Today, we look at a Day 2 text from this year’s summer curriculum, “From Generation to Generation.”
Prayer: Timely God, you never fail to bring your promises to fruition for your people. When we feel uncertain and impatient with your timing, remind us the truth of your steadfast course. May we share your far better way in the long arc of your love and life for this world. This we pray through Christ our forerunner and Lord. Amen. Reading: Hebrews 6:10-20 (Click to read text) Stop and GROW: After reading the text, discuss/ponder the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Book of Faith questions, which are part of Camp Mount Luther's GROW Time with campers. QUESTION 1: What scares, confuses, challenges, or doesn’t make sense to me in this text? QUESTION 2: What delights me in this text or is my favorite part of the story? QUESTION 3: What stories or memories does this text stir in me? QUESTION 4: What is God up to in this text? Reflection: I think I would prefer evidence and immediate results. As a product of the digital age, having been instilled with the tools required to mine the nearly infinite well of information that’s accessible in the time it takes to type out a query, I tend to prefer hard data on my own timetable. It’s easier to navigate life when I can pull the information, I need in an instant to serve whatever moment is immediately in front of me. I’m accustomed to having results right at my fingertips. And boy howdy, look out if the internet should ever go down or the service become spotty; the cranky turn I take is enough to make a gremlin fed after midnight look like polite table company. Which is maybe why I feel personally indicted, as if the author of Hebrews is taking me to the mat here. Because where I prefer evidence and immediate results, here the author commends a different set of attitudes. In a scriptural tour de force that accompanies this text, the author lifts up a myriad of spiritual ancestors who “by faith” were found to be righteous in God’s sight. Included in that list is Abraham, who now here is doubly commended for the patience he exhibited in life in the wake of God’s irrevocable promise made to him and Sarah.* Faith and patience, it seems, were enough to bring God’s people to the fruition of righteousness. With Jesus as the forerunner on their behalf, they were brought into the promises of God. And maybe this is the reminder we (read: I) need as well. In a time when we are being called upon to summon more faith to trust that things can change and more patience to see them through, maybe we need the reminder of the ancestors who modeled them well on our behalf. With the legacy they leave, with Jesus as the forerunner on our behalf, we can walk with the faith and patience that God gifts to provide for a world different than the one we see. I suppose that is worth the wait. --Justin Lingenfelter * I think it is fair to contend that Abram’s acquiescence to Sarai’s plan for a child via Hagar would be a model of impatience, but I guess we can stand with the author of Hebrews and give him credit for his late-in-life fatherhood.
0 Comments
Prayer: Dear God, speak openly to us your words of truth. Open our ears to hear your call to serve. Amen.
Reading: Mark 8: 31-38 (Click to read text) Stop and GROW: After reading the text, discuss/ponder the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Book of Faith questions, which are part of Camp Mount Luther's GROW Time with campers. QUESTION 1: What scares, confuses, challenges, or doesn’t make sense to me in this text? QUESTION 2: What delights me in this text or is my favorite part of the story? QUESTION 3: What stories or memories does this text stir in me? QUESTION 4: What is God up to in this text? Reflection: Jesus had something that needed to be said. It was time to talk about what was coming. His death and resurrection. So, He said all this quite openly. (v. 32) Today you may be wishing God would speak openly to you. Loud and clear. Will you then be like Peter scooting aside and questioning the message? Or will you realize even an unexpected or uncomfortable message is what needs to be heard? Most likely the message will be: Love Me. Love others. Doesn’t get any clearer than that. Or harder sometimes. Just remember it doesn’t take strength to love. It only takes a servant’s heart. --Ruth Gates Prayer: Creator and nurturing God, you hold me up when I stumble. You guide me when I wander off course. You call me righteous even though I am unworthy. May I have faith in your promises and trust in your judgment. May I be the servant you see. Amen.
