Doing Justice and Kindness with Humility

Creation: A Divine Cycle
Praise from and for God's Creation

Praising God the Creator

Micah 6:6-8. The Message 

6-7 How can I stand up before God
    and show proper respect to the high God?
Should I bring an armload of offerings
    topped off with yearling calves?
Would God be impressed with thousands of rams,
    with buckets and barrels of olive oil?
Would he be moved if I sacrificed my firstborn child,
    my precious baby, to cancel my sin?
8 But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do,
    what God is looking for in men and women.
It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor,
    be compassionate and loyal in your love,
And don’t take yourself too seriously—
    take God seriously.

For Reflection

God owns it all.  There is nothing that you can give to God that God does not already own. So, what pleases God?  Acts of kindness please God.  Acts of forgiveness please God.  Acts of justice please God. Acts of compassion please God.  Acts of trust in God please God.

God gave us a sense of humor.  Use it and bring joy and hope to all that you meet.

Pray

Pray for the lonely so that you may become a friend.  Pray for the troubled so that you might comfort them.  Pray for the wicked so that they might see God in you.

Creation, a Witness to God's Plan

Creation: A Divine Cycle
Praise from and for God's Creation

Praising God the Creator

Romans 1:16-23. The Message

16-17 It’s news I’m most proud to proclaim, this extraordinary Message of God’s powerful plan to rescue everyone who trusts him, starting with Jews and then right on to everyone else! God’s way of putting people right shows up in the acts of faith, confirming what Scripture has said all along: “The person in right standing before God by trusting him really lives.”

Ignoring God Leads to a Downward Spiral

18-23 But God’s angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth. But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse. What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand.

For Reflection

Open your eyes so that you may see visions of truth.  Have the courage to follow the truth.  Live as God intends you to live. Worship God and follow Christ.

Pray

for those who reject the truth in Jesus Christ.  Pray that you will find right standing before God.  Pray for the joy, hope, and soul filling satisfaction found in Holy Reconciliation.

Hope in God's Steadfast Love

Creation: A Divine Cycle
Praise from and for God's Creation

Praising God the Creator

Psalm 33:18-22. The Message

18-19 Watch this: God’s eye is on those who respect him,
    the ones who are looking for his love.
He’s ready to come to their rescue in bad times;
    in lean times he keeps body and soul together.
20-22 We’re depending on God;
    he’s everything we need.
What’s more, our hearts brim with joy
    since we’ve taken for our own his holy name.
Love us, God, with all you’ve got—
    that’s what we’re depending on.

For Reflection

"I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart...
I've got the love of Jesus, love of Jesus down in my heart...
I've got the peace that passes understanding way down in the depths of my heart...
And if the Devil doesn't like it, He can sit on a tack!
Sit on a tack to stay!

And I'm so happy
So very happy
I've got the love of Jesus in my heart
Down in my heart
And I'm so happy
So very happy
I've got the love of Jesus in my heart...

Down in my heart to stay!" *
*by George Willis Cooke

Perhaps we all should sing the praises of God like a child!  Engrossed in the love of God, we are all innocent.
Pray

for the love of God to guide your every action.  Pray for the love of God to fill you soul until it overflows.  Pray until hope replaces doubt.

The Limits of National Power

Creation: A Divine Cycle
Praise from and for God's Creation

Praising God the Creator

Psalm 33:10-17. The Message

10-12 God takes the wind out of Babel pretense,
    he shoots down the world’s power-schemes.
God’s plan for the world stands up,
    all his designs are made to last.
Blessed is the country with God for God;
    blessed are the people he’s put in his will.
13-15 From high in the skies God looks around,
    he sees all Adam’s brood.
From where he sits
    he overlooks all us earth-dwellers.
He has shaped each person in turn;
    now he watches everything we do.
16-17 No king succeeds with a big army alone,
    no warrior wins by brute strength.
Horsepower is not the answer;
    no one gets by on muscle alone.

