A WORD FOR TODAY, September 7, 2022
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 7, 2022
Lectionary Scriptures for September 11, 2016, Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost: Ezekiel 34:11-24; Psalm 119:169-176; 1 Timothy 1:(5-11) 12-17; Luke 15:1-10
“However, for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first, Jesus Christ might display all his patience for an example of those who were going to believe in him for eternal life.” 1 Timothy 1:16, WEB
The children and teachers spend the first few weeks of the school year getting to know one another and establishing schedules. Some of the children find it easy to fit in and to get into good habits. They have the confidence to jump into every opportunity and throw themselves into the academics and activities available to them. Others are hesitant; they are unsure about where to go and what their teachers will be like. As military children, my children were always able to quickly adapt to new situations and they did well in school even with so many interruptions in their lives.
It is not the same for all students. I remember when Zack was in kindergarten. We were living in England and the kids attended the Department of Defense School in our community. The children were expected to wait outside the building until a certain time, and the kindergarteners were assigned a very specific place to wait. They lined up according to classroom and patiently waited for the teachers to come lead them into the school. The parents hovered nearby until they left, keeping an eye on their child until they were under the care of a responsible adult.
Sometimes the children were not so patient. It is hard to be five and to stand in line for five or ten minutes, sometimes longer. I love interacting with little ones and often helped in the classroom, so I spent that time chatting with Zack and the other children, listening to them tell me about their lives. It didn’t take very long for the children to expect to get a high five or a hug from me along with a listening ear. Some days I nearly fell over when the whole class attacked me.
However, there was one boy who was very shy. He did not want hugs and high fives; he did not want to talk about anything. Each day, however, I said “hello” and offered him my hand. It took a long time - months - but he eventually opened up to me. At first it was just a shy smile or a brief word, but by the end of the school year his smile was bright, and his hugs were long. I could have ignored him after the first couple of rejections, but I did not let it go. Zack’s teacher once told me that those brief moments made a difference to the way that boy performed in school; a little bit of confidence goes a long way.
Paul had a most extraordinary story to tell. He was passionate for God without even knowing Him, willingly accosting any who stood for the Way, the Christian faith. One day Christ came to him in a powerful and frightening way, and he was changed forever. Few of us can tell a similar story. Most of us came to know about God and to have faith in Jesus with the patient and persistent witness of those who came before us. I wonder how many times Paul heard the Gospel before that day on the road to Damascus. I wonder how many people he rejected and harmed out of his zealousness for the old way. I wonder how many people, like Ananias, thought Paul was beyond hope, choosing to give up on him rather than risk his wrath.
In the letter to Timothy, Paul recognized his sinfulness, admitting to having been ignorant while he thought himself to be wise. We often see Paul as being strong, arrogant, self-centered because he talks about himself so much, even in letters of encouragement to others. In this passage he writes, “...for an example of those who were going to believe in him for eternal life.” However, Paul was not holding himself up as an example of Christ-like living to follow, but as a sample of a humble, repentant sinner receiving God’s amazing grace. Paul didn’t become the great evangelist by any power of his own, but by the power of God’s love and mercy. He called himself the foremost sinner, not because he thought he was greater than others but because he recognized that he never deserved God’s grace because he had rejected God’s salvation in Jesus Christ.
It is good to emulate the work of Paul, to share the Gospel as we are able and to serve our brothers and sisters in Christ in whatever manner and gift we have been given, but that is not the example he wants us to follow. In this letter we are called to see ourselves as sinners in need of a Savior, to recognize God’s grace in the world around us, and to share it with others so that they too might come to faith. It takes time. Sometimes it takes a lifetime. However, no one is outside of hope. We shouldn’t give up on any, no matter how much we are rejected. God did not give up on Paul. He never gave up on us. He hasn’t given up on those who are still lost and suffering in the darkness.