Reading: Romans 4: 13-25 (Click to read text) Stop and GROW: After reading the text, discuss/ponder the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Book of Faith questions, which are part of Camp Mount Luther's GROW Time with campers. QUESTION 1: What scares, confuses, challenges, or doesn’t make sense to me in this text? QUESTION 2: What delights me in this text or is my favorite part of the story? QUESTION 3: What stories or memories does this text stir in me? QUESTION 4: What is God up to in this text? Reflection: Faith. It can be so hard to have faith, keep faith, be faithful. Believing in what seems impossible. Trusting and staying true to an ideal which should not—cannot—be realized… can it? Thank God He has faith in us. Abraham and Sarah were no more or less perfect than many of us. They did not follow every rule. Read their story and you will see two people who make mistakes, interject their human schedules into God’s plans, and stumble often on their way to fulfilling His promises for them. But because they have faith in those promises, He deems them righteous. Such generous judgment of these two can give hope to the rest of us. Are we righteous? I don’t think of myself as particularly virtuous, and certainly not without sin or blame. But Jesus reminds us that with faith the size of a mustard seed, we can move mountains. With God, nothing is impossible. And, as God created all, including me, I’ll try to believe in myself and in His vision. --Heather LeBlanc Prayer: Lord, we praise you, trust in your faithfulness and celebrate your goodness. Make our garden grow. Amen
Reading: Psalm 22: 23-31 (Click to read text) Stop and GROW: After reading the text, discuss/ponder the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Book of Faith questions, which are part of Camp Mount Luther's GROW Time with campers. QUESTION 1: What scares, confuses, challenges, or doesn’t make sense to me in this text? QUESTION 2: What delights me in this text or is my favorite part of the story? QUESTION 3: What stories or memories does this text stir in me? QUESTION 4: What is God up to in this text? Reflection: A friend just moved from a house with yard and garden to an apartment. Now she has an herb garden on her windowsill. Come spring perhaps she’ll grow some tomato plants out on a patio or balcony. We all face inconveniences, adjustments, challenges. Some are a lot more severe than trying to grow herbs. Psalm 22 is titled A Plea for Deliverance from Suffering and Hostility. However, our reading starts at verse 23 after the Psalmist has given details of the suffering and hostility and the plea for deliverance. So, to fill that part in, perhaps think about your own troubles. Take some time. Make a list. The Psalmist went on for over 20 verses. Then, what is your plea? There the Psalmist kept it short. Come. Deliver. Save. Now to the rest of the Psalm from verse 23 to the end; the part we read for today. It begins with the words, You who fear the LORD, praise him! (v. 23) and continues for eight more verses of trust in God’s faithfulness and celebration of God’s goodness. Back to my friend’s garden. A new home brings changes and challenges. The list can be long but what is needed is short. Adjust. Then with joy and hope, celebrate what is and some tasty herbs, too. Make our garden grow. --Alice Yeakel We often reprint prior devotions that now reflect on the coming lectionary texts. This is a reprint from a devotion originally published on February 24, 2015.
Prayer: Dear God, help us to go with the changes that happen when in relationship with you. Amen Reading: Genesis 17: 1-7, 15-16 (Click to read text) Stop and GROW: After reading the text, discuss/ponder the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Book of Faith questions, which are part of Camp Mount Luther's GROW Time with campers. QUESTION 1: What scares, confuses, challenges, or doesn’t make sense to me in this text? QUESTION 2: What delights me in this text or is my favorite part of the story? QUESTION 3: What stories or memories does this text stir in me? QUESTION 4: What is God up to in this text? Reflection: Let me be the first to say, "I don't like change." Many of you are probably agreeing, "Uh-huh." Now that we got that common consensus out of the way, let's also admit that sometimes change can be interesting and exhilarating. Shake things up a bit. Something new instead of the same old same old. Still, any change requires adjustment and that is where the stress lies. So, in our lesson God is establishing his covenant relationship with Abram. No more same old, same old for for 99 year old Abram. And no more same old, same old for his 90 year old wife, Sarai. They don't even to keep their names! Abram becomes Abraham; Sarai becomes Sarah. They will be father and mother to nations; fruitful with even kings coming from them. Canaan will be theirs and God will be their God for generations. Everlasting covenant; huge CHANGE! You have to read verse Genesis 17: 18 to find out Abraham's first response to these upcoming changes and Genesis 18:12 to find out Sarah's. You probably know already but check it out if you don't. Of course, Abraham and Sarah followed in faith as we are to, also. Covenant relationship with God means everything changes. Fortunately, we don't have to go as far as changing our names. What a legal bother that would be! But aside from that, change happens. --Ruth Gates Prayer: Gracious God, you entered a world that seemed to have no room for you, but you built an expansive table from which to share your love. Help us to gather close to the places you set for us, that we may in turn invite the world to witness the love you have in store. Amen.