For Reflection

How foolish we are when we assume that in our struggles for power we achieve success or failure only on our own merit.  Power is a false God. Self-control of our destiny is an illusion. The will of human-kind is outranked by the will of God.

God set our destiny before the beginning of time.  God has shaped us in God's own image.  God shepherds us.  God delights in our joys. God cries when we suffer.  God lets evil wallow in its own consequence.

God protects our freedom of choice. Do we choose our self or God? Do we choose light over darkness?  Do we choose to fill our souls with the stuff of the material world or do we choose to fill our souls with the want for God?

Pray

Praise God the giver of life and the protector of freedom.  Pray that you will fill your soul with the want for God.  Pray for those who seek only the will of human-kind.  Pray for those who lack the courage to lead with their hearts.

Praise, Worship and Trust

Creation: A Divine Cycle
Praise from and for God's Creation

Praising God the Creator

Psalm 146:1-9. The Message

146 1-2 Hallelujah!
    O my soul, praise God!
All my life long I’ll praise God,
    singing songs to my God as long as I live.
3-9 Don’t put your life in the hands of experts
    who know nothing of life, of salvation life.
Mere humans don’t have what it takes;
    when they die, their projects die with them.
Instead, get help from the God of Jacob,
    put your hope in God and know real blessing!

For Reflection

In whom do you place your trust?

We all must trust each other to some degree or another.  Otherwise, we would be stunted by inaction and dominated by fear and paranoia.  From experience, we have learned whom we could trust and whom we could not.  Even so, we have, from time to time, trusted the untrustworthy.  Most of the time, misplaced trust is of minor consequence.  Occasionally, though, trusting the untrustworthy can result in calamities.

In our modern civilization, we live in a schizophrenic world where heart and reason seem to have little to do with each other and the sanctification of power seems to trivialize religion.  Blending our spiritual lives and our material lives seems far too complicated. How do you handle the split between knowledge and wisdom, between science and intuition or the subjective truths of religion and the observational truths of personal philosophy?

How can we infuse our material lives with ethics and our religion with reason?

Pray

Pray for the wisdom to leaven your material lives with ethics.  Pray that you will replace religious senselessness with a faith which unafraid of reason.  Pray, so that you will place your trust and hope in God.

Mary Delivers Her Firstborn

Creation: A Divine Cycle
The Savior Has Been born

The Savior Has Been Born

Luke 2:5-7. The Message

The Birth of Jesus

2 1-5 About that time Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken throughout the Empire. This was the first census when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Everyone had to travel to his own ancestral hometown to be accounted for. So Joseph went from the Galilean town of Nazareth up to Bethlehem in Judah, David’s town, for the census. As a descendant of David, he had to go there. He went with Mary, his fiancée, who was pregnant.
6-7 While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. She gave birth to a son, her firstborn. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in a manger because there was no room in the hostel.

For Reflection

The fullness of time had arrived--God's time and Mary's time.  The event could not have been more inauspicious.  Although from the line of David, Christ was born as a traveler to poor parents rather than to the elite,  Christ was a first born son, entitled, but with little to inherit. Had he been born into a family of means, the innkeeper may have made room for them, but as they were poor, they had been turned away and offered only the stable. Mary, heavy with child, was not given common human decency that, had the innkeeper shown compassion, could have been offered.  Indeed, they would not have been on the road if it had not been for the Roman occupation's requirement to be counted so that taxes could be levied.

Here, then, in the story of the virgin birth is the Christ Event in a prescient form:  political and social unrest, lack of compassion among the people, a competition for souls between the human gods of vengeance and violence and the true God of forgiveness and peace. Both the lowly and the high placed are called to know and worship with a new vision of God. God's will for humanity is personified in Christ.

It is the overture for God's great symphony. God's intentions for humankind will be revealed among the variations of theme and form and in the multitude of melodies which have always existed, are present today and will continue to play beyond the end of time. Carried on the winds of beauty and grace is the music of truth in an everlasting crescendo building toward the Earthly realization of the Kingdom of God.

Halleluja!