We took a trip to the shore to celebrate my husband’s birthday and have a time of family fun. Our daughter came home, and our son got off work; it was the first time in too long that we were all together. We visited the beach, played games, watched TV, and had delicious meals together. We caught up on each other’s lives and just enjoyed being a family. Unfortunately, it rained most of the weekend, but we rejoiced that every drop would help with the drought which has plagued Texas.
I have complained recently about the drought in Texas. There are certainly issues elsewhere, but we are in the most severe level of drought. It has finally been raining over the past few weeks, so the drought area is shrinking. We have a long way to go, but things are definitely looking better. We noticed this as we went on vacation last weekend. The roadsides were starting to look green and there was standing water along the roads and in the fields along the path.
There was another indication that it had rained: the American Snout Butterflies were in full force. These butterflies are migratory, and at times the sky can be thick with them. Here is some information from Wikipedia, “These migrations are thought to be triggered by droughts followed by heavy summer rains: the droughts reduce a parasitoid that would otherwise limit butterfly populations, whereas the rains induce the spiny hackberry to grow new leaves which provide food for caterpillars. Furthermore, whereas the droughts send the butterflies into a sort of hibernation, the rains bring them out of it all at once to lay eggs, causing a population explosion.”
We ran into pockets of these butterflies on our way to the shore and on our way home. They can be so thick that they will show up on the weather radar. Once we noticed the radar showing a light rain, but there wasn’t a cloud in the big blue sky. We thought something must be wrong with the weather station that was reporting to his phone. That evening during the weather forecast, the meteorologist showed that the radar had some ground clutter showing up. “Those are the butterflies,” he said. We realized that the butterflies must have been abundant enough at the weather station to trigger to app to report rain.
When I first learned of these butterflies, I wondered if I had ever seen them before they were explained on the news. They seem to come so suddenly, and they look like blowing leaves. Since this usually happens in the fall, once the summer dry days are over and the autumn rains come, you don’t realize at first what you are seeing. They also fly close to the ground. It begins with one or two and then you suddenly see thousands. My car was bombarded, the windshield and grill were covered with the remnants of butterflies that were smooshed by my speeding car.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department often receives calls about swarms of these butterflies. Of course, a biologist at the department provided an explanation for the phenomenon: the weather provided the perfect conditions for an explosion of new butterflies. By virtue of his job, he is more aware of these situations than the average person. The information is reported every year by the news to the general public and when the information is heard, others become aware of the butterflies. Sometimes we need someone to draw our eye to the butterflies to even notice them.
Those of us who know Jesus can’t imagine what life would be like without Him. We wonder at those people who live day after day without some relationship with God. We can’t fathom the atheist who claims there is no God, especially when we see a perfect rose, a brightly colored rainbow or feel a cool breeze on a hot day. We see God’s hand in the coincidences that seem to occur at just the right moment in just the right place to answer our prayers. We see Him in our relationships, in our worship, in our lives as we walk forth in faith. So, we cannot understand how they do not see Him also.
Yet, even as we do not understand how they do not see Him, do we show them? I found it hard to believe there were so many butterflies to affect the radar, but now I know immediately that the “leaves” blowing down the road in swarms, I know it is true. Those who hear us speak the Gospel may not believe when they first hear it. They may not even believe it a week, a month or years after they heard. Once they recognize the truth that God is, they have a hard time missing Him.
Unfortunately, those of us who do know the Lord sometimes lose sight of Him. Our lives are like rollercoasters; this was apparent in the history of Israel. Israel had good kings and bad kings. The story is repetitious: the nation was led by a good king with a heart for God, but his sons and his sons’ sons turned from God until there was a king who did evil in the sight of God. God punished the nation and then raised a new good king. This happened over and over again. This happens to us, too. We have good moments and bad moments. We are human and we get distracted by the temptations of this world.
I spent a few years in retail management. I was with Woolworth’s, working as an assistant manager under a great guy at a store in New Jersey. Another store nearby had an assistant manager that seemed to be doing a great job. He arrived at work extremely early; the district managers assumed he was doing so to get more work accomplished. They thought he was working to prove his worth to the company. Quite frankly, all of the assistant managers worked hard to prove ourselves, the goal was always to get ahead. It made sense that he would be doing everything he could to get the next promotion.
