Humorous God
(Devotion by Ros McDonald)
Prayer: God of Merriment
God of merriment, help us keep our sense of humour.
Help us to see the comical side of human self-importance.
When we take ourselves too seriously, enable us to chuckle at our folly.
Fill us with the robust joy of Easter.
God of merriment, because of all your victories in Christ Jesus,
liberate us to share in the song of the morning stars
and the joyful shouts of the children of God,
now and forever. Amen.
(Adapted from Jesus Our Future, Bruce Prewer, 1998)
Read:
Luke 6: 41-42 (NRSV)
Ask for God’s guidance, then read this slowly. As you read for a second time, imagine the scene described.
Why do you see the speck in your neighbour’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbour, “Friend, let me take out the speck in your eye”, when you yourself do not see the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbour’s eye.
Thought for the Day:
It’s easy to get so familiar with the bible that we miss the humour. There are many examples of Jesus using humorous exaggeration to make a point. The idea of someone with a huge log sticking out of their eye trying to extract a speck out of the eye of another is ridiculous. Words like these blow away our tendency to think of Jesus as always serious and intense. Through Jesus, we meet a God who has a sense of humour, a playful God. Today may God help us to celebrate the humorous and the playful.
Beginnings 6
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
PRAYER:
Word with infinite names
O Jesus, Word with infinite names,
show me what and how
I should ask from you in my requests.
O Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me.
Excerpt from a prayer to our Lord Jesus Christ,
St Nicodemos of Mount Athos, 18th century
(Sourced from A Treasury of Prayers in Uniting in Worship, copyright 1988 Uniting Church in Australia)
Read:
Romans 5:12-19. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
Adam and Christ Compared
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—
13 To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.
15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16 Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!
18 Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
(Romans 5:12-19 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
Some people set in motion things that change the world for all people who come after them. Gandhi, Hitler, Martin Luther, Florence Nightingale, and more. Paul in his letter to the Romans speaks of Adam and Jesus. They are in this category except bigger in impact.
Adam passed on his self-centredness and lack of faith in God to his children and grandchildren and descendants so that this became the new normal for all people on earth. The results of this is the brokenness all around us.
Jesus through his selfless love and faith in God ignited the same things in the hearts of people. They in turn changed the world around them and passed this on to the next generation not by genetics but by faith. The result is abundant life and healing spreading through the world over time. Hospitals, education for all, equality of all human beings, social welfare for those in need, charities, Red Cross, independent judiciary, and much much more all have emerged as Christian responses over time to heal the brokenness of this world. Real change in the heart leads to real change in the world. Paul sees Jesus as a new Adam except doing what Adam should have done from the start; living with simple faith in God.
The new Adam brings a new creation.
Paul sees all of humanity lining up behind one or the other of these ‘Adams’ and the communities they create.
This begs the question, “Are you in Adam or in Christ?”
Beginnings 5
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
PRAYER:
Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like You have loved me
Break my heart for what breaks Yours
Everything I am for Your Kingdom's cause
As I walk from earth into eternity
Hosanna,
(Quoted from song Hosanna by Hillsong United ccli license 113082)
Read:
Genesis 3:8-21. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,
“Cursed are you above all livestock
and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
16 To the woman he said,
“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labour you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
(Genesis 3:8-21 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
There are many themes in such a small story. Don’t try to engage them all in a short devotion time. I wonder which theme leapt out at you today from the text?
Having just preached on Romans 8 and the Holy Spirit’s role in helping us to pray alongside the suffering Jesus whose heart is heavy when he sees this broken world, I can’t help but notice how God still loves them and makes clothes for them even though they have rejected him. How God must have suffered even as he lovingly made each item of clothing for them as a gift. Love causes us to suffer when things go badly wrong. That is why the Holy Spirit invites all Christ followers to not turn away from the brokenness all around. Love does not turn away. The Spirit invites us to join with Jesus in “making garments of skin” for the world. Who will you make ‘garments of skin’ so that they will know love in a selfish world?