Pray

Pray that you will sing God's melodies.  Pray that you will dance in God's rhythm.  Pray that you will play God's favorite instrument, yourself, with grace and humility.

The Escape to Egypt

Creation: A Divine Cycle
The Savior Has Been born

The Savior Has Been Born

Matthew 2:13-15. The Message

13 After the scholars were gone, God’s angel showed up again in Joseph’s dream and commanded, “Get up. Take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt. Stay until further notice. Herod is on the hunt for this child, and wants to kill him.”
14-15 Joseph obeyed. He got up, took the child and his mother under cover of darkness. They were out of town and well on their way by daylight. They lived in Egypt until Herod’s death. This Egyptian exile fulfilled what Hosea had preached: “I called my son out of Egypt.”

For Reflection

No longer an obscure event in Bethlehem, the birth of Christ attracted attention far and wide.  God gave instructions to Joseph who did not understand the significance nor the danger the birth engendered.

The young family fled into Egypt.  Again, God had done the unexpected.  In Egypt, a country well known for cruelty to Israel, was the perfect hiding place.  Who would have thought to look for a Jew in Egypt?   The Christ Event is a symphony of the unexpected.

Pray

Sing songs of Joy. Sing praises with many "amens." Sing of God's passion for his creation. Sing songs of thanksgiving for Christ is our hope. Without hope, there is no life.

The Visit of the Wise Men

Creation: A Divine Cycle
The Savior Has Been born

The Savior Has Been Born

Matthew 2:1-12. The Message

Scholars from the East

2 1-2 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem village, Judah territory— this was during Herod’s kingship—a band of scholars arrived in Jerusalem from the East. They asked around, “Where can we find and pay homage to the newborn King of the Jews? We observed a star in the eastern sky that signaled his birth. We’re on a pilgrimage to worship him.”
3-4 When word of their inquiry got to Herod, he was terrified—and not Herod alone, but most of Jerusalem as well. Herod lost no time. He gathered all the high priests and religion scholars in the city together and asked, “Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?”
5-6 They told him, “Bethlehem, Judah territory. The prophet Micah wrote it plainly:
It’s you, Bethlehem, in Judah’s land,
    no longer bringing up the rear.
From you will come the leader
    who will shepherd-rule my people, my Israel.”
7-8 Herod then arranged a secret meeting with the scholars from the East. Pretending to be as devout as they were, he got them to tell him exactly when the birth-announcement star appeared. Then he told them the prophecy about Bethlehem, and said, “Go find this child. Leave no stone unturned. As soon as you find him, send word and I’ll join you at once in your worship.”
9-10 Instructed by the king, they set off. Then the star appeared again, the same star they had seen in the eastern skies. It led them on until it hovered over the place of the child. They could hardly contain themselves: They were in the right place! They had arrived at the right time!
11 They entered the house and saw the child in the arms of Mary, his mother. Overcome, they kneeled and worshiped him. Then they opened their luggage and presented gifts: gold, frankincense, myrrh.
12 In a dream, they were warned not to report back to Herod. So they worked out another route, left the territory without being seen, and returned to their own country.

For Reflection

It was never God's intention to give God's son for the Jews alone.  The visiting scholars from the East represent the whole of humanity.  Perhaps by ancient writings, they had been informed, as we are asked to inform as ministers to each other and to the world.  Upon seeing the Christ Child, they knew and understood who Jesus was.  They saw beyond Herod's request and their judgments were confirmed by their vision.  They made themselves subservient to the child, worshiped him, returned home and shared their good news.

Pray

to see as the scholars saw.  Pray to be prepared to avoid seduction into evil.  Pray prayers of praise and thanksgiving for the living God.

