Jesus, Radical
(Devotion by Ros McDonald)
Prayer:
We pray, O God, for every child, for every woman,
for every man, for whom justice, security, and
freedom is but a dream, and we pray for all
who long and work for a better world,
a world where your will is done. Amen.
(from Be our Freedom Lord, ed. Terry Falla)
Read:
Luke 7:36–39 (NIV)
Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
36 When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. 38 As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.
39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”
Thought for the day:
*In Jesus’ society women were excluded from participation in synagogue worship, restricted to a spectator role, and forbidden to enter the Temple beyond the Court of the Women. A woman was not to touch the Scriptures, lest she defile them. A man was not to talk much with a woman, even his wife. Talk with a woman in public was yet more restrictive.
In the face of his society’s practices, Jesus’ inclusion of women was radical. The story of the anointing of Jesus by a woman “who lived a sinful life” is amazing. She showered her love and gratitude upon Jesus, and he affirmed her and her act. Jesus let this woman touch him in public and express her feelings toward him, causing great consternation among the religious leaders present. (Luke 7:36-50)
Jesus’ ministry was to usher in the Kingdom of God, where all are equal and respected. He treated this woman with love. Spend some time reflecting on the radical actions of Jesus, and notice where your thoughts lead you.
*This information is from the journal Christianity Today
Image: Christ in the house of Simon the Pharisee, Rubens 1577-1640, Vanderbilt Divinity Library
Jesus, Healer
(Devotion by Ros McDonald)
Prayer: Enlarge my heart
O God:
Enlarge my heart
that it may be big enough
to receive the greatness of your love.
Stretch my heart
that it may take into it
all those who with me around the world
believe in Jesus Christ.
Stretch it
that it may take in all those who are not lovely in my eyes,
and whose hands I do not want to touch;
through Jesus Christ, my saviour, Amen.
(Prayer of an African Christian, in Bread of Tomorrow)
Read:
Luke 5:12-13 (NIV)
Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
12 While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
13 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him.
Thought for the day:
Leprosy is not like COVID. Unless you live with an infected person for a month, you are unlikely to catch it, especially as there is only a little leprosy left in Australia. Effective treatment was not available in Jesus’ day, and lepers were shunned. Yet Jesus touched this man and healed him. By so doing, Jesus enabled him to once more live within his community, no longer on the margins.
In our society there are groups of people who, like lepers, are banished to the side-lines and marginalised. Those living with long-term mental illness often fall into this group. Let us give thanks for the way our congregation and others around the world include marginalised people in their community life. Today, be especially mindful of the emotional wellbeing of those around you, and choose to do something to enhance your own wellbeing.
Image: Rod Long in Unsplash, with the caption “I love this photo of my mums hand reaching out to share a moment with her great grandson.”
Jesus, Truth-teller
(Devotion by Ros McDonald)
Prayer: Show us what is true
In a world of great wealth where many go hungry,
in a world of great knowledge where many die in ignorance,
come, Holy Spirit, and show us what is true.
In a Church divided over doctrine, creed and ministry,
in a Church interpreting the will of God with new insight,
come, Holy Spirit, and show us what is true.
(Source: Adapted from Stephen Orchard in Bread of Tomorrow)
Read:
Bible reading Matthew 16:21-23 RM1 (NIV)
Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”
23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
Thought for the day:
Often Jesus uses parable and metaphor to get his message across, but there are also many examples of Jesus using direct words of truth, especially in Matthew’s gospel. In this passage, he doesn’t try to protect his disciples from the distress of what awaits in Jerusalem. Jesus tells it like it is. Another occasion of truth-telling occurs in Matthew 23 when Jesus confronts the religious leaders with the fact that they are concentrating on minor issues and neglecting “the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith.” (verse 23) Jesus is totally guided by matters which are of importance to God.
Today may God guide our speech and show us what is true.
Image: Timothy Eberly on Unsplash, with the caption “Reading the bible in the morning for devotions”
RM1
Ruth Series: Of Law Courts and David’s Line
Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
PRAYER: The workshop of the Carpenter
O Christ, the Master Carpenter,
who at the last through wood and nails
purchased our whole salvation;
wield well your tools in the workshop of your world,
so that we, who come rough-hewn to your bench,
may here be fashioned to a truer beauty by your hand.
We ask this in your name and for your sake. Amen.
A prayer of the Iona Community, Scotland
Read:
Ruth 4:1-16. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
1Meanwhile Boaz went up to the town gate and sat down there just as the guardian-redeemer he had mentioned came along. Boaz said, “Come over here, my friend, and sit down.” So he went over and sat down.
2Boaz took ten of the elders of the town and said, “Sit here,” and they did so. 3Then he said to the guardian-redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our relative Elimelek. 4I thought I should bring the matter to your attention and suggest that you buy it in the presence of these seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, do so. But if you will not, tell me, so I will know. For no one has the right to do it except you, and I am next in line.”