Reading: Luke 22 (Click to read text) Stop and GROW: After reading the text, discuss/ponder the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Book of Faith questions, which are part of Camp Mount Luther's GROW Time with campers. QUESTION 1: What scares, confuses, challenges, or doesn’t make sense to me in this text? QUESTION 2: What delights me in this text or is my favorite part of the story? QUESTION 3: What stories or memories does this text stir in me? QUESTION 4: What is God up to in this text? Reflection: And Mary gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn (Luke 2:7). It seems strange to begin our Lenten journey with a reminder of the Christmas story, but sometimes you have to remember from whence you came. In this case, though, that origin seems more than a bit . . . out of place. The origin story of Jesus that we receive from Luke’s Gospel reminds us that when God’s presence enters into this world, the world had no room for it. It seems outlandish to us that Jesus’ arrival is marked with displacement by a world that seemed like it couldn’t even accommodate his existence. Which is maybe why Jesus spent so much time ensuring that there was always a place for God’s people. Over and over again Jesus, the fullness of God’s presence, made space for all. For the poor. For the sick. For the possessed. For the disenfranchised. For the oppressed. For the rejected. For the overlooked. And now, here in Luke’s Holy Week text, there was even space at Jesus’ table for his own betrayer. Here, in the midst of the climactic drama of Holy Week, Jesus even makes space at his table for the same Judas who will hand him over to arrest and execution. Here, at the table of God’s outpouring love -- through Jesus’ own death and resurrection -- God’s people find their place, whether they thought they had one or not. So, if you feel as if you don’t belong, as if there couldn’t possibly be a place for you in God’s narrative of redemption and love, know that Jesus has made plenty enough space for you at the table. ~ Justin Lingenfelter Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for the gift of baptism. You wash away our sins and welcome us as beloved children. Let us shout our thanks and share your love with our brothers and sisters, in Christ. Amen.
Reading: Mark 1:8-15 (Click to read text) Stop and GROW: After reading the text, discuss/ponder the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Book of Faith questions, which are part of Camp Mount Luther's GROW Time with campers. QUESTION 1: What scares, confuses, challenges, or doesn’t make sense to me in this text? QUESTION 2: What delights me in this text or is my favorite part of the story? QUESTION 3: What stories or memories does this text stir in me? QUESTION 4: What is God up to in this text? Reflection: Do you remember your baptism? Do you have a record of it, with the date chronicled? Here is a thought: we celebrate Jesus’s birth with Christmas. His death and resurrection in Good Friday and Easter. His baptism is no less an event for celebration, so why should ours be any different? Most of us count our birthdays, and our loved ones celebrate our lives with funeral services when we die. Why not honor the Holy Spirit within you on your baptismal anniversary, as well? Acknowledge the day your discipleship was officially recognized by family, friends, congregation, and Church. If you do not know the exact date, go with that of your confirmation. If you are a godparent, send happy wishes to commemorate the occasion. The kingdom of God is at hand; you are a child of God, too. There is so much to celebrate in that relationship. Join Jesus in proclaiming the good news and make this and your own baptismal anniversary days of remembrance and rejoicing. --Heather LeBlanc Editor’s Note from Chad Hershberger: Unbeknownst to Heather when she wrote this, today is my baptismal day. My parents always celebrated this day with me every year and today I’ll be thinking about God’s promises to us through this sacrament. Thanks, Heather! We often reprint prior devotions that now reflect on the coming lectionary texts. This is a reprint from a devotion originally published on January 12, 2018.
