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Morning Devotion for the Season after Pentecost
October 17, 2022
Invitatory
Send out your light and your truth, that they may lead me, and bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.
The earth is the Lord’s, for he made it: O come, let us adore him.
Reading - Romans 8:35-39
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all day long;
we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Meditation - Winnie Smith
This familiar passage from Paul’s letter to the Romans is often read in a burial service, which makes sense. It is one of the most powerful, succinct, beautiful passages in all of Scripture, and it assures us of God’s presence even after death. But Paul’s words offer more than comfort at the time of death. They speak as much to the living as to the dead.
Verse 32, just before today’s appointed portion, rhetorically poses the question, “If God is for us, who is against us?” God - who routinely does more than we can ask or imagine - will always be stronger than the challenges of our lives. Hardship, distress, persecution, and all the other difficulties Paul lists are no match for God, and God’s capacity to love us far exceeds the abilities of those difficulties to overwhelm us. As much as I value these words, when it comes to my day-to-day existence, I have a hard time understanding them. Fortunately, I have not suffered a tremendous amount in my life: calamity has passed me by thus far. So when I sat down to write this meditation, I honed in on a word in this passage I hadn’t previously paid much attention to: powers.
“Powers” are unable “to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Powers: political leaders, magazines, celebrities, the beauty industry, clothing retailers, blogs…the list goes on. These are some of the biggest powers in my life and they often reach farther and sound louder than the voice of God does. It takes diligence for me to quiet those powers and listen for God instead. I must work to remember that those powers are fleeting but God is consistent.
Those powers are what pull us away from worship on Sunday morning, what allow us to put ourselves above God. They become idols - they are the things we value most; God fades to the background and we take Him for granted. God will always be there, but the rivalry game only happens once. There’s always next week for church; I need to focus on myself today, to do some self-care. Of course God will always be there, but the minute we let powers take the place of God, we are showing our hands. We’re letting God know where our priorities are (and aren’t!)
This meditation is not meant as a condemnation. I am as guilty as anyone of this misprioritization and of taking God for granted. But that is why Paul’s words are so meaningful to me right now. Nothing - not one thing - can separate us from the love of God. That statement demands gratitude and celebration. We are loved by a God who is capable of anything and everything, and who chooses again and again to care for us and to be in relationship with us. I invite us all to remember that.
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.
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