(Postscript. Bill Hybel’s called these moments of passion to do something about the brokenness in your ‘neighbours’ lives’, “holy discontent”; the building motivation that precedes action) I commend the book to you. Here is a link to a review of the book as the book is no longer available https://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/review-of-bill-hybels-holy-discontent.html)
Beginnings 4
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
PRAYER: To walk with a perfect heart
Lord,
for your tender mercies’ sake,
lay not our sins to our charge,
but forgive that which is past
and give us grace to amend our lives;
to decline from sin and incline to virtue,
that we may walk with a perfect heart before you,
now and evermore. Amen.
Ridley’s Prayers, 1566
(Sourced from A Treasury of Prayers in Uniting in Worship, copyright 1988 Uniting Church in Australia)
Read:
Genesis 3:1-7. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
1Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
(Genesis 3:1-7 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
You are full of questions again about the story like “Where did the serpent come from?”, “Why did God let this happen?”, etc. But this is not a science lesson or a history lesson. This is a lesson about what it means to be human and out of kilter with God. This is not just about the past and how things got wrecked but about how this encounter is replayed in all our current life choices now. Every day we encounter the choice to trust in God and God’s way or go our own way and choose our own wisdom. Everyday the serpent’s mocking voice whispers in our ear, “Did God really ask you to do that? That way if foolish! Wouldn’t it be wiser to …”
Where are you struggling to do things Jesus’ way rather than the ‘world’s’?
Beginnings 3
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
PRAYER: A collect of the morning
Holy and everliving God,
by your power we are created
and by your love we are redeemed;
guide and strengthen us by your Spirit,
that we may give ourselves to your service,
and live each day in love to one another and to you,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(Sourced from A Treasury of Prayers in Uniting in Worship, copyright 1988 Uniting Church in Australia)
Read:
Genesis 2:18-25. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.
But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
23 The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.”
24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
25 Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
(Genesis 2:18-25. NIV)
Thought for the Day:
Curious bits of phrasing appear all through this part of the story. Why go through the pretence that any of the animals would be a suitable companion? Was it just an attempt to help the man draw his own conclusion? Why choose a rib? The ancients tended to locate the deeper parts of the personality in the abdomen (not in the brain as our culture assumes) so maybe it is trying to say that they shared the same type of ‘soul’ (they did not have a soul vs body concept in those times).
And why is notable that a husband and wife were not ashamed of there nakeness?
But leaving aside all our wonderings about how other cultures think, it is plain that the main thing that this story gets across is that a human being is not a solo creature. We were made to be social animals. Our current lockdown and social distancing has revealed this more than ever. Even when our lives might be at risk we try and find loopholes to the laws that keep us safe because our need to be with others is just so powerful.
It is your need. But it is also someone else’s need too. Perhaps you could call them …
Beginnings 2
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
PRAYER: Blessing
May the God of creation warm your heart like the campfires of old
Bring wisdom and peace as shown to the first peoples of this land
Shake off the dust from the desert plains by the refreshing rains
Followed by the glow and warmth of the sun
Let the light of God show us the right path and stand tall like the big
River gums drawing life from the ever-flowing waters.
By Uncle Vince Ross, Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress UAICC
(Sourced from https://www.commongrace.org.au/aboriginal_prayer_resources)
Read:
Genesis 2:15-17.. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
(Genesis 2:15-17. NIV)
Thought for the Day:
Any good story starts with a safe warm beginning before it introduces a crisis. This second creation story provides the setting for the crisis right here by giving the opportunity to the man of dust to have his first experience of faith in God. In hindsight we look at this and say “oh, no!” but if you look at the story as written the baby like creature that is the man is provided with his first chance to discover what a beautiful thing it is to trust in God.
