Prayer for Sandy Hook Elementary School
O Lord, I come to you
Kneeling before your throne of mercy.
O Lord -- this day
My heart kneels
In the lonesome valley of grief.
My spirit comes to you
Like an empty vessel to an over-flowing spring
Needing to be filled with comfort and consolation.
Lift my spirit O Lord –
Throw open the window of heaven,
And lean out over the walls of my lamenting,
And listen to my plea.
Lord -- ride by this morning --
Mount your steed,
And ride this morning --
And in your ride, ride to our fear,
Ride to the defiled doorways of death,
And abide with us poor sinners.
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Death and desolation were loosed upon the earth this past week
And death's cold icy arms took 20 innocent children and six brave adults.
But they felt no chill.
Death carried them
Up beyond the morning star,
Out beyond the evening star,
Into the glittering light of glory,
And there he gently laid the them
On the loving breast of Jesus.
And Jesus took his own hand
Wiped away their tears,
And smoothed the furrows from their faces.
The angels sang a little lament,
And Jesus rocked them in his arms,
And kept a-saying: Take your rest,
Take your rest Oh my Children,
Take your rest in the bosom of Jesus.
God bless you all,
PT
PS. Hug a child today. Any will do. Preferably one you know though.
The wolf shall live with the lamb,
the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze,
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
They will not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
For a child has been born for us,
a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;
and he is named
Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
His authority shall grow continually,
and there shall be endless peace
for the throne of David and his kingdom.Isaiah 9&11
My dear friends,
Sometimes Pastors need to ramble and get things off their chests. This rambling devotion is one of those times.
I can go for a while acting, thinking, and being as normal as I am capable. Then it happens. Someone says something, or I see a six year old, or I think about my grandchildren and my heart remembers what the families in Newtown, Connecticut are enduring. I was proud of the Lutheran presence at the memorial service and the golden retriever comfort dogs that they brought in from the Midwest. One was even named Luther of all things. Then I think of the grief ridden parents and the brothers and sisters who will no longer be able to play with their dead siblings or the children who will have a new teacher because theirs is dead, and a tear wells up. I try to stifle it but sometimes I fail.
Christians have rallied around this text from Isaiah as a depiction of the Messiah. Peace should be one of the great job descriptions of the Christian. Jesus declared, "Blessed are the peacemakers." I am not sure we always are very good at it. Three hundred million guns in this country would seem to indicate a propensity toward violence.
When our children were born Faye and I made it a decision not to have toy-guns for our kids to play with. We didn't think learning to shoot each other was a good idea. I grew up being Roy Rogers and Gene Autry and played cowboys and Indians all the time. Didn't seem to harm me. Nonetheless, we made the "no toy-gun" decision--partly because of me.
When I was a high school junior I went to a gun shop and bought a 20 gauge shot-gun. I didn't even need parental permission. My Dad was stationed in Korea at Panmunjom and I felt the need to be the "man of the house" and protect my Mom and sister. It was goofy and I knew it but it didn't change my mind. I hid the gun from Mom. She would have had a fit if she knew I had it.
One day a friend and I were out in the woods shooting our guns. He had a 12 gauge shotgun so his did much more damage than mine and I was impressed. We shot cans but that wasn't much of a challenge with shot-guns. So we graduated to birds. He shot one. Then I did. It was a Blue Jay. At least it was blue. It fell to the ground and didn't move. I didn't know what to do do. I looked at my friend, Steve, and then at the bird. We didn't say anything. We just went home. I wasn't very hungry nor was I talkative. Mom, of course, knew something was up because "it was written all over my face." Mom may not be able to read New Testament Greek but she sure can read the obscure language of faces. She marched me back to the woods and we buried that bird. I put up a cross as if that would make it better. Then she told me to find another bird and shoot it. I couldn't do it. "Go ahead and shoot it," she demanded. "Does that make you feel like a man?" Of course by now I felt like a weasel--certainly not a man and probably a little less than human in fact. That day changed how I think about life and death. Life and death were literally in my hands. It changed my outlook on my responsibility in the larger world and my place in it.
I have many friends who are hunters and can understand their love of the sport. What I don't understand is that I will probably get more email about this devotion than any other I have written. What is it about our love affair with guns? It really isn't a Second Amendment argument for Christians. If Jesus is a part of all we do then he should be part of the decision making process of buying a gun. We should be the healers of the world. Maybe it's time not to have so many guns. At least maybe it is time to begin a discussion about owning an assault rifle.
