hearts move God.  At the heart of Christmas is the message that God’s heart is moved for us – not that our hearts are first moved for God. This is a wonderful mystery so remarkably demonstrated in the celebration of our Lord’s birth. That this should be true; how this can be true is inexplicable – but true.

The second promise is that when God comes, it is always in a way that is redemptive; God brings shalom – the healing peace for which the prophet prayed and for which our world yearns. This is the great surprise of God: God tears the heavens not just in judgment but in love… and a child is born who will rend the veil of death.

So, like the prophet, we pray and wait. Come Lord Jesus, come. Amen

Devotion for July 1

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God… Romans 13:1

            The above passage from St. Paul articulates the tension of loyalties we as Christians have. On the one hand, we are subjects of the state and the authority of the state. On the other, even that authority is subject to God. Christians celebrate when civil authority reflects the values of our faith and struggle when it does not. But the place of beginning for Christians, in our relationship with any government under whose authority we live, is that we will be loyal citizens – unless such loyalty significantly compromises our ultimate obedience to God.

            This coming Sunday we have a wonderful opportunity to thank God for the privilege of living in a country of religious and civil freedoms. As we thank God for that gift of “birthplace grace”, as a former theological professor of mine once called it, we also remember that our freedoms did not come without cost. The founding fathers and mothers of this nation established the faith principles that secure our freedom. These principles include the idea that the freedom we enjoy is only as secure as the freedom we strive to insure for others – especially those with whom we disagree. This principle empowered the soldiers of the Civil War as well as the freedom riders of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. This principle also demands accountability for our involvement in both civil and military actions that may or may not support it – the McCarthy era of the Cold War comes to mind.

            What I’m suggesting is that we have a spirit of humility about our national and international engagements – because we have learned that history will prove our motives one way or another. I am proud to be an American! But part of that pride is our national willingness to repent of past errors, instead of hiding them. As long as the principle above is met, this great country will remain great and under the authority of God.