One day the manager discovered that his early arrivals had nothing to do with his career. He was a baseball card collector. We knew this because he had purchased hundreds of dollars of baseball cards. He also stole thousands of dollars’ worth of merchandise by walking it out the back door during those early morning hours. He was fired and charged with theft, and I was moved into his position.
Unfortunately, he also managed to get some of the employees involved in his scheme. That assistant manager was hired to lead the employees, to teach them how to do their jobs, and to ensure the success of the store. He not only stole merchandise, but he also destroyed the spirit of that store. Those who lead others have a responsibility to make sure that they do their best to protect not only their own jobs, but they must care for the people and the institutions for which they were liable. We had to find out which employees were involved in his schemes and let them go.
Ancient Israel ran into a similar situation, something God warned them would happen. In the beginning, they had God as their King and He provided prophets and judges to lead them. There were also priests, whose job was to minister to the Lord and administer the sacrifices. Eventually they wanted to be like everyone else; they wanted to be a kingdom with an earthly ruler who would guide their lives. God warned them that earthly kings demand much from the people; some would be cruel and lay heavy burdens on their lives. Some would lead them astray.
He granted their request. Over the years, some of the kings were cruel and the people were led from the path of righteousness. Israel lost their independence, the line of kings ended, and they were left desolate. By the time that Jesus was born, puppet kings were controlled by the Romans. Even the priests and temple leaders were more interested in their own welfare and position than that of the people they were called to lead.
The LORD knew what was going to happen to His people so He promised that He would search for them when they were lost. He was their Shepherd King from the beginning, and He would continue to do so even when they forgot about Him. He promised that though the priests would abandon them for their own selfish desires, He would never let them go. He promised that He would bring them home, give them all they need and tend them as a shepherd tends his sheep. He would not allow any to be lost and all those who suffer would be healed. He makes that same promise to us today when we stray.
He did this by sending Jesus who is our Shepherd, our Savior. Jesus came to fulfill the promises, to fire the bad leaders, to make things right and to return the hearts of God’s people to Him again. It was not an easy task, for only through the cross of humiliation could God’s people be reconciled to Him once again. But Jesus did it; He died for you and for me. Today, we still face human leaders that will lead us astray and put heavy burdens on our lives. There are even such leaders within the church, those who care only for their own welfare and position and who care nothing for the sheep they are called to lead. But God will never abandon His sheep whether they were led astray or wandered away on our own.
In today’s Gospel lesson, the sinners and tax collectors were drawing near to Jesus. We normally expect that the faithful will flock to a preacher and teacher, but in Jesus’ case the righteous (the self-righteous) were offended by Him. They saw Him as a threat. They saw Him as opposite of everything they expected in a Savior. He did not appear more righteous than others because He did things that seemed counter to the Law of Moses. He had mercy on sinners. He ate with tax collectors. He touched the unclean and offered forgiveness to all who sought Him. They came to Him because He had something to offer them, something they could not find anywhere else. The righteous, the self-righteous, did not need mercy or forgiveness. They did not need God’s grace, so they turned away from God by rejecting His Son.
The stories in our lesson almost seem contradictory to what was happening. Jesus told of a shepherd and woman looking for something of value. In those stories, God is the shepherd and the woman. Specifically, Jesus was telling stories about Himself. He had come to find the lost sheep and the lost coin. The people who came to hear Him, to receive His grace were the ones He came to find. The religious leaders grumbled about how this supposed rabbi welcomed sinners and tax collectors and ate with them. They were drawn to Him, but only because He came for them. The lost sheep heard the voice of their Master and came running for deliverance. The Pharisees and the scribes did not hear that voice. They did not recognize the voice. They did not know Jesus. The tax collectors and sinners did know Him and they knew they needed what He had to give.