Prayer: Gracious God, lead us this day to see the ways that you continue to build your kingdom with your church leading the way. Help us to see in that grand design our place, our path, our part. In the name of the One who was drowned on the cross by the overwhelming wave of evil, sin, and death, but who was found to be alive and living forever. Amen. Reading: I Peter 3: 18-22 (Click to read text) Stop and GROW: After reading the text, discuss/ponder the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Book of Faith questions, which are part of Camp Mount Luther's GROW Time with campers. QUESTION 1: What scares, confuses, challenges, or doesn’t make sense to me in this text? QUESTION 2: What delights me in this text or is my favorite part of the story? QUESTION 3: What stories or memories does this text stir in me? QUESTION 4: What is God up to in this text? Reflection: I have been in a few churches in my life. Some of them, like my current church are built in the “Upper Room” style with the worship space on the upper floor. A few of them were built in the round or semi-round so that the people inside can see each other gathered around the Table and Font. Another set were built in the “cathedral” style with a long center aisle and side aisles under stone arches. A few of them were built in the symbolic style where you should notice that the outside looks like a boat and the inside has visible beams and boards like the inside of a boat. It is the reverse image when you are inside, with the boat above you, but if you crane your neck back and turn your heart and mind towards heaven then the image of the church containing you and carrying is not too hard to see. Perhaps the phrase, “we are all in the same boat” is one that the church as a whole should more whole-heartedly learn and say with each other. Our baptism was never meant to be seen as an individual spiritual moment. Together, we are always together. Captain, my Captain, Christ Jesus—it is you we will follow. Lead us, save us, make us clean in your goodness. Help us to work together. Build us up in your image. Make us strong to serve and save in your name. Now that I think about it, I have never seen a baptismal font that is shaped like Noah’s Ark! Perhaps more should be. --Andrew Fitch Prayer: To you, O Lord, we lift our prayers. Guide us as we trust your path for us. Thank you for your steadfast love and faithfulness. May we find our joy in you. Amen
Reading: Psalm 25: 1-10 (Click to read text) Stop and GROW: After reading the text, discuss/ponder the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Book of Faith questions, which are part of Camp Mount Luther's GROW Time with campers. QUESTION 1: What scares, confuses, challenges, or doesn’t make sense to me in this text? QUESTION 2: What delights me in this text or is my favorite part of the story? QUESTION 3: What stories or memories does this text stir in me? QUESTION 4: What is God up to in this text? Reflection: I live in a town with miles and miles of hiking trails that weave through hills, neighborhoods, wetlands, wooded areas, and fields. One of my favorite sections starts at the bottom of a big hill. You can take one trail pretty much straight up or the other that switchbacks to the top. There you are rewarded with a beautiful view. Continuing on, the trail leads through a forest, over a creek, past a pond, along the side of a field that often has horses and then to my favorite part – the Peaceful Pines. At least, that’s what I call them. It is the furthest out point of this particular trail but well worth the long hike for the moments in the shelter of that grove of tall pines that seem to whisper in the wind overhead. Psalm 25 talks of the paths of our lives. Make me known to your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his decrees. (v. 4, 10) I think about that as I choose which uphill trail to take – head on or the long way. I think about that as I pass through and by all the different sights and scenes along the way. But mostly I find myself praying in the pines. Quieting my heart to hear God in the stillness of my heart. I find myself smiling. What part of following God’s path gives you the most joy? --Ruth Gates Prayer: Abba, your promises are true, your mercy is great, and your love is abounding. Let us trust in your word and your ways, always and forever. Amen.
