A WORD FOR TODAY, September 8, 2021
Peggy Hoppes
We pray you have been blessed by this daily devotion. If you received it from a friend, you can see other devotions and studies by visiting our website at www.awordfortoday.org.
Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, September 8, 2021
Lectionary Scriptures for September 12, 2021, Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost: Isaiah 50:4-10; Psalm 116:1-9; James 3:1-12; Mark 9:14-29
“For the Lord Yahweh will help me. Therefore I have not been confounded. Therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I won’t be disappointed.” Isaiah 50:7
I recently had lunch with a friend and her husband. He is a talker, so much so that neither of us were able to get a word in edgewise. He had an answer for everything and usually managed to add his story or opinion even as we were speaking ours, never giving us a chance to finish. He was so quick with an answer it was obvious that he wasn’t even listening.
Don’t we all know someone like that? They are so busy thinking about what they will say next, planning their answer to our statements, preparing to one up our thoughts that they don’t even hear. More often than not this leads to a misunderstanding of the point we were trying to make. I read a meme this morning cautioning against this pattern of communication. It said that if someone is telling you a story, it is important to listen instead of interrupting with your own. When people open themselves up to you, to tell you a story or reveal something about their life, they need to unburden themselves. By interjecting your own story diminishes their story and forces them to hide it away where it can cause problems in their heart and their minds. So much depression exists because too many people have no one willing to listen.
Someone once said you have two ears and one mouth for a reason: to listen twice as much as you speak. When someone unburdens their hearts and minds by telling you a story, it is not because they want your two cents worth. They don’t need advice. They don’t even need an answer. They just need to know that someone is willing to listen. Really listen. Sadly, I’m not sure many people really know how to listen anymore. We are much too distracted.
The psalmist writes, “I love Yahweh, because he listens to my voice, and my cries for mercy.” To love God for listening is a very human response. Who are the people we truly enjoy spending time with? They are the ones who listen. Even if they have no answers to our problems or no possible way to fix whatever is wrong, we appreciate their compassionate presence and listening ears.
We wonder about this, though. How do we know that God is even listening? Do we know because we see prayer answered? Or do we believe because of His promises? Love for Jehovah comes not only because our prayers are answered; it is manifest in our lives because God is there present and listening. God has never promised that we would not suffer or face difficult times. However, He has always promised to be near those who love Him and that He will listen to those who cry out to Him.
The Psalm follows a pattern. First the psalmist praises the Lord. In this case the praise is because the psalmist knows that God is listening. Then the psalmist describes his difficulty. Finally, the psalmist speaks words of thanksgiving and praise. This is a powerful pattern for us to follow when we pray: we begin with a hope-filled prayer and praise God for His compassionate mercy. This is based on faith and trust that God is present and that He hears, even if we have not seen evidence of His presence. We know by His promises that He is near, and we trust that He hears our cries. Once we worship Him and acknowledge His presence, then we approach Him with our needs. Finally, we sing thanks and praise to God for His mercy, whatever may come to us.
The psalmist talks of death, yet it is not necessarily the physical death of his body. We all face death throughout our lives. Broken relationships, unemployment, illness, and other difficulties can be seen as deaths. Death can happen when something about our circumstances changes and impacts our life. When we are disappointed or when we must leave something behind, it is like our hopes and relationships have died. It is then, especially, that we cry out to the God we know is present and listening. For God hears our cry and delivers us from death by His mercy and His grace.
We see repeatedly in the Old Testament, and the New, that God’s people do not always have the easy life. David was threatened repeatedly, even by his own sons. The prophets were constantly in danger, rejected, and ignored. Most of the apostles died martyrs’ deaths. They followed Jesus with faith and trust and knew in the end that God was in control. He even went before them as the Servant who died at the hands of those who refused to believe He was sent by God.
I worked in retail; I began as an employee who worked the floor and the cash register, but eventually joined a management training program. I worked as an assistant manager, learning everything I needed to know from the senior store manager. It was a good program, very informative while also giving me the hands-on experience I needed to do my job well leading the employees of my own store eventually.
I always felt it was important to be an example to the employees. A retail store requires people to do all levels of work. We need people with accounting skills to take care of the money as well as people who can mop the floor and clean the bathrooms. We need people who can unload a truck or unpack a box. A well run store has people who can determine future needs, ordering the right amount of merchandise that will sell through each season. We need people who can keep the shelves clean and organized. All these tasks are vital to the success of the store.
