The United Methodist Church of Swartz Creek

Saturday and Sunday, September 4 & 5, 2010-Daniel 2:17-30

   Key Verse:  “Blessed be the name of God from age to age, for wisdom and power are his.” Daniel 2:20

   Our scripture selection for today has a very special place in my heart.  It is the text to my first published composition, “Prayer of Daniel”.  I remember studying the text and then trying to echo the meaning of the words in the music.  When the text read “He changes times and seasons,” I changed the time signature in every measure, from four counts per measure to three, to two and back again.  When the text read “He reveals deep and hidden things,” I made sure that the word “deep” was one of the lowest notes in that part of the melody and sung first by the bass part only.  Deep indeed!  And when the text read “He knows what is in the darkness,” I painted with dark, minor chords to contrast with the bright major chords on “Light dwells with him.”  In the back of my mind I could see the night-lights that my children wanted in their rooms, because, of course, they did not know what was in the darkness and that made things scary.
   The story of Daniel has always been a favorite of mine.  I especially like this episode in which King Nebuchadnezzar demanded an interpretation of his disturbing dream.  When the royal magicians could not tell him the dream, he threatened them with execution.  What was Daniel’s first response to the threat?  He and his friends had a prayer meeting.  And when the dream and its interpretation was revealed, they had another prayer meeting, recorded for us in today’s reading.  Only then did Daniel take his message to the king.  And Daniel was diligent about giving the God of his Hebrew ancestors all the credit.  In verses 27,  28a and 30 Daniel says, “No wise men, enchanters, magicians, or diviners can show to the king the mystery that the king is asking, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has disclosed to King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen at the end of days. . . . But as for me, this mystery has not been revealed to me because of any wisdom that I have more than any other living being, but in order that the interpretation may be known to the king and that you may understand the thoughts of your mind.”
   What an admirable combination of faith, humility, obedience and courage.  Oh, that we would all “Dare to Be a Daniel”!
       
Richard Moreland

Friday, September 3, 2010-Isaiah 53:1-12

   Key Verse:  “But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5
 
   If you’ve been following the devotions on this web site all week, you may be saying to yourself, “I think I’ve heard that last phrase somewhere before.”  Well, you’re right.  The same idea is expressed in I Peter 2:24.  In fact, Peter may be intentionally quoting Isaiah to give weight to the point he is making.  “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.”  This theme, called “Substitutionary Atonement” by theologians, runs throughout the Bible.
   But why do we need a substitute to suffer in our place?  Couldn’t God just say “I forgive you” and let it go at that?  Isn’t God omni-whadayacallit?  Omnipotent.  All powerful.  God can do anything God chooses to do.”  But if God chose to forgive unpunished sins, then God would no longer be just.
   Think of it this way.  If I deliberately injure you, break your arm, say, you need for justice to be done.  You shouldn’t have to bear the expense of medical care for something that was done to you maliciously and you should be compensated for the pain I have caused you.  If the case goes to court can the judge say, “Rich, I forgive you for breaking this person’s arm; you’re free to go?”  The judge is not the injured party.  What right does he have to forgive me for injuring you?  That may be mercy, but that can never claim to be justice. 
   God’s perfection includes both mercy and justice.  But that means for every act of mercy, there must be a corresponding act of justice.  You still have a painful, debilitating injury that must be paid for.  If the judge chooses to be merciful to me, then someone else, not you, has to pay for it.  In the Kingdom of God that “someone else” is Jesus Christ.
   Thank you, Jesus, for making it possible for God to be merciful to me and, at the same time, just to those I have offended.  What a miracle!
    
Richard Moreland

Thursday, September 2, 2010-Jeremiah 20:7-13

   Key Verse:  “The Lord is with me as a mighty, awesome one.” Jeremiah 20:11 (NKJV)
 
   Our reading for today expresses Jeremiah’s inner conflict.  God has overpowered him and entrusted him with a message, but the message brings the prophet into conflict with the society and culture to which he has been sent.  He would stifle the offending message if he could, but when he does, his bones feel like they are spontaneously combusting and he can’t hold it in.  This same God who has exposed Jeremiah to such scorn and derision is also the prophet’s powerful defender and brings retribution upon those who mock and reject the message.  It is hard to tell from this passage whether Jeremiah views God’s power as working for him or against him!
   Whether directed at us or on our behalf, God’s power is, indeed, awesome.  The Psalms frequently celebrate this power at work parting the Red Sea and delivering the Israelites from slavery.  Other passages relate God’s power acting in judgment through the flood, the fall of Jericho, or the victory of the Hebrews in battle after battle.  It seems that humanity has constructed so many strongholds of evil that God’s power is shown more often tearing down evil than building up good.
   But we forget the mighty “building up” that God accomplished even before human beings came on the scene.  Imagine the power of Yahweh’s  arm as God flung billions of stars, our own sun among them, against the blackness of nothing with such force that the universe is still expanding today!  There was enough “building up” in that one act to balance all the “tearing down” that has been necessary in the eons since.
   As we discussed yesterday, we cannot escape from the presence of God and we cannot resist God’s power.  It remains for us to surrender ourselves as channels through which that power can flow unhindered.  If we are with God in obedience, then we can truly say “The Lord is with me as a mighty, awesome one.”
         