Reading: Genesis 9:8-17 (Click to read text) Stop and GROW: After reading the text, discuss/ponder the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Book of Faith questions, which are part of Camp Mount Luther's GROW Time with campers. QUESTION 1: What scares, confuses, challenges, or doesn’t make sense to me in this text? QUESTION 2: What delights me in this text or is my favorite part of the story? QUESTION 3: What stories or memories does this text stir in me? QUESTION 4: What is God up to in this text? Reflection: Have you ever wondered at the number of “rainbows” to be seen? There are the beautiful arches coloring the sky after a rain shower, to be sure. But that pretty spectrum plays across the soap bubbles in my dish sink, on the roadway in puddles, refracted from mirrors, and across my carpet through crystals I have hung in my window. This symbol of God’s promise abounds, just as his love abounds. God did not promise that life would be without its storms, but he vowed to never again destroy life on earth as punishment for our sin. Generations later, God washed away all sin not with flood or fire but with the loving sacrifice of His only son. The rainbow remains, a thing of beauty and encouragement. Thanks be to God! --Heather LeBlanc Today, we look at a Day 2 text from this year’s summer curriculum, “From Generation to Generation.”
Prayer: Faithful God, blessed are those who put their trust in you. When we take courses that prefer to put matters into our own hands, remind us that only in you do we find the waters of relief amid life’s heat and drought. May we boldly place our trust in you, knowing that you call your people blessed and place them along the stream of life. This we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen. Reading: Jeremiah 17:5-8 (Click to read text) Stop and GROW: After reading the text, discuss/ponder the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Book of Faith questions, which are part of Camp Mount Luther's GROW Time with campers. QUESTION 1: What scares, confuses, challenges, or doesn’t make sense to me in this text? QUESTION 2: What delights me in this text or is my favorite part of the story? QUESTION 3: What stories or memories does this text stir in me? QUESTION 4: What is God up to in this text? Reflection: There was this commercial a few years back that featured a bunch of CGI hamsters rapping Black Sheep’s “The Choice is Yours” in order to sell the 2010 Kia Soul.* I have no idea whatsoever if the commercial helped drive sales for the vehicle itself, but I’ll be darned if I don’t get that track stuck in my head on at least a weekly basis. In the commercial, the refrain of “you can go with this or you can go with that” repeatedly shows how the Kia Soul (this) is better than driving, say, an actual toaster or cardboard box (that). In my head, played ad nauseum, the refrain just spirals any time I have to make some type of binary decision. So when I read the words of the prophet Jeremiah here, it’s no surprise that Black Sheep starts playing in my head as hamsters drive around in neon green vehicles. Blessed or cursed; you can go with this or you can go with that (“the choice is yours!”). On face value, it seems like a choice that I wouldn’t need a group of animated rapping hamsters to help me make. Obviously, I’d want to fall into the group that gets labelled as “blessed are those.” It seems far more desirable to be planted like a tree by water than like a shrub in the desert -- the fate reserved for those who fall under the fate of “cursed are those.” But when push comes to shove, it seems so much easier to go with that -- trusting in mere mortals and making mere flesh the strength -- than to go with this -- trusting in the Lord. When push comes to shove, I know well the temptation to take matters into my own hands, rather than wait for the well-wrought righteousness that comes from God. Yet when I do, it’s only to quickly discover that such a grounding, like a shrub in the desert, provides no relief; before long I’m parched again, having to once again figure out whether to go with this or go with that. If only I’d gone with this -- the placement of trust in the Lord -- from get-go; then I might not be so fearful in the heat or anxious when the next drought of life comes. So you can go with this or you can go with that. But next time, I think I’ll go with this -- God’s nourishing waters of trust-- “cuz this is where it’s at.” -- Justin Lingenfelter * If you’re convinced that this episode must surely only live in my head as a fever dream, see for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4GBJhzfqcU Prayer: May we see you in new ways, whether we are terrified or transformed. Amen.