Sometimes it was necessary for management to step in and do every job. In other words, there were times when the janitor was not available to deal with an emergency, so we grabbed a mop to clean up a mess. If the crowds were overwhelming the cashiers, we jumped on a register to help ease the load. If a truck with an extra-large load showed up at the back door, we lent a hand. A willingness to do the hard work gave management credibility. If some smart aleck kid refused a job saying, “You do it,” I could easily answer, “I have; now it is your turn.” There is nothing I didn’t experience, and the employees knew it. They also knew that I was the boss, and they had their own job to accomplish.
The lesson from Isaiah is a servant song; the servant had been chosen to bring hope to God’s people. Some prophets were given a word of warning or a word of discipline, but this prophet was given a word of hope for those weary from living amid suffering and pain. This servant knew what it meant to suffer. He was persecuted, humiliated, insulted. He was shamed, but without shame. Though he experienced this suffering, he never turned from his calling. He persevered through it, trusting that God was there with him.
We identify this Suffering Servant as Jesus Christ, who was persecuted, humiliated, and insulted, but He never wavered. He went to the cross, took on sin, death, and the grave for our sake. We can trust that His promises are true and that He is worthy to be our Savior. He stood firm on God’s Word, then lived so that we would see the truth and be comforted by those words. We may suffer, but with ears that hear we can find hope despite it all.
The focus of the scriptures this week seems to be on the mouth, on the words we speak. Isaiah said, “The Lord Yahweh has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with words him who is weary.” The psalmist said, “I called on Yahweh’s name.” James reminds us that we are able to bless and to curse with the same mouth and that we will be judged accordingly, so we ought to be wary of becoming teachers.
Our words matter. We might learn that old song, “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but names will never hurt me,” but words do hurt. Words cause broken relationships. Words condemn people. Words lead people down the wrong and perhaps destructive path. When we speak, but even more so when we teach, we give people words that might even change their lives. We might give them encouragement, direction, and knowledge. But our words can cause discouragement and guide people in the wrong direction. Our words can impart false or wrong knowledge.
There are writers who include shocking truths about the Church and its history in fictional novels that have been taken as truthful facts. These facts have been proven false repeatedly, but one writer’s excellent mystery has been taken as more like non-fiction than fiction. Too many people have given the falsehoods legitimacy. I even attended a function where the guest speaker quoted the book extensively to convince a room full of Christian women that they should follow a different path.
Our words matter. Every word we write and every word we speak can have an impact on somebody, and not always in a good way. Our words plant seeds that grow and can spread destruction to others. A parent that yells or a teacher that responds in anger may not directly or immediately affect a child, but repeated negative comments can bring about change. See how easily peer pressure can lead a teenager into dangerous decisions.
Peter and the disciples were called to be teachers and they did as Jesus commanded them to do. We should not cringe at speaking as God calls and guides us, always remembering that He is always by our side. There are times when speaking the truth might be dangerous. It might be politically incorrect. It might go against the popular consensus of the day or stand diametrically opposed to societal expectations. It might even take us to a cross. Yet, we are called by faith to confess that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, to take up whatever cross we may face and follow Jesus, blessing and not cursing so that our lives will bear good fruit to the glory of God.
Praise, supplication, and thanksgiving: this is how we approach God in prayer. Unfortunately, our mouths are not always filled with praise, supplication, and thanksgiving. I had a very bad habit when I was a student teacher. I tended to get frustrated and angry with my classroom filled with children who were constantly making noise. In anger I would raise my voice and shout “Shut up!” This did not go over well with the teacher who was mentoring me. “Shut up” does not help the situation and yelling is even less helpful. My attitude made the children respond negatively, rather than positively. Instead of getting quiet, they got louder. Instead of listening, they turned on their neighbor. My teacher had a very quiet voice and could somehow calm the chaos with a whisper.
My positive example as a retail manager was much more powerful than my raised voice and poor choice of words.