“I will redeem it,” he said.
5Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the dead man’s widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property.”
6At this, the guardian-redeemer said, “Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it.”
7(Now in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other. This was the method of legalizing transactions in Israel.)
8So the guardian-redeemer said to Boaz, “Buy it yourself.” And he removed his sandal.
9Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people, “Today you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelek, Kilion and Mahlon. 10I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property, so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from his hometown. Today you are witnesses!”
11Then the elders and all the people at the gate said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. 12Through the offspring the Lord gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.”
13So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. 14The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! 15He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.”
16Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. 17The women living there said, “Naomi has a son!” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
(Ruth 4:1-16 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
Boaz had such integrity that he would risk losing the opportunity to marry the woman he had immense admiration for rather than cheat his relative of his legal rights. Everything then was taken out of Boaz’s control. His relative with the prior claim/responsibility to care for their relative in distress (for that is the sole role of a guardian-redeemer) could say yes or no to this responsibility. But the key point is that Boaz had no control. It is hard to “let go and let God” as the old saying states.
By doing so he kept his good character as well as gaining the amazing Naomi into his life.
Of course, Naomi had even less power over her life as a woman in those times but she too gained a man of good character into her life.
As a married couple their good qualities would have combined to make a rich upbringing for their children where good character would be a highly valued trait. This sets the scene for their great grandchild David who would become King of God’s people.
But what is truly remarkable about this whole story of Ruth is that she is not even an Israelite. She comes from the Moabites to the south east her were ancient enemies of Israel. The story is highlighting that God cares for good character and faith above all else that may divide us. A lesson that had to be relearnt by the early church. God is delighted to welcome into the centre of his family anyone who yearns for the things that God yearns for.
How might this insight help you today?
Ruth Series: Roundabout Ways
Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
PRAYER: Offering ourselves to God
O God,
who has so greatly loved us,
long sought us,
and mercifully redeemed us;
give us grace that in everything
we may yield ourselves,
our wills and our works,
a continual thankoffering unto you;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Westminster Divines, 1647
Read:
Ruth 3:1-13. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
1One day Ruth’s mother-in-law Naomi said to her, “My daughter, I must find a home for you, where you will be well provided for.
2Now Boaz, with whose women you have worked, is a relative of ours. Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor.
3Wash, put on perfume, and get dressed in your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor, but don’t let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking.
4When he lies down, note the place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do.”
5“I will do whatever you say,” Ruth answered.
6So she went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law told her to do.
7When Boaz had finished eating and drinking and was in good spirits, he went over to lie down at the far end of the grain pile. Ruth approached quietly, uncovered his feet and lay down.
8In the middle of the night something startled the man; he turned—and there was a woman lying at his feet!
9“Who are you?” he asked.
of our family.”
10“The Lord bless you, my daughter,” he replied. “This kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier: You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor.
11And now, my daughter, don’t be afraid. I will do for you all you ask. All the people of my town know that you are a woman of noble character.
12Although it is true that I am a guardian-redeemer of our family, there is another who is more closely related than I.
13Stay here for the night, and in the morning if he wants to do his duty as your guardian-redeemer, good; let him redeem you. But if he is not willing, as surely as the Lord lives I will do it. Lie here until morning.”
(Ruth 3:1-13 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
Isn’t it amazing how different cultures are around the world. And yet somehow we can still recognise what is going on here. Naomi is trying to matchmake with Ruth. She loves Ruth so much that she wants her to have a life of her own. Boaz is probably 20 years her senior but it is his character that Naomi has noticed (see chapter 2 “It will be good for you, my daughter, to go with the women who work for Boaz, because in someone else’s field you might be harmed.”).
In all these roundabout plans God is working. Are these co-incidences or good human choices based on belief in good character before all else? Or both at the same time. The writer of Ruth doesn’t say but seems to hold both together.
Good character is a theme in Ruth in both male and female. In our society success is valued highly. If you had to choose, which would you rather have in life; success or good character?
Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash
Ruth Series: Character Matters
Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
PRAYER: For the graces of the Holy Spirit
O merciful God,
fill our hearts with the graces of the Holy Spirit,
with love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Teach us to love those who hate us,
to bless those who curse us,
and to pray for those who abuse us,
that we may be the children of our Father:
who makes the sun shine on the evil and the good,
and sends rain on the just and unjust.
In adversity grant us grace to be patient;
in prosperity keep us humble;
may we guard the door of our lips;
may we lightly regard the pleasures of this world,
and thirst only after heavenly things;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
St Anselm, 1033-1109
Read:
Ruth 2:1-11. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
1Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, a man of standing from the clan of Elimelek, whose name was Boaz.
2And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favour.”
Naomi said to her, “Go ahead, my daughter.”
3So she went out, entered a field and began to glean behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she was working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelek.
4Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, “The Lord be with you!”
bless you!” they answered.
5Boaz asked the overseer of his harvesters, “Who does that young woman belong to?”
6The overseer replied, “She is the Moabite who came back from Moab with Naomi.
7She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.’ She came into the field and has remained here from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter.”
8So Boaz said to Ruth, “My daughter, listen to me. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here. Stay here with the women who work for me.
9Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the women. I have told the men not to lay a hand on you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled.”
10At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She asked him, “Why have I found such favour in your eyes that you notice me—a foreigner?”
11Boaz replied, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before.
12May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”
(Ruth 2:1-11NIV)
Thought for the Day:
“I’ve been told …” It is not only bad news that gets talked about in the community. Surprising actions that reveal a wonderful character gets much airspace as well. Ruth’s selfless acts were both extravagant and noticed. As a result Boaz (who she had never met) wanted to support her.
Grace works the same way now as it did then. Extravagant love towards others changes minds and changes lives. And it all begins in the heart.
What sort of person do I want to be?
Ruth Series: Life in a Hard Life
Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
PRAYER: For those from whom we are separated
O Lord our God,
you are in every place,
and no space or distance can ever part us from you;
take into your holy keeping
those from whom we are now separated;
and grant that both they and we,
by drawing nearer to you,
maybe drawn nearer to one another,
in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Book of Common Order, 1940, Church of Scotland
Read:
Ruth 1:3-18. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
3Now
Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, 5both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.
6When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. 7With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.
8Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. 9May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.”
Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud 10and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.”
11But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? 12Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons— 13would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!”
14At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.
15“Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.”
16But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” 18When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
(Ruth 1:3-18 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
I can’t read this without my heart going out to Naomi. She has received so many hard blows in life. No wonder she thinks “the Lord’s hand has turned against me!”. Wouldn’t you be tempted to think that in her position? She had a vibrant grown up family that had overcome the odds by migrating out of a devastating drought. Now she has lost not only those who were precious to her but the unborn grandchildren she will now never know. Her grief is doubled by the fact that being single in a family obsessed society meant her future was always going to have this shadow over it. Everything seems bleak except for one thing; Ruth.
Her daughter-in-law is determined to stay with her even to the point of leaving her community, wider family and religion out of love for Naomi. What is happening here? It is love. This reveals what sort of person Naomi is. In a world where people love their blood relatives more than those who marry in to the family, Naomi has proven exceptional. She has loved and included her daughter-in-laws so much that Ruth is willing to sacrifice all else to stay with this beautiful person.
Bitter experiences make some people hard but Naomi shows us that it doesn’t have to be so. She retains her inner kindness regardless of what life throws at her. Perhaps you and I could sit at Naomi’s feet and learn.
Ruth Series: Where’s Wally/God?
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
PRAYER: Glory to God
The poor and the needy will praise you, O Lord.
Glory to the Father,
glory to the Son,
glory to the Holy Spirit, who spoke through the prophets.
God is my hope,
Christ is my refuge,
the Holy Spirit is my shelter. Amen.
Excerpt from a prayer,
St Auxentios, 3rd century
Read:
Ruth 1:1-5. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
1In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab.
2The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.
3Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons.
4They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years,
5both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.
(Ruth 1:1-5NIV)
Thought for the Day:
The little book of Ruth plays an important part in God’s plans for the whole world. It is through these lives that you are reading about that God develops the lineage that leads to Jesus. These are his ancestors and King David’s.
Yet when you read this story of drought, migration, tragedy, love and death and hope you may be asking “Where is God?” It is the seeming absence of God combined with the significant choices of ordinary people that makes the story intriguing, mesmerising and provocative. How does God work?
May this story of courageous and caring women fill you with questions and hope.
Photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash
Eternal Life?
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
PRAYER: An instrument of God’s peace
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is discord, union;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;
for your mercy and truth’s sake.
O divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
A 19th century prayer in the spirit
of St Francis of Assisi
Read:
John 3:16. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
(John 3:16 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
Eternal Life can be looked at as a quality of life or as a quantity of life (i.e. never ending). Which way did you read it?
When you read it as a quality of life then the word “eternal” refers to the quality of life experienced in heaven that you can now begin to experience on earth. It is John’s equivalent to the Lord’s prayer “…on earth as it is in heaven.” This is what God is gifting us through “his one and only Son”.
But if “perish” and “eternal life” are a matched pair then perish must also be referring to a quality of life. John does not explain it but possibly he does not need to if he is referring to a commonly felt human experience. We can experience dying on the inside when no matter how much we grasp after happiness for ourselves we end up hurt, disappointed with failure, and wounded by others. God does not want this to be our experience of the precious gift of life. So in his great love for us he sent Jesus. Eternal life begins here with him.