Richard Moreland

Wednesday, September 1, 2010-Ephesians 4:2-6
  
   Key Verse:  “One God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.” Ephesians 4:6
  
   “If God is taking care of me here at home, how can he be taking care of Daddy in Afghanistan?  I think Daddy needs God more than I do.” 
   That would be a tough choice if we really had to make it.  But, thank God, we don’t have to choose who gets God’s care because God is omnipresent–present everywhere at once.  God is not limited by the restraints of physical matter.  As our key verse tells us, God is “above all and through all and in all.”  “Above all”–superior in power, authority and wisdom.  “Through all”–through all time and all circumstances, working through all that surrounds us for our good and filling us thoroughly with the Holy Spirit so that we may be agents of good to others.  “In all”–in us to guide, prompt and comfort; in all that surrounds us to provide, protect and please our senses with beauty and joy.
   Omnipresence is only one of God’s “omni-” characteristics.  God is also omniscient and omnipotent–all knowing and all powerful.  And the amazing thing is that this all-knowing, all-powerful and everywhere-present God wants to have a relationship with you!  Will you accept the invitation to “be all that you can be” with the help of our omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent Father?    
  
Richard Moreland

Tuesday, August 31, 2010-I Peter 3:13-18a

   Key Verse:  “For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God.” I Peter 3:18

   I hate cleaning the bathtub.  Not because it’s such a disgusting job or because it requires so much effort, but because it must be done over and over and over and . . .  Now when I write a piece of music or post one of these devotions on line, it stays written or posted or whatever.  When it’s done, it’s done! 
   I imagine that God had a little of the same feeling when, year after year, sacrifice after sacrifice, the Hebrews needed their sins forgiven and their relationship with God restored.  So God put into motion the Once For All plan: one sacrifice that would cover all the sins ever committed, past, present and future.  But where was there a sacrificial victim that could balance this overwhelming weight of all human sin?  The bulls and lambs that were sacrificed on the altar of the Wilderness Tabernacle or Solomon’s Temple couldn’t do it.  They were just a faint shadow of that mighty sacrifice yet to come.  No human could be the payment for the rest of humanity’s sin.  It was more than any one person could do to bear the consequences of his or her own sins. 
   The solution was totally unexpected and, at the same time, the only logical cure for human sin: God would become the sacrificial victim!  The volume of all the sins ever committed was greater than anything else in the created universe.  But great as it was, God’s limitless love was greater still.  If God, the Righteous Judge, undertook to pay the penalty for our sin, once for all, there was no adversary who could accuse God of being unjust.
   And that is just what God did.  God became a human, Jesus Christ, “born of a woman, born under the law.” (Galatians 4:4b)  He was “in every respect . . . tested as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15b)  “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” (I Peter 2:24) 
   Healed, once for all, by God’s own wounds.  When it’s done, it’s done!
 
Richard Moreland

Monday, August 30, 2010-Galatians 3:27-29

   Key Verse:  “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.” Galatians 3:29

   Why would I want to be an heir of Abraham?  Even though he was considered a wealthy man in his generation, his wealth consisted almost entirely of flocks and herds.  The only real estate he owned was a cemetery plot near Mamre where he was buried alongside his wife, Sarah, and a promise from God that his descendents would own the whole land where he was now an alien.  So what do I stand to inherit?  A well-traveled tent?  A few sheep and goats?  Some camels, perhaps?  (If the local ordinances won’t let Pastor Landis raise a few chickens at his house, they would probably take a really dim view of sheep grazing in my back yard!)
   So what good is it to be an heir of Abraham?  Once again we see the vast difference between material wealth and spiritual wealth in God’s economy.  Abraham might well have sung, “Don’t think me poor or deserted or lonely.  I’m not discouraged; I’m heaven bound,” because Abraham was wealthy in the Word of the Lord.  The story of Abraham takes up chapters 12-25 of Genesis and half of them are devoted to recording conversations he had with God.  And the other half?  Well, when Abraham wasn’t spending the lion’s share of his time talking to God, he was getting himself into trouble!  Check it out for yourself.  It’s a good read.
   As spiritual heirs of Abraham, we inherit his relationship with God.  So now God may say of us, as God said of Abraham, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do . .?  No, for I have chosen him, that he may charge his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice.” (Genesis 18:17 and 19) 
   Don’t forget: there’s no estate tax on righteousness and justice.
 
Richard Moreland