January 31, 2023 – “The Lord is My Rock”

“The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I have been saved from my enemies. The cords of death entangled me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me.” Psalm 18:1-5

Our relationship with G-d is at the heart of our moral life. And the images of G-d we form play an important role in how this relationship develops. For example, for most of my early life I had formed the image of G-d as an angry G-d, a harsh punisher and ultimate judge. As such my relationship with G-d was one formed out of fear – not love and grace. As Christians we have certain influences for forming an image of G-d: the Sacraments, prayer, and bible study. Each should have as much influence as our experiences in and out of the church. These all can and should influence how we think and feel about G-d. One image of G-d that comes to us through scripture comes from the Psalms (18, 62). These suggest the image of G-d as “Rock” – “The Lord is my Rock, my fortress”; “G-d alone is my Rock and my salvation.” The bible offers a wide variety of other images including fire, love, shepherd, shelter, bread of life, and the Holy One. And the parables point to an intimate, loving G-d.

Now you may not be comfortable thinking about or comparing G-d to a rock, or fire or even bread, but we should not hold just one image of G-d in our hearts. We need to multiply our images of G-d. Different images help us to appreciate different aspects of G-d, who, truthfully is always greater than any human description. Most of all, we need to remember that G-d is love.

Let us pray: Dear G-d, each image we have of you only adds to the mystery of your presence. Help me to see you as you want me to see you today – whatever image that may be. Amen.

Pastor Dave

January 30, 2023 – “Edification: Building up My Neighbor”

“But we who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak, and not just please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good to build him up. For even Christ did not please himself, but just as it is written, “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.” For everything that was written in former times was written for our instruction, so that through endurance and through encouragement of the scriptures we may have hope. Now may the God of endurance and comfort give you unity with one another in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Romans 15:1-6

“I must follow my conscience.” Many of us have heard someone or even have made this bold statement ourselves. It appears to be a sound principle — right? In a recent devotion I talked about how we might go about discovering truth. Although we want to believe that the human community might be able to discover truth, the harsh reality is that the human community rarely acts in a unified way. We all live in communities – each, however, has its own values and commitments.  For example, as Christians we look to scripture to provide the basis for our convictions. But we are also living in the 21^st century with all of its consumerism, materialism, and advertising. Often these communities are in conflict. As such we must make choices every day about which community will direct our choices and decisions in our lives. It is in this context where our conscience is formed – but this is a lifelong task. Conscience is not that little voice that talks to us telling us to do this or that. It is more complex than that.

Timothy O’Connell from Loyola University summarized the Christian understanding of conscience describing it in 3 dimensions of the self:

• General Moral Awareness
• Search for Truth
• Concrete Judgment

In General Moral Awareness, humans are generally aware that we should do good, not evil.  In the Search for Truth, then, we search to discover what really is the right course of action. As such we use a variety of sources for guidance: scripture, church tradition, the sciences, etc. Finally, the Concrete Judgment is where the individual reaches the point where a decision must be made. This is where the individual says “I must follow my conscience.” What follows then is a decision that comes only after we have done our best in discovering “Truth” – and not just doing what we “feel” like doing. And in all of this discernment, doing the hard work in the manner Christians should, we seek to do what Paul suggests: “…to bear with the….weak, and not just please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good to build him up.”

Let us pray: Dear G-d, give me the strength today to build up my neighbor and speak well of them. Help me to do your will today. Amen.

Pastor Dave