I was once acquainted with a young lady on the Internet who had decided that she was a prophet. I’m not sure what evidence proved this, but she sought out others she thought were prophets in chat rooms to discuss the things of God. She was impressed one day with the things I said and we struck up a conversation outside the chat room. She was young and willing to learn, and for some reason had decided I was a prophet, too. She looked to me for advice and understanding. Though I have never considered myself a prophet, I saw the conversation as an opportunity to help her understand her vocation in God’s kingdom.
She sent me several teachings that she had written, and quite frankly they were horrific. Not only was the theology questionable, but the writing was terrible. She had no grasp on spelling or grammar. Her sentences were confusing and sometimes incoherent. She was young and passionate, and she truly believed she was doing what God had called her to do. I encouraged her, but since she had sent me the writings for review, I gave her some honest opinions about them. I believe I was gentle but firm, showing her ways she could make the teaching stronger and easier to understand. I showed her biblically where she was in error. I even rewrote some of the text to make it usable for her ministry.
She was shocked. In the end I realized that she wasn’t looking for advice. She wanted me to fawn over her wonderful work and tell her that she really was a prophet. I couldn’t do that; she needed to hear the truth because she would be judged by her teaching. She was playing a dangerous game and if she was going to play at being a prophet, she needed to know her errors and experience God’s grace in a way that would help her to be merciful in her teaching. She responded with an attack on my own writing, but she did so with no foundation in the scriptures. Her faith was eclectic and mix from many different religions; she based her rebuke on teachings from outside the Christian faith. It made me sad to think that someone might be led astray by her teaching and that she would discover the judgment that comes from teaching a false gospel.
James wrote, “Let not many of you be teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive heavier judgment.” Prophecy and teaching are closely related and are often mentioned together in the scriptures. Some people are gifted at proclaiming the message of God’s Kingdom, while others are gifted at explaining it. It is vital that churches find those who are gifted in teaching so that the congregation will learn how to apply the lessons learned from those who prophesy. These are gifts, not something we can grasp for ourselves. They are given by God, and though we can develop the gift, we can’t learn how to be a prophet or teacher if God has not first called and gifted us to that work. We might think that we want to prophecy and teach, but we won’t succeed if God is not calling us to that vocation.
Too many people try to be something they aren’t called or gifted to be. They try to teach, but leave their students confused and doubtful. The young lady in the chat room boasted that she was a prophet, but her words proved her wrong and she refused to accept the words of others. I was not the only one who tried to encourage her to seek God’s purpose for her life. She had other gifts that would glorify God, but she was so focused on being a prophet that she missed the blessed life God had for her.
Finding our place in God’s kingdom requires a connection with God. We must listen to Him, trust in Him, and let Him guide us in the way He wants us to go. Have you ever lived in a place with too few electrical outlets? We had that problem in one house, and we had to unplug the toaster to plug in the can opener. It was often frustrating, especially when I forgot to switch the plugs. Sometimes during the morning rush, I put bread in the toaster then moved on to some other task. After a few moments I realized that I never plugged in the toaster. It won’t work without electricity.
Jesus, Peter, James, and John were on the Mount of Transfiguration when the crowds began to gather around the rest of the disciples. A man approached hoping that they might heal his boy who had been possessed by a demon. Jesus and his disciples were quickly gaining notoriety because of the miraculous works they were doing. The disciples had been sent out earlier to heal and preach the kingdom. When they returned from that experience, they were excited by the power and amazed at the things they could do. They saw people transformed before their eyes. They thought they could do anything. People were flocking to these men who could do such incredible deeds, even without Jesus around. The disciples were basking in the glory.
This man’s child was possessed by a particularly difficult demon. It rendered the child speechless and often threw him to the ground in violent convulsions. It has even tried to kill the child by throwing him into dangerous situations such as water or fire. The disciples were unable to cast the demon out of the child. Jesus asked what was happening when He came back down from the mountaintop. The man was desperate. Jesus rebuked the evil spirit, and it left the boy so violently that the child fell to the ground and appeared dead. Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet. The boy was healed.
Later, the disciples asked why they were unable to cast the demon from the child. The disciples had lost sight of what gave them their power and began to take for granted the gifts given to them. They were not asking God to heal him through prayer; they were trying to do it on their own volition. Just like the unplugged toaster that will not work, the disciples could not bring healing without that connection to their power source: God. The disciples needed to pray, to stay in constant touch with God. They were seeing and doing incredible things, but they were being distracted from the work of faith by the glory of this world.
