August 1, 2016 – Devotions based on passages from the book David and Goliath — Courage

“To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” 2 Corinthians 12:7-9

“Courage is not something that you already have that makes you brave when the tough times start. Courage is what you earn when you’ve been through the tough times and you discover they aren’t so tough after all.” (David and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwell, p. 149)

Abraham to God: “Will you spare 9 people, since you would spare 10?” God: “No, 9 isn’t divisible by 5. They’re screwed.” 2 Frustrations 2:9 (Matthew Best, Seminarian)

One of the things we all need a whole, heaping cup-full lately — is courage. We need courage to continue to live in a dangerous world, and to continue to share the good news of Jesus Christ to a world that increasingly needs to hear more about G-d’s love, mercy and Grace. But I do not have to go to far away from the pulpit of the church to see fear. I see it in our coffee hour when members are afraid to talk to a visitor who sits alone at a table — the same visitor who probably is afraid that their initial fear has come true – that no one would talk to them if they came to church. I see the fear when people from the collective churches of the ministerium attend an ecumenical service, and members of each congregation sit only with the people they know from their churches — and do not dare sit with the people they do not know – and then, (gasp) talk to them.

Talk about ironic, this fear we have, since we think of the Old Testament and the G-d of war that often is portrayed in those scriptures, and we think G-d is someone we are supposed to fear. But we also know that G-d sent Jesus to fulfill the scriptures and the law so that we no longer need to sacrifice and destroy to earn G-d’s love. We no longer need to live in fear wondering “Does G-d love me?” G-d’s love is a gift to us because G-d created us, and Jesus died for us so that we can stop worrying about salvation and instead live into the new life we all have that was confirmed through our baptisms. And, truth be told, our Baptisms are the cup of courage we all need. It is through our baptisms where we are infused with the Holy Spirit — three dunks into the waters of courage — we die to sin and rise to new life.

As Luther often said, when he felt as if the Devil had him in his sights, he would say to himself (and the Devil) “I am baptized. I am baptized!”

Pastor Dave