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Morning Devotion for the Season after Pentecost

June 30, 2023

Invitatory

The hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

Reading - Ezekiel 2:1-7

He said to me: O mortal, stand up on your feet, and I will speak with you. And when he spoke to me, a spirit entered into me and set me on my feet; and I heard him speaking to me. He said to me, Mortal, I am sending you to the people of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have transgressed against me to this very day. The descendants are impudent and stubborn. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, “Thus says the Lord God.” Whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house), they shall know that there has been a prophet among them. And you, O mortal, do not be afraid of them, and do not be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns surround you and you live among scorpions; do not be afraid of their words, and do not be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house. You shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or refuse to hear; for they are a rebellious house.

Meditation - Winnie Smith

Rebecca Northington and I talk a lot with one another and to the RYG kids about the counter-cultural nature of Christianity. This may sound funny - how can we be counter-cultural when we live in a “Christian nation?” When roughly two-thirds of Americans identify as Christian? What does “counter-cultural” even mean?

Yesterday was the feast day for Saints Peter and Paul. The day commemorates when, in the year 258, the remains of these two apostles were moved to prevent them from falling into the hands of persecutors under Roman Emperor Valerian. Almost none of the apostles’ deaths are recorded in Scripture, but Peter’s and Paul’s were anticipated from an early date. These men are honored for their proclamation of their faith, their work, their suffering, and their preaching and teaching of the Christian faith when Judaism and Paganism were far more popular. They worked to spread their religion in a world that was not completely open to it. Faithful servants of Christ until their deaths, we recognize Peter and Paul as martyrs and celebrate them.

Saints are all around us, though few are recognized as these early apostles. Just pick up your hymnal and look at number 293:

“I sing a song of the saints of God, patient and brave and true, who toiled and fought and lived and died for the Lord they loved and knew…

They lived not only in ages past, there are hundreds of thousands still, the world is bright with the joyous saints who love to do Jesus’ will.”

While this hymn can sound childish and a little silly, it’s true. Saints are not only the very few that we read about in history books or church publications. We are all capable of serving God in profound ways. And often, serving God means going against what is popular and most accepted.

In this reading from Ezekiel, appointed for the Feast of Peter and Paul, the writer describes his commissioning from God, in which the Spirit enters him and God tells him to go and teach: “though briers and thorns surround you and you live among scorpions; do not be afraid of their words, and do not be dismayed at their looks…you shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or refuse to hear; for they are a rebellious house.” This is what it means to be counter-cultural. It means carrying the message of God in Jesus Christ to a world that is hostile towards it. It means insisting on seeing God at the center of the world, rather than ourselves. For our youth (and everyone, really), it might be as simple as making this Redeemer community a place where they can come and be themselves - where they don’t need to measure up or prove their worth and where each one of them is accepted and loved. We are all capable of and called to this kind of living. Let us see Peter, Paul, and all the saints as models for how we can, together, transform the world.

The Lord’s Prayer:

Our Father, who art in heaven,

    hallowed be thy Name,

    thy kingdom come,

    thy will be done,

        on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

    as we forgive those

        who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

    but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom,

    and the power, and the glory,

    for ever and ever. Amen.