Joseph Takes Mary as His Wife

Creation: A Divine Cycle
The Savior Has Been born

The Savior Has Been Born

Matthew 1:18-25. The Message

The Birth of Jesus

18-19 The birth of Jesus took place like this. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. Before they came to the marriage bed, Joseph discovered she was pregnant. (It was by the Holy Spirit, but he didn’t know that.) Joseph, chagrined but noble, determined to take care of things quietly so Mary would not be disgraced.
20-23 While he was trying to figure a way out, he had a dream. God’s angel spoke in the dream: “Joseph, son of David, don’t hesitate to get married. Mary’s pregnancy is Spirit-conceived. God’s Holy Spirit has made her pregnant. She will bring a son to birth, and when she does, you, Joseph, will name him Jesus—‘God saves’—because he will save his people from their sins.” This would bring the prophet’s embryonic sermon to full term:
Watch for this—a virgin will get pregnant and bear a son;
They will name him Immanuel (Hebrew for “God is with us”).
24-25 Then Joseph woke up. He did exactly what God’s angel commanded in the dream: He married Mary. But he did not consummate the marriage until she had the baby. He named the baby Jesus.

For Reflection

When we accept the God of Love we sacrifice ourselves.   Joseph did not react to the news of Mary's pregnancy by defending his manhood. Many men in his time and in ours, would have wanted retribution for this affront to his pride, for the insult it represented, for the harsh criticism he would have to face from the other men in the community.

No, the first thought was to save the reputation of a woman he loved. That required a denial of the part of him that demanded retribution. Joseph put his intended wife's reputation and, perhaps, her life, ahead of his perception of who he is and what others might think about him. The Christ Child may not have been born had Joseph not sacrificed himself for his wife.

So it was, that the child was born through self-sacrifice.    The angel only confirmed Joseph's decision.  The sacrifice of self is more difficult and. therefore, more valuable that the sacrifice of possessions.  To be God-centered requires nothing less.


Pray

for the courage and trust in God to set aside who you may think you are in favor of who God knows you ar

The Savior Has Been Born

Creation: A Divine Cycle
The Savior Has Been Born

The Savior Has Been Born

Micah 5:1-6. The Message 

The Leader Who Will Shepherd-Rule Israel

5 But for now, prepare for the worst, victim daughter!
    The siege is set against us.
They humiliate Israel’s king,
    slapping him around like a rag doll.
2-4 But you, Bethlehem, David’s country,
    the runt of the litter—
From you will come the leader
    who will shepherd-rule Israel.
He’ll be no upstart, no pretender.
    His family tree is ancient and distinguished.
Meanwhile, Israel will be in foster homes
    until the birth pangs are over and the child is born,
And the scattered brothers come back
    home to the family of Israel.
He will stand tall in his shepherd-rule by God’s strength,
    centered in the majesty of God-Revealed.
And the people will have a good and safe home,
    for the whole world will hold him in respect—
    Peacemaker of the world!
5-6 And if some bullying Assyrian shows up,
    invades and violates our land, don’t worry.
We’ll put him in his place, send him packing,
    and watch his every move.
Shepherd-rule will extend as far as needed,
    to Assyria and all other Nimrod-bullies.
Our shepherd-ruler will save us from old or new enemies,
    from anyone who invades or violates our land.

For Reflection

Micah's message is one of doom followed by hope.  Is his message still relevant today?  Are we not still besieged by human self-will?  To what extent as the church, like David's kingship, been bought?  To what extent as the church been spoiled by the commingling of common culture and Godliness?

The hope of the world has been materialized in the birth, ministry and death of Jesus Christ.  To what extent have we embraced God's overture for salvation?  To what extent are we still waiting to be saved while God waits for us to accept God's invitation to become God's partner in peacemaking, extending the "shepherd's rule?"

Pray

that you fully accept God's invitation to participate in the realization of the Kingdom of God in the present time.  Pray, thanking God for the gift of God's son who has shown us the light in a dark world.  Pray that you will minister as Christ has ministered, supporting each other, practicing forgiveness, healing the broken, praying for the enemies of the freedom found only in the grace of God.  Pray for courage to be a partner in fostering God's will for humankind.

