Sunday, January 31
Conversion of St. Paul

The story of Jonah is full of surprises, not the least of which is that God has chosen a character like Jonah to be the messenger of new life to the city of Ninevah. He is so reluctant, right from the start. And still God’s patience is more enduring than Jonah’s reluctance or resistance, even rebellion. When you think of this story as one of God’s activity with a reluctant, rebellious follower, then Jonah doesn’t seem quite so surprising.

When has God ever chosen not to call the likes of Jonah? When did God ever choose anyone but people like Adam and Eve and Abraham and Sarah and Amos and Jeremiah and Peter and Paul? It turns out God seems to have a special attraction for folks who would just as soon go the other way when God calls. Perhaps that’s why the good news is so good for you and me – for the Jonah in each of us.

It is indeed good news, gospel, that God’s persistence and steadfastness is so much greater than our willful reluctance. Thanks be to God for continually calling us even when we would rather not listen.

Almighty God, by grace alone you call us and accept us in your service. Strengthen us by your Spirit, and make us worthy of your call, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.

Monday, February 1
Timothy, Titas & Silas – Missionaries

The word obedience comes from a Latin word meaning “to hear or to listen.” So obedience means listening before it means “doing what you’re told” – the listening precedes the doing. This of course is what makes following God so difficult. Most of us would rather act first and ask questions later. We are doers. We even pride ourselves on our capacity to “get ‘er done.”

So, in challenging times like the one we currently inhabit, when action seems called for, it is very difficult to listen, to hear how it is God is calling us to act. We are indeed called to action, but like Jonah we are called to act as God’s agents, not at free agents. Besides, a moment’s listening can save a lot of flailing around that masquerades as action. I don’t know about you, but I can think of more than one instance in my marriage, or in my role as a father when listening a moment longer could have prevented real misunderstanding and no small amount of wasted energy – mine and others. Maybe the familiar slogan could be restated: “Listen before you leap.”

Mercifully, our God continues to speak, to recreate our lives and this whole world, and persistently calls us to lives of careful listening and wise action.

God of grace and glory, we praise you for your servants Timothy, Titus and Silas, who made the good news known. Raise up, we pray, in every country, heralds of the gospel, so that the world may know the immeasurable riches of your love, and be drawn to worship you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. one God, now and forever. Amen.

Tuesday, February 2
Lydia, Dorcas & Phoebe – Witnesses to the faith

Jonah, the reluctant prