Prayer: Lord, open our eyes to see, our ears to hear, and our hearts to feel your call. Amen.
Reading: Acts 1:15-17, 21-26 (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 some days when I question our tradition and practices of the church. I love singing hymns next to my father who cranks the base line from memory. I take meaning in gathering together as the body of Christ around the altar table, the kitchen table, and even table at the bar. But I get bogged down in the “have to” of our church operation. And when I read this section of the first chapter of Acts, I wish to select our leaders the same way they did when selecting a new twelfth apostle. Imagine this Acts method for selecting council members. I know in congregations, if we have three council seats to fill, then we get three people whom we have to nag, beg, promise, arm twist, or anything else we can think of to get them to agree. Perhaps we should do what the apostles did, draw up the qualifications (confirmed, communing, contributing member of the church, yes that would mean most everyone!), then put all those names in a hat, then pray over the choice that God’s will would be done, then pick three names out of the hat, and there are your three new council members! I don’t think the process would be accepted in our churches but it does bring up an interesting question: Are we ready and willing to serve God when God needs us and not when we think we are ready? The church has work to do to help God bring about the Kingdom. What more is God calling you to do? –Peter Horn, Camp Mount Luther Board Member & Camp Pastor
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
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 |