Wednesday, May 18, 2022
Scripture: Psalm 67.1-3
May God be gracious to us and bless us
And make his face to shine upon us,
That your way may be known upon earth,
Your saving power among all nations.
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
Let all the peoples praise you.
Devotion:
Once, I was rejected for a ministry job. In the interview, the company asked me to tell them about a time when I did evangelism, and I told them about how every day in college, I hung out with friends at a particular fraternity. We would have deep, philosophical conversations about God and organized religion, and we would debate about theological issues like salvation and pluralism. I’m not sure if I ever convinced anyone to become a member of a church, but I know those conversations resulted in these folks feeling comfortable asking the questions their hearts needed to ask. I know those long afternoons of conversation meant a lot to me and to my friends, as we created this open dialogue and space to wonder about who God is and how we give praise to God. Apparently, according to this company, I was quite lacking in the area of evangelism, and in no way did conversations at the fraternity house (shudder, how appalling!) count as evangelism.
Frankly, I’ve never been more relieved to not get a job in my life. I honestly laughed out loud when I learned why I was being rejected: if having open and honest dialogue isn’t evangelism, what is? So often, we approach conversations with people outside our faith community as though we, the Christians, are the experts, as though we have something special to offer them and they have nothing to offer us in return. But that’s simply not true! In saying yes to Jesus, we acknowledged to ourselves that indeed, we actually have a lot to learn, that in fact, it’s not about what we know and how brilliant we are but about God’s irresistible love for us. We acknowledge that we aren’t perfect, but God is. And at this stage in the game, with organized religion and mainline denominations losing the loyalty and followership of many people worldwide, we have no business going into conversations with people outside the church as though we have all the answers. Perhaps, it’s time to listen to our neighbors, that we might hear God’s voice reminding us that we need to change, that we are always in need of learning and being transformed by the Holy Spirit.
This week in worship, we are going to explore how the Holy Spirit is always leading and teaching us new things. Like Psalm 67, we long for a day when all the peoples are praising the Lord, and we pray that God would give us humble and eager hearts to learn how we can make the church a house of that praise for everyone, a house with open doors and open windows, a house that can learn to grow and change so that all can find a place to sit. Join me on Sunday, and check out this great hymn we’re going to try!
May God be gracious to us and bless us
And make his face to shine upon us,
That your way may be known upon earth,
Your saving power among all nations.
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
Let all the peoples praise you.
Devotion:
Once, I was rejected for a ministry job. In the interview, the company asked me to tell them about a time when I did evangelism, and I told them about how every day in college, I hung out with friends at a particular fraternity. We would have deep, philosophical conversations about God and organized religion, and we would debate about theological issues like salvation and pluralism. I’m not sure if I ever convinced anyone to become a member of a church, but I know those conversations resulted in these folks feeling comfortable asking the questions their hearts needed to ask. I know those long afternoons of conversation meant a lot to me and to my friends, as we created this open dialogue and space to wonder about who God is and how we give praise to God. Apparently, according to this company, I was quite lacking in the area of evangelism, and in no way did conversations at the fraternity house (shudder, how appalling!) count as evangelism.
Frankly, I’ve never been more relieved to not get a job in my life. I honestly laughed out loud when I learned why I was being rejected: if having open and honest dialogue isn’t evangelism, what is? So often, we approach conversations with people outside our faith community as though we, the Christians, are the experts, as though we have something special to offer them and they have nothing to offer us in return. But that’s simply not true! In saying yes to Jesus, we acknowledged to ourselves that indeed, we actually have a lot to learn, that in fact, it’s not about what we know and how brilliant we are but about God’s irresistible love for us. We acknowledge that we aren’t perfect, but God is. And at this stage in the game, with organized religion and mainline denominations losing the loyalty and followership of many people worldwide, we have no business going into conversations with people outside the church as though we have all the answers. Perhaps, it’s time to listen to our neighbors, that we might hear God’s voice reminding us that we need to change, that we are always in need of learning and being transformed by the Holy Spirit.
This week in worship, we are going to explore how the Holy Spirit is always leading and teaching us new things. Like Psalm 67, we long for a day when all the peoples are praising the Lord, and we pray that God would give us humble and eager hearts to learn how we can make the church a house of that praise for everyone, a house with open doors and open windows, a house that can learn to grow and change so that all can find a place to sit. Join me on Sunday, and check out this great hymn we’re going to try!