The scribes and Pharisees had not turned to Roman gods, but they were drawn away from God by a much less obvious god: themselves. They relied on their self-righteousness, their obedience to a set of laws and their own interpretation of them. They looked down on Jesus because He willingly lived counter to their expectations. They had forgotten that God is the God of mercy and grace, that He loves all who seek Him and that He seeks those who are lost. They missed that Jesus was the one whom God had sent to bring His people home.
Ezekiel was commanded to give a warning to the shepherds of Israel. “Tell them that they are not taking care of my sheep.” The rulers of Israel were more concerned about their own well-being than that of those whom they were charged with leading. Their lack of care scattered the sheep of their fold, put them in danger of being devoured by the false teachers. The rulers were fat and well clothed, but the people were hungry and lost. God said, “Behold, I am against the shepherds.”
Every warning comes with a promise, and that’s what we hear in today’s Old Testament passage. God will care for His flock, searching for those who are missing, restoring them to the field where they will be fed, and giving them rest. There are always some in every group who are weak and those who are strong. Just as it was true in the days of Ezekiel, it was also true in Jesus’ day. The priests, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees had all the power and they put heavy burdens on the people. They talked the talk but didn’t walk the walk. They did what suited them and expected perfection from others. They didn’t even see their own sinfulness.
It is still true today. Every congregation has people who have power and authority who place heavy burdens on the others. There are many within our congregations who are weak. They don’t have a strong understanding of scripture. They have faith the size of a mustard seed but can’t seem to move mountains with it. They have listened and followed the words of men without knowing which words are truly God’s Word. They have been led astray, and then left to fend for themselves. The church can be the seat of power for some and a place of pain for others. God promises that He will take care of those who have been harmed by leaders who did not care for His sheep.
Jesus loved even the tax collectors and the sinners, so much so that He was willing to set aside societal expectations to have dinner with them. The lesson in today’s Gospel was repeated later in Luke as Jesus met with Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector in Jericho. Despite the grumbling of the Jewish leaders, Jesus dined at Zacchaeus’ house with his friends. In the encounter in today’s passage, Jesus reflected on the promise in Ezekiel using parables, reminding them that God would find the lost sheep and carry them home.
There is a time and a place for warning, for speaking the Law, for calling people to repentance. We must remember, however, that we are not more righteous than others just because we are not guilty of their sins. We are still guilty. We need God’s grace as much as they. We get lost, too, by turning our back on God or by being led in the wrong direction. We need to repent, to receive God’s forgiveness through Jesus Christ, to be changed by His Word.
In the texts for this week, we are encouraged to see ourselves as God might see us: the good, the bad and the ugly. Jesus didn’t tell the Pharisees that the tax collectors and sinners were good, only that they were in need and that they were willing to listen. It was their willingness that Jesus commended: they had been lost and now they were found. He was rejoicing with them that they saw the reality of their sinfulness and had turned to the only one who could grant them true forgiveness.
The psalmist writes, “I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I don’t forget your commandments.” God’s Word is both Law and Promise. The Law calls us to repent, to turn to God. The Gospel assures us that He has provided for our forgiveness. We were like lost sheep, but Jesus found us, saved us, and restored us to a relationship with our God. The Great Shepherd will continue searching for those who are missing, restoring them to the field where they will be fed, and giving them rest. When He finds them, He will carry them on his shoulders, rejoicing just as He did for us.
So, let us live in the mercy of God, praising Him for His promises and for His faithfulness. We will fail, one way or another, over and over again. God’s Word is both Law and Promise. The Law calls us to repent, to turn to God. The Gospel assures us that He has provided for our forgiveness. We were like lost sheep, but Jesus found us, saved us, and restored us to a relationship with our God. He will continue searching for all who are lost whether we have wandered away or been led astray. When He finds us, He will rejoice as He carries us home on His shoulders.
We find comfort in these words, knowing that God is always faithful and that He will come looking for us. As we recognize ourselves in these stories, we cry out to God and ask for His mercy knowing He is faithful to His promises. And we, like Paul, receive His mercy so that we might become witnesses of God’s grace.
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