The Testimony of John the Baptist

Creation: A Divine Cycle
The Savior Has Been born

The Forerunner of the Savior

John 1:19-23. The Message 

Thunder in the Desert

19-20 When Jews from Jerusalem sent a group of priests and officials to ask John who he was, he was completely honest. He didn’t evade the question. He told the plain truth: “I am not the Messiah.”
21 They pressed him, “Who, then? Elijah?”
“I am not.”
“The Prophet?”
“No.”
22 Exasperated, they said, “Who, then? We need an answer for those who sent us. Tell us something—anything!—about yourself.”
23 “I’m thunder in the desert: ‘Make the road straight for God!’ I’m doing what the prophet Isaiah preached.”

For Reflection

"I am the thunder in the desert..."  What an image!  Think of it.  Picture it.  You are standing on a high spot looking out into a darkening sky.  Flashes of lightening against a threatening clouds followed by the deep bass rumble of thunder vibrating inside your chest. You are held captivated by the awesome power.   The storm is frightening and powerful, and yet, it is essential to life.  The rain and the lightening provides nutrients to foster growth in all living things.  The waters will cleanse the Earth and sustain it.

John, the Baptist, announces the coming of the Messiah, one who is as fearsome  as thunder. A Messiah who will ignite the world with good news that will strike down false prophets and illuminate the truth of God and God's will for all human-kind.

Pray

Thank God for the promise of freedom in truth.  Praise God for the gift of Jesus.  Pray that you will love God and let the Holy Spirit enrich your soul in the Way of Christ.

His Name is John

Creation: A Divine Cycle
The Savior Has Been born

The Forerunner of the Savior

Luke 1:57-66  The Message

The Birth of John

^57-58 When Elizabeth was full-term in her pregnancy, she bore a son. Her neighbors and relatives, seeing that God had overwhelmed her with mercy, celebrated with her.

^59-60 On the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child and were calling him Zachariah after his father. But his mother intervened: “No. He is to be called John.”
^61-62 “But,” they said, “no one in your family is named that.” They used sign language to ask Zachariah what he wanted him named.
^63-64 Asking for a tablet, Zachariah wrote, “His name is to be John.” That took everyone by surprise. Surprise followed surprise—Zachariah’s mouth was now open, his tongue loose, and he was talking, praising God!
^65-66 A deep, reverential fear settled over the neighborhood, and in all that Judean hill country people talked about nothing else. Everyone who heard about it took it to heart, wondering, “What will become of this child? Clearly, God has his hand in this.”

For Reflection

How difficult must it have been for Zachariah to remain mute during his wife's pregnancy and into the eighth day.  On that day in celebration of the linage of Zachariah, God was not finishing turning the tables.  There was no doubt that this birth was a sign from God.  John was delivered into this world for a special purpose and all were talking about it.

Pray

for the understanding of God's will.  Pray for those who are so hurried and tied up in hustle that they miss the meaning of their lives.  Pray for patience. Pray for confidence in God.

Zechariah and Elizabeth are Childless

Creation: A Divine Cycle
The Savior Has Been born

The Forerunner of the Savior

Luke 1:5-7  The Message

A Childless Couple Conceives

^5-7 During the rule of Herod, King of Judea, there was a priest assigned service in the regiment of Abijah. His name was Zachariah. His wife was descended from the daughters of Aaron. Her name was Elizabeth. Together they lived honorably before God, careful in keeping to the ways of the commandments and enjoying a clear conscience before God. But they were childless because Elizabeth could never conceive, and now they were quite old.

For Reflection

We have a far different understanding of childbearing than did the people of Zachariah and Elizabeth.  In her era, Elizabeth would have been blamed and disgraced for failing to bear a child.  Furthermore many would think that God was punishing her for some unmentionable sin.

But God (as God often does) turned what many would consider condemnation into a blessing.  God often had something special in mind when God turned to the unexpected.  Had God allowed the woman, Elizabeth to remain barren so that God could reveal God's self to all?  Had Elizabeth's suffering been rewarded?  Had God suffered with Elizabeth? 

When we act in collaboration with God we sometimes suffer as God suffers.  In the end, we find joy in the realization of the will of God.