God go with you,
PT
Today in our prayers we remember The Bee Family.
The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus 2it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God. 3Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. 4Say to those who are of a fearful heart, “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.” Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; 6then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; 7the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; ISAIAH 35:1-7
My dear friends,
I have a devotional book called Streams in the Desert. It is a book of comfort. All of us have had desert times when a pleasant rain would change a dry parched life into an oasis of joy. That is what was promised to God’s people. Isaiah lived during the divided kingdom. After the death of Solomon Israel was split into two parts. Israel in the north with Samaria with the capital had ten tribes. The southern kingdom was Judah (Judea) with Jerusalem as its capital. Isaiah lived in the south and was a prophet in the royal court so he must have been born into a family of influence. He lived at an extremely turbulent time. Assyria was threatening both the north and the south. In fact the north was conquered and fell in 721 BC and Jerusalem was invaded but not conquered in 701.
Then along comes a text like this. The description of the new creation contrasts the dry wilderness and burning desert with the luxuriance of Lebanon, Carmel and Sharon. In modern Israel as in the time when the poet wrote these lines, these areas are the most productive because they have the most abundant rainfall and natural water supply. The majestic peak and foothills of Mount Lebanon, the coastal ridge of Mount Carmel and the seaside plain of Sharon catch virtually all the rainfall borne in on winter storms from the north and west. The rest of Israel is very dry and productive only through constant irrigation from deep wells, the Jordan River and the Sea of Galilee.
This text is full of promise. The promise is that regardless of what the world does to God’s people, that God’s will cannot be thwarted. And so it was for Judah. Babylon destroyed the Temple during their siege and exiled much of the population to the city of Babylon. Fifty years later they were returned home like streams in the desert.
Blessings,
PT
Today in our prayers we remember The Bem Family
MATTHEW 11:2-11.
When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”
As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written, ‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’ Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
My dear friends,
The names we have given to the two parts of our Christian Bible, Old and New Testaments, recognize both the continuity and discontinuity of Christianity and Judaism. John the Baptist represented the transition between the two. John, expecting judgment from the Messiah, sent his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come?” Even though at the baptism of Jesus, John heard the voice of God declare, “You are my Son the beloved.” He still had to ask, "Are you the Messiah?" Jesus replied, “Tell John what you see and hear. Blind, see. Lame, walk. Lepers are cleansed. The poor hear the Gospel. Then he adds, “I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”
Matthew’s Gospel was written for a community that included both Jews and non-Jews. In the 80s, just after Matthew was written, Jewish Christians had been banished from their synagogues dominated by Pharisaic Judaism. The Matthean community was multiracial, prosperous, yet persecuted from without and conflicted from within.
Apparently one of their conflicts concerned the character of the Messiah. They questioned how Jesus could be the Messiah, the Son of God, Savior of the world. In this passage John the Baptist and his disciples represent that element who struggled with their expectations of the Messiah. In Matthew 3, John expected the Messiah to come with fire and judgment. Jesus tells John that he is the Messiah but a Messiah that heals the sick and disenfranchised and preaches the good news to the poor. Conflicts about who Jesus is still exist today.
Blessings,
PT
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Luke 1:26-30
My dear friends,
What wonderful words these are; "You have found favor with God.". I don't know many people who don't secretly desire someone to say words similar to these. Regardless of our age we still long for a "well done" of "great job" from our parents. When a ballplayer is interviewed after a game, invariably he says something like, "I did it for my Dad," or at least says, "Hi, Mom.". It has become a cliche. For Mary to hear the words, "you have found favor with God" must have been like sweet music dancing in her heart. Mary, however, must have been bewildered. Encountering an Angel is a pretty rare occurrence. Nonetheless, her heart must have leapt with the hearing of those words.
How we long to please God.
How we long to make God proud of us.
How we long to hear the words, "You have found favor with God."
The more I hear about the teachers and staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School the more impressed I am with them. The more I see family members of the deceased and townspeople of Newtown the more grateful I am for them. They make me proud just to be human and share space with them on this earth. In spite of the greatest tragedy they could have experienced they have displayed grace under extreme pressure. Well done. Well done. You ignoble us all.
Lord, may our lives be lived in such a way that we can make you smile with pride.
Blessings to you,
PT