It should come as no surprise that God would do this. For the whole of the Scriptures it is ‘faith’ in God that he most values and seeks to encourage in humankind. When he begins the path of restoring a people for himself he asks only one thing of Abraham, faith. When he employed Moses to save his people he looked only for faith. When Jesus called his disciples they followed him because they were people of faith. To become a Christian you are called to have faith in God. Only three things last forever, faith, hope and love.
Adam was not ‘set up’ for a fall, he was invited into a relationship. And so are you.
Beginnings 1
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
PRAYER: The heavenly food of God’s Word
O God,
who has made us that we live not by bread alone,
but by every word of God;
and who has taught us not to spend our labour
on that which cannot satisfy;
cause us to hunger after the heavenly food of your Word,
and to find in it our daily provision
on the way to eternal life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Prayers for Divine Service, 1923,
Church of Scotland
(Sourced from Uniting in Worship, “A Treasury of Prayers” copyright JBCE 1988)
Read:
Genesis 2:4-9. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
5 Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, 6 but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. 7 Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
8 Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
(Genesis 2:4-9. NIV)
Thought for the Day:
This second creation story comes straight after the very poetic structured one of Genesis 1. In chapter one humanity was the last focus of the story like the climax of a great symphony working to a great revealing moment where humanity is made in the image of God. In the second creation story it begins with human beings whipped up from a bit of dust mixed with the breath of God himself. The play on words in Hebrew really highlights this. The man ‘adam’ was made from ‘adamah’. The difference between the creator God and the now living creature of dust couldn’t be starker. The man of duct is like a baby; helpless to provide for itself, or house itself, nor clothe itself. But like a father caring for a baby, God warmly provides everything that is needed to keep the ‘adam’ safe, healthy, and occupied. God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Listening to Creation(2)
(Devotion by Ros McDonald; Image: Wayne McDonald, Cleaning boots to prevent the spread of Dieback, Bibbulmun Track, WA)
Prayer:
Grandfather,
look at our brokenness.
We know that in all creation
only the human family
has strayed away from the sacred way.
We know that we are the ones
who must come back together
to walk in the sacred way.
Grandfather, sacred one,
teach us love, compassion and honour
that we may heal the earth
and heal each other.
(Sourced from Bread of Tomorrow, Ed. Janet Morley, 1993)
Read:
Micah 6:6-8
Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
With what shall I come before the Lord
and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
Thought for the Day:
Listen to the water, air and earth:
creation’s treasure store.
They’re wounded for the want
of being listened to.
They cry
and too few hear:
they slowly die
and too few mourn.
And yet
through those who give attention,
who stretch both hands
to touch, embrace and tend;
through those who marvel, reverence and kneel
and cup the water,
feel the breath of heaven,
and hear the humming earth,
a healing comes
and there are seeds of hope:
there is tomorrow
germinating in today.
(Sourced from Bread of Tomorrow, Ed. Janet Morley, 1993)
Listening to Creation(1)
(Devotion by Ros McDonald; Image: Sunset West Macdonnell Range, NT, Wayne McDonald)
Prayer: Familiar things
Sing from the mountain tops and shout to the skies!
Let the whole of our continent praise our God:
mountain and desert, river, waterfall and farmland.
Let all the animals praise our God:
koala and kangaroo, Tasmanian devil, possum and wombat.
Let the vegetation praise our God:
gumtree and wattle, grasstree, boronia and lotus lily.
Let the birds of plain and forest praise our God:
galah and emu, blue wren, honeyeater and jabiru.
Let everything living under the sun,
everything that is or ever will be,
sing praise to our God! Hallelujah!
(Sourced from Australian Psalms, Bruce Prewer, revised 2000)
Read:
Psalm 19:1-4
Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
Thought for the Day:
Psalm 19 is one of many psalms that give creation a “voice”. Creation’s voice is one of praise. In a future devotion we will be listening to creation’s pain. Today, we focus on the way in which creation declares the glory of God. Take some time this day to look at the sky, or at a flower, or a leaf. Look carefully, noticing detail that you would normally miss. How glorious is our creator God!