The disciples were so confident of their ability to do the work from their previous successes that they forgot the most important thing: that Jesus is the source of their power. They did not take the time to pray, to ask God into the situation and to call on Him for the power to do His work. They tried to do it themselves. We do the same thing.
There’s a picture that makes the rounds occasionally of an iceberg from the side. The water level is near the top, showing only a small portion of the iceberg. The overwhelming majority of the iceberg is normally unseen below the surface. The words on the picture state that a pastor’s sermon is just the tip of the iceberg, and that the preparation is most of the work. In other words, your pastor put hours of prayer and study into that twenty-minute sermon you heard last weekend.
I know a pastor and who has done some mentoring of pastors in training. He approached one in the days leading up to a preaching opportunity and asked to see her notes. She didn’t have any; she thought she would just let the Holy Spirit speak through her. She approached the podium that day with great expectations but stumbled over every sentence and left the congregation bewildered and unfed. She was disappointed and asked my friend, “Why didn’t God put the words into my mouth?”
She forgot that it takes more than confidence and opportunity to share God’s Word. We must be prepared through prayer and study. We must be familiar with the text and everything about it. We must know who is speaking and who is listening. We must know how the thoughts fit together so that we can apply it to the world in which we live. We must be prepared. God doesn’t just fill us with words in our mouth, but through study and prayer He fills every cell of our being with His Word. An adlib sermon can work, but not without hours of preparation.
We usually focus on the work Jesus did in healing and casting out demons, but the disciples did amazing things, too. In Mark 6, Jesus sent the Twelve out into the countryside to take the message of the Kingdom of God. Their work made an impact and many followed them when they returned to Jesus. There was so many that Jesus had to find a way to feed them all. I've always thought that they were simply coming because Jesus was there, but Mark tells us in 6:33 that many who saw the disciples and recognized them. It wasn’t just about Jesus any longer, it was also about those who were helping Him with His work.
In today’s story, however, they got a little kick in the butt because they couldn’t do what they had done. They couldn’t heal the child and they did not understand. Where was their power? Why couldn’t they do this one small thing after they had done so many other amazing things? Jesus answered, “This kind can come out by nothing, except by prayer and fasting.” The disciples who had been so recently successful had forgotten that their power did not come from themselves, but from the One who has all the power. They approached the problem without first seeking God in prayer. We all do sometimes, don’t we?
He can and does make an impact through us, but we must begin by seeking Him in prayer before we try. It will never be our power or knowledge or abilities that makes anything happen. God’s power, word, and Spirit makes things happen. We will be judged when we speak; sometimes we will disappoint those who have expectations beyond our ability. We might face persecution, rejection, and death. Whatever we do in word or deed in and for God’s Kingdom, let us always begin with prayer, seeking God’s purpose, word, and power. It takes so much more than what we see on the surface to accomplish God's work; the world might follow us because they see tip of the iceberg, but we know that without the unseen majority of the iceberg we would be nothing.
We will get there when we listen for God’s voice in our life, but it all begins with trusting that God is present and listening to our prayers even when it seems like He is nowhere to be found. We may have experiences like David, the prophets, and the apostles who were threatened, in danger, rejected, ignored, and even died as martyrs. We are to follow Jesus with faith and trust, knowing that in the end God is in control. Jesus went before us as the Suffering Servant who died at the hands of those who refused to believe He was sent by God. We are invited to follow Him through His cross, to join in His work with the promise that He will be with us through it all, listening to our cries and answering out of His great and wonderful mercy.
God is about to impact the world through us, just as He did with the Suffering Servant. It takes prayer, of course, because without Him we can do nothing. The Lord will help us, so let’s live in a way that brings forth blessing from our mouth rather than cursing. He will not disappoint us and we will not be confounded. God will make the world around us better by His Word of grace that we speak by His power.
A WORD FOR TODAY is posted five days a week – Monday through Friday. The devotional on Wednesday takes a look at the scripture from the Revised Common Lectionary for the upcoming Sunday. A WORD FOR TODAY is posted on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Word-for-Today-Devotional/339428839418276. Like the page to receive the devotion through Facebook. For information and to access our archives, visit http://www.awordfortoday.org.
|