Pray

Pray for comfort as you suffer in partnership with God.  Pray for healing of those who suffer with you.  Pray for a child-like blind trust in God.  Praise God and worship in God's name.

Chosen By Lot to Serve

Creation: A Divine Cycle
The Savior Has Been Born

The Forerunner of the Savior

Acts 1:21-26  The Message

^21-22 “Judas must now be replaced. The replacement must come from the company of men who stayed together with us from the time Jesus was baptized by John up to the day of his ascension, designated along with us as a witness to his resurrection.”

^23-26 They nominated two: Joseph Barsabbas, nicknamed Justus, and Matthias. Then they prayed, “You, O God, know every one of us inside and out. Make plain which of these two men you choose to take the place in this ministry and leadership that Judas threw away in order to go his own way.” They then drew straws. Matthias won and was counted in with the eleven apostles.

For Reflection

To select a replacement for Judas, the Eleven selected from among those who followed the Disciples from the time of Jesus baptism.   It was important that the newcomer not be a newbie.  Justis and Matthias were nominated and in order to decide which should minister as a disciple. straws were drawn.  Was Matthias selected by God or chance?  Jewish tradition governed the lottery.  Prayers were offered to God to chose when no clear choice presented itself.  An so it was done, Matthias was selected by God.

Pray

Pray that you, like Matthias, will accept God's call.   Prat that you will fulfill the promise of God's call for your life.

Aaron and Sons, a Perpetual Priesthood

Creation: A Divine Cycle
The Savior Has Been Born

The Forerunner of the Savior

Exodus 40:12-16  The Message

^12-15 “Finally, bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting and wash them with water. Dress Aaron in the sacred vestments. Anoint him. Consecrate him to serve me as priest. Bring his sons and put tunics on them. Anoint them, just as you anointed their father, to serve me as priests. Their anointing will bring them into a perpetual priesthood, down through the generations.”
¹⁶ Moses did everything God commanded. He did it all. 

For Reflection

Moses, following God's direction, set up the temple to exacting standards.  Most commentaries spend much time on the detail Moses followed.  However, perhaps the most important task God gave to Moses was to call Aaron and this sons to be clothed and anointed as the beginning of a perpetual priesthood.

We, too, are now called to participate in God's perpetual priesthood.  We are to minister to God's people in the manner of Christ.  Our lives are made in the likeness of God and consecrated to serve.  

Pray

that you will have the will to accept God's call to serve.  Pray for the wisdom and the courage to follow Christ's lead. Pray so that you might engross yourself in the Way.   Pray that you will fulfill God's intention for your life, collaborating with God and walking beside Christ following the Way. 

The Promised House for David

Creation: A Divine Cycle
The Savior Has Been born

The Affirmation of the Promise

2 Samuel 7:11-17  The Message

^8-11 “So here is what you are to tell my servant David: The God-of-the-Angel-Armies has this word for you: I took you from the pasture, tagging along after sheep, and made you prince over my people Israel. I was with you everywhere you went and mowed your enemies down before you. Now I’m making you famous, to be ranked with the great names on earth. And I’m going to set aside a place for my people Israel and plant them there so they’ll have their own home and not be knocked around any more. Nor will evil men afflict you as they always have, even during the days I set judges over my people Israel. Finally, I’m going to give you peace from all your enemies.
^11-16 “Furthermore, God has this message for you: God himself will build you a house! When your life is complete and you’re buried with your ancestors, then I’ll raise up your child, your own flesh and blood, to succeed you, and I’ll firmly establish his rule. He will build a house to honor me, and I will guarantee his kingdom’s rule permanently. I’ll be a father to him, and he’ll be a son to me. When he does wrong, I’ll discipline him in the usual ways, the pitfalls and obstacles of this mortal life. But I’ll never remove my gracious love from him, as I removed it from Saul, who preceded you and whom I most certainly did remove. Your family and your kingdom are permanently secured. I’m keeping my eye on them! And your royal throne will always be there, rock solid.”
¹⁷ Nathan gave David a complete and accurate account of everything he heard and saw in the vision.