Reading: Mark 9: 2-9 (Click to read text) Stop and GROW: After reading the text, discuss/ponder the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Book of Faith questions, which are part of Camp Mount Luther's GROW Time with campers. QUESTION 1: What scares, confuses, challenges, or doesn’t make sense to me in this text? QUESTION 2: What delights me in this text or is my favorite part of the story? QUESTION 3: What stories or memories does this text stir in me? QUESTION 4: What is God up to in this text? Reflection: Every year this coming Sunday we celebrate Camp Mount Luther Sunday. Our synod has designated this as a day to lift up our work in outdoor ministries. When we started this practice, we did it in January but later moved it to Transfiguration Sunday. Why? Because the story of Jesus taking his disciples up a mountain to experience him in a new way is exactly what we hope happens at camp. I’ve always felt this was one of the many stories of outdoor ministries in the Bible. When I read this passage this year, I noticed something I didn’t pay attention to before now. Mark mentions that Peter did not know what to say because they were terrified. I always pictured it as a good experience but maybe the disciples were having lots of emotions that day. This week think about where you have had mountaintop experiences. Where have you seen Jesus is new and exciting ways? How were you transformed by that experience? --Chad Hershberger Prayer: Dear God, thank you for shining your light in our hearts. May we shine your light out into the world. Amen
Reading: 2 Corinthians 4: 3-6 (Click to read text) Stop and GROW: After reading the text, discuss/ponder the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Book of Faith questions, which are part of Camp Mount Luther's GROW Time with campers. QUESTION 1: What scares, confuses, challenges, or doesn’t make sense to me in this text? QUESTION 2: What delights me in this text or is my favorite part of the story? QUESTION 3: What stories or memories does this text stir in me? QUESTION 4: What is God up to in this text? Reflection: There are so many fun verses to the Sunday School song, “This Little Light of Mine”. It is also a hymn in the Lutheran Book of Worship using a tune that may or may not be the one most familiar to you. And fewer verses. Namely missing the ones about “Hide it under a bushel? No!” and “Won’t let Satan (whhfff-blow) it out!” The one in the hymnal has a verse that goes, “Jesus gave it to me, I’m gonna let it shine!” Our three verses from 2 Corinthians 4 make that point. That light I’m shining? Jesus gave it to me. Yes, we are to let our lights shine. Don’t hide them. Don’t let anything snuff them out. Also, do know that it isn’t really you shining. Jesus gave it to you. The light came from God and it goes out with love. When a day seem dark or you don’t feel rather dull, know you can still shine with love. Let your light shine. --Ruth Gates Prayer: Good and gracious God, lead us to ways we can spread your Good News. Open our eyes to the good news around us. Help us to be the good news we hope to see. Amen
Reading: Psalm 59: 1-6 (Click to read text) Stop and GROW: After reading the text, discuss/ponder the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Book of Faith questions, which are part of Camp Mount Luther's GROW Time with campers. QUESTION 1: What scares, confuses, challenges, or doesn’t make sense to me in this text? QUESTION 2: What delights me in this text or is my favorite part of the story? QUESTION 3: What stories or memories does this text stir in me? QUESTION 4: What is God up to in this text? Reflection: January and February are harsh months …. especially this year. Threats of snow and sleet…and then it does not. Yet the days are still gray and dreary. Life’s challenges seem larger, heavier than normal. In fact, that’s been the feeling for more than one season. So we cry out to God and ask ”Where are You? Why aren’t You helping us?” But, in turn God could ask “What are we doing to help ourselves and help each other?!? Sometimes I wish for a “Good News” channel because there is proof of people extending a helping hand and compassion. We can all look…and listen…and become aware of opportunities to make life better and safer. Let God lead you. --Alice Yeakel We often reprint prior devotions that now reflect on the coming lectionary texts. This is a reprint from a devotion originally published on February 10, 2015.
