Devotion for February 8

This week’s devotion was written by our Pastor for Senior Ministries and Pastoral Care, Dick Hutton.

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…Jesus spoke … ‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.’  ‘Lord, if it is you command me to come to you on the water.’  He said, ‘Come.’ So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water” Matthew 14:27-29.

Peter, sailing across the Sea of Galilee with the other disciples, becomes afraid as the wind churns the water into huge waves and tosses about the small boat.  And it addition to the storm, in the middle of the night, Jesus comes walking across the water.

Peter’s invitation from Jesus is an unforgettable experience, because he is invited to walk on water and do so with Jesus.  Could it be that we are all invited to step out in faith in order to experience the power and presence of God?  Stepping out in faith is to experience something that we could not do alone; but realize that with God, we are able to achieve what seems impossible.

God calls ordinary people to trust and have faith in the face of their fear.  Moses was scared when God called him to leave herding sheep and return to Egypt.  God was calling Moses to rescue the Hebrew people from slavery and lead them to freedom and a “promised land.”  However, Moses replied “I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” …  (but, God didn’t hesitate).  “Go (he said), and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to speak” (Exodus 4:10-12).  We may feel inadequate or something else – fear has a way of prohibiting us to act and walk into the future.

In the face of fear, Peter stepped out onto the water and walked to meet Jesus.  In a wonderful reassuring way God affirms that all will be well.  And so, Peter got out and walked on the water.  But, if you want to walk on water, you’ve got to get out of the boat.

If you want to experience all the possibilities of faith and the grace of God, you’ve got to be open to explore the possibilities of the unknown and say “yes” to the calling of God.

God calls each of us to walk with him and face our fears.  God sets in motion a divine dynamic far beyond merely human power, he calls us as he did Peter to walk on water.  And when the “strong winds” of life batter us as they did Peter, the hand of Jesus will be there! – “Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him” (Matthew 14:31).  God does not ask us to do something and abandon us to the powers at hand; God gives us courage and power, as well as the assurance that He is at our side willing to reach out His hand to save us!

Devotion for August 11

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God… Romans 5:1

His grief has been enormous. He lost his beloved wife suddenly and without warning. Neither of them could have known that there had been a blood vessel in her brain from birth that was ready to burst. She had lived fully – even been an athlete in school. She had children, laughed and shared friendship and love with her family and neighbors.  She participated in the church – her faith strong and vibrant. On that night, they had retired to bed after another normal day – but he woke up in the middle of the night to find her already gone.

The enormity of his grief led him, naturally, to anger at God. The usual questions filled his mind and then seeped into his heart: How could God take her from him and his children so suddenly, so irrevocably? What kind of God could allow such things to happen?

Because he could not find satisfactory answers, he could not trust God. Because he couldn’t trust God with his tragedy, he had no peace with God. And because he had no peace with God and grew tired of the energy this spiritual warfare exacted, he denied God’s existence. In the absence of a God with whom he could be at peace, he chose no god at all.

St. Paul tells us that trust in God (which is what faith is) brings peace with God. He doesn’t assume that all people are at peace with God; his vision of life includes those like my friend. And there are no easy answers for tragedies like his, are there? The peace of our faith elects, in such circumstances, to dare the unknowing and trust that God laid a loving hand on her heart and ushered her into eternity. Faith ventures into the uncharted territory of God’s grieving heart – and claims that God is at work to bring life and love together again.

Today, I wish for you such unconquerable faith… and the peace it brings.

Devotion for August 4

Turn to me and be gracious to me; give strength to your servant. Ps. 86:16

The pedals turned – but only with effort.  Nearing the final five minutes of my workout, I was drenched in sweat and tense as I made the final effort to get over the machine-generated hill.  Level 10 with the lights lit to the very top is usually not a huge effort for me – even for thirty seconds.  But today, the workout was just hard.  Give strength to your servant, O Lord.

There are times in our lives when just going on, just getting through can be difficult.  The end of the month comes and we see that stack of bills is higher than usual.  The medical exam raises some questions and the doctor determines she will need to see you in sixty days.  A phone call comes from a child, a parent or best friend, and your heart constricts as you try to remain calm and reach through the miles of separation to send your love and care – and finding the right thing to say is just out of reach.  Give strength to your servant, O Lord.

My brother Fred has faced many significant personal and professional challenges.  As we spoke together last week, he laughed and said, “If it hadn’t been for the Good Lord, I just wouldn’t have made it through.”

He’s right.  Many of us have experienced just the right amount of inner peace and confidence to get us through when we needed it the most.  Many of us have looked back, like my brother does, and discovered that God was doing the heavy lifting, and we didn’t even know it at that time.  Give strength to your servant, O Lord.

And God does.

Devotion for April 22

Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. Luke 23:46 (Jesus on the Cross)

He stopped into my office on his way out of town. He was headed up north to be with family and friends for the Easter weekend. As we chatted he told me of a respected pastor who missed Sunday worship; returned and informed the Church Council, and later the congregation, that he had been at the Mayo Clinic. There he had been diagnosed with lung cancer – advanced stage. Somewhere in the journey between a growing upper back pain, the diagnosis and his return to the congregation that he had loved and served for many years, he had decided not to attempt any treatment for his disease. He hadn’t given up. He had decided to entrust his life and his death to the God whom he had trusted with his whole life – let alone his ministry. He has resigned his call in order to spend the next weeks and months with family and loved ones.

Good Friday… it is one of the days of truth for humankind. Not only did our Savior face his death for our sakes, but, in so doing, he demonstrated a radical trust in our Heavenly Father. In a very real way, we of faith know that we trust our lives into the care of God – on Good Friday we are reminded to entrust our dying into the hands of our loving God. Trusting God with our death is a radical step because we live in a culture that denies death. Oh, we know it is real – for everyone else. We assume it will come – but not for a long time. Then there is the unexplained pain or shortness of breath; a trip to the doctor and a round of tests; and the statistics now include us.

There is the One who went there before us. He is the One who will meet us there and transform our farewells into a great reunion. His Spirit reminds us, encourages us, promises us that, just as we trust Him with our lives, so we can trust him with our deaths.

No wonder they call it Good Friday… Amen.

Devotion for March 31

Trust in the Lord, and do good… Psalm 37:3

Faith is so daily. Each day we have the opportunity to awaken and greet a fresh new start, the wonderful possibility of beginning. But many of us walk past this treasure of time because we bring into it all that has previously happened in our lives. This is understandable, of course, and we dare not ignore our past. The problem is that we often carry our past experiences and decisions like heavy stones that weigh us down. Yet, each day God gives us the possibility of putting the stones down by dealing with them and choosing a new way of life.

The psalmist reminds us that faith is an active trust – a confidence in God’s presence and involvement in today. To trust God is not to remain passive. Instead it is the invitation to choose to seek God’s way and act as best we can. The psalmist says is succinctly: trust God and do good. With God’s help we can choose the good. And when we fail, we look to God’s love and wisdom to lead us through the consequences of our behavior or attitude to a new beginning. This means to set the stone down, no matter how heavy, and trust God with it.

I have seen people so weighed down by the stones of their lives that they can only see the ground in front of them. Others wonder why they cannot see the blue sky or the birds in the air. The truth is that their past weighs so heavily on their souls that they don’t believe it is possible to set the stone down and look up. But God has created the world with all of its wonders so that we can see them and give our Creator praise.

Faith is so daily. Today I will try to set the stones of my life down and, by the love and acceptance of my Creator, look up in wonder. I know that it is in looking up that I meet God – the God in whom I trust.