For Reflection

Again and again the promise of God is reinforced.  The household of David will become the household of God.  David's family is secured for all time.

And yet, as much responsibility, hope and faith as God has placed upon David, David is, in the end, human.  David will fall; seduced by his position, a victim of his own folly.  But, in spite of David's failing, God's will for his people thrives.

Pray

for the realization of God's will in your life. Pray for the opportunity to advance the Kingdom of God.  Sing Hallelujah!

Hannah Praises God

Creation: A Divine Cycle
The Savior Has Been born

The Affirmation of the Promise

1 Samuel 2:1-10  The Message

2 Hannah prayed:

I’m bursting with God-news!
    I’m walking on air.
I’m laughing at my rivals.
    I’m dancing my salvation.

^2-5 Nothing and no one is holy like God,
    no rock mountain like our God.
Don’t dare talk pretentiously—
    not a word of boasting, ever!
For God knows what’s going on.
    He takes the measure of everything that happens.
The weapons of the strong are smashed to pieces,
    while the weak are infused with fresh strength.
The well-fed are out begging in the streets for crusts,
    while the hungry are getting second helpings.
The barren woman has a houseful of children,
    while the mother of many is bereft.

^6-10 God brings death and God brings life,
    brings down to the grave and raises up.
God brings poverty and God brings wealth;
    he lowers, he also lifts up.
He puts poor people on their feet again;
    he rekindles burned-out lives with fresh hope,
Restoring dignity and respect to their lives—
    a place in the sun!
For the very structures of earth are God’s;
    he has laid out his operations on a firm foundation.
He protectively cares for his faithful friends, step by step,
    but leaves the wicked to stumble in the dark.
    No one makes it in this life by sheer muscle!
God’s enemies will be blasted out of the sky,
    crashed in a heap and burned.
God will set things right all over the earth,
    he’ll give strength to his king,
    he’ll set his anointed on top of the world!

For Reflection

The Christ event turned the world upside down. Thousands of years of dependence on violent retribution was condemned and displaced by non-violent peace-making as the alternative.  Thousands of years of following religious rules was ended in favor of of love and forgiveness which extended the intent of God's law.  Thousands of years of corrupt governance was threatened by calls for justice.  In Christ, the hopeless found hope.  The hungry found sustenance.  The lifeless found an extraordinary new life, a rebirth into dignity and freedom.  YES!

Pray

prayers of praise.  Sing songs of joy.  Thank God for God's extravagance.

Gideon Responds to God's Call

Creation: A Divine Cycle
The Savior Has Been born

The Affirmation of the Promise

Judges 6:12-18  The Message

^11-12 One day the angel of God came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, whose son Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress, out of sight of the Midianites. The angel of God appeared to him and said, “God is with you, O mighty warrior!”
¹³ Gideon replied, “With me, my master? If God is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all the miracle-wonders our parents and grandparents told us about, telling us, ‘Didn’t God deliver us from Egypt?’ The fact is, God has nothing to do with us—he has turned us over to Midian.”
¹⁴ But God faced him directly: “Go in this strength that is yours. Save Israel from Midian. Haven’t I just sent you?”
¹⁵ Gideon said to him, “Me, my master? How and with what could I ever save Israel? Look at me. My clan’s the weakest in Manasseh and I’m the runt of the litter.”
¹⁶ God said to him, “I’ll be with you. Believe me, you’ll defeat Midian as one man.”
^17-18 Gideon said, “If you’re serious about this, do me a favor: Give me a sign to back up what you’re telling me. Don’t leave until I come back and bring you my gift.”
He said, “I’ll wait till you get back.”

For Reflection

God has patience with us.  When we stray from God's will, God steers us back.  When we ignore God's law, God provides clemency.  When we doubt, God uses that doubt to convince us.  God calls and we respond in fear.  God wipes away fear.  In God we have courage.

Pray

for the courage to accept the challenges God places in your path.  Pray that you will see challenges as opportunities to serve the One in who's image you were created.