Prayer: Dear God, help us to journey together faithfully with those around us through whatever is to come. Amen. Reading: 2 Kings 2: 1-12 (Click to read text) Stop and GROW: After reading the text, discuss/ponder the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Book of Faith questions, which are part of Camp Mount Luther's GROW Time with campers. QUESTION 1: What scares, confuses, challenges, or doesn’t make sense to me in this text? QUESTION 2: What delights me in this text or is my favorite part of the story? QUESTION 3: What stories or memories does this text stir in me? QUESTION 4: What is God up to in this text? Reflection: One of my favorite lines in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy comes near the end of the first book when the Fellowship is breaking up. Frodo determines he must continue on his journey alone but Sam, his faithful companion, absolutely will not leave his side. Frodo says, “I am going to Mordor (alone).” and Sam responds, “Of course you are. And I’m coming with you.” The text today about Elijah and Elisha reminds me of that scene. The Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind so Elijah tells Elisha to stay behind while he goes to Bethel. Elisha would hear none of it responding, “I will not leave you.” Once they get to Bethel, the prophets there tell Elisha the Lord is going to take his master away that day. Again, Elisha brushes it off with a, “Yes, I know, but do not speak of it.” Elijah again tells Elisha to stay put while he goes on to Jericho but Elisha again responds, “I will not leave you.” The prophets in Jericho tell Elisha the same thing and Elisha responds the same way, “Yes, I know, but do not speak of it.” Next stop, Jordan and, as before, Elisha tags along despite Elijah’s urging. Why? Elisha is determined to stay by his master and will not be deterred. Still, Elijah is about to ascend to heaven so he asks Elisha what he can do for Elisha before leaving. “Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit,” was Elisha’s request and it was granted. We are on this journey of life faithfully together. With whom would you have this conversation? (Name): “I am going to (through) __________ alone.” You: “Of course you are. And I’m coming with you.” --Ruth Gates Today, we look at a Day 2 text from this year’s summer curriculum, “From Generation to Generation.”
Prayer: Dear God, we acknowledge that your promises are ones we can rely on. Help us live in the good of those promises. Amen. Reading: Genesis 45:1-15; 50:19-20 (Click to read text) Stop and GROW: After reading the text, discuss/ponder the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Book of Faith questions, which are part of Camp Mount Luther's GROW Time with campers. QUESTION 1: What scares, confuses, challenges, or doesn’t make sense to me in this text? QUESTION 2: What delights me in this text or is my favorite part of the story? QUESTION 3: What stories or memories does this text stir in me? QUESTION 4: What is God up to in this text? Reflection: Genesis 45–50 tells the end of the epic story of Joseph: best known for his crazy dreams, colorful coat, and rise to power in Egypt after being sold as a slave and presumed dead by his brothers. Despite sibling rivalry, jealousy, and harmful shenanigans, God made everything good. Often when we face adversity, that’s when we see God the God. God never leaves us or forsakes us. As we look at this story with campers this summer, we will explore how God’s promises are promises forever. Even when people hurt or confuse us, or we are afraid, sad, or lonely, God’s promises are the real deal, and we can rely on God. How do you rely on God? --Chad Hershberger Prayer: Focus our minds on you, God, and help us to spend time each day reflecting on your Word and praying. Amen.
Reading: Mark 1: 29-39 (Click to read text) Stop and GROW: After reading the text, discuss/ponder the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Book of Faith questions, which are part of Camp Mount Luther's GROW Time with campers. QUESTION 1: What scares, confuses, challenges, or doesn’t make sense to me in this text? QUESTION 2: What delights me in this text or is my favorite part of the story? QUESTION 3: What stories or memories does this text stir in me? QUESTION 4: What is God up to in this text? Reflection: Jesus is busy at work in this passage, healing the sick, spreading the good news of God. But did you notice what we did in verse 35? “In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.” He took time out of his busy schedule to spent time by himself, with God. What do you do to reground yourself? Do you have time each day to go away by yourself and pray? It has been my practice for years to ride my exercise bike in the morning and read my devotional books and spent time with God. It helps me start my day off right. I miss it when I don’t get the chance to do that. Hopefully, you have time to spend with God each day. If not, what’s stopping you? --Chad Hershberger Prayer: Dear God, free us to serve our neighbor with the good news of your love for us and for all. Amen
Reading: 1 Corinthians 9: 16-23 (Click to read text) Stop and GROW: After reading the text, discuss/ponder the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Book of Faith questions, which are part of Camp Mount Luther's GROW Time with campers. QUESTION 1: What scares, confuses, challenges, or doesn’t make sense to me in this text? QUESTION 2: What delights me in this text or is my favorite part of the story? QUESTION 3: What stories or memories does this text stir in me? QUESTION 4: What is God up to in this text? Reflection: How can a person be free and a servant at the same time? And why would a person give an apparent contradiction as the way to live as a Christian? Because it’s Paul. That’s Paul. Head-scratching Paul confusing us all. Free. Have you ever known someone who was able to get along with everyone? Someone who, no matter who they were with, always seemed comfortable – listening, sharing and caring. They simply seem to be free in their hearts. Perhaps that is a bit of what Paul is explaining. We are to be free in our hearts. Listening, sharing and caring. Servant. By being free in our hearts, we then serve whoever we are with. Listening, sharing and caring. For the sake of the gospel; the good news of God’s love for everyone. Feel free to be a servant. --Ruth Gates We often reprint prior devotions that now reflect on the coming lectionary texts. This is a reprint from a devotion originally published on February 5, 2015.
Prayer: Take care of us, God, as you take care of the stars in the sky. Reading: Psalm 147: 1-11, 20c (Click to read text) Stop and GROW: After reading the text, discuss/ponder the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Book of Faith questions, which are part of Camp Mount Luther's GROW Time with campers. QUESTION 1: What scares, confuses, challenges, or doesn’t make sense to me in this text? QUESTION 2: What delights me in this text or is my favorite part of the story? QUESTION 3: What stories or memories does this text stir in me? QUESTION 4: What is God up to in this text? Reflection: Have you ever heard the commercials for the “Star Registry?” It’s a place that you can send money to and have a star named after you or someone you want to honor. It was on the radio a lot when I was younger, and I always thought it might be neat to do it. In our passage today, David reminds me that it is not really our place to name stars. He writes, “God determines the number of the stars; God gives to all of them their names.” This verse jumped out at me when I read this passage because this summer, we are studying Abraham as part of our curriculum. As part of that story, God tells Abraham that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the sky—stars that God names and cares for as part of God’s kingdom. –Chad Hershberger Prayer: Lord, as we wander in your wilderness, help us to appreciate your creation. Help us see you in nature and appreciate all that you have created. Amen.
Reading: Isaiah 40: 21-31 (Click to read text) Stop and GROW: After reading the text, discuss/ponder the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Book of Faith questions, which are part of Camp Mount Luther's GROW Time with campers. QUESTION 1: What scares, confuses, challenges, or doesn’t make sense to me in this text? QUESTION 2: What delights me in this text or is my favorite part of the story? QUESTION 3: What stories or memories does this text stir in me? QUESTION 4: What is God up to in this text? Reflection: As I read this passage, I am reminded of the beauty of creation and how God made it. Instead of waxing poetic about it, today, get outside and enjoy it. Look what God has made! --Chad Hershberger |
Authors
Anyone is welcome to contribute! If you'd like to write for us, please e-mail [email protected] Email
Get our daily devotions delivered to your e-mail box each day by signing up below:
Archives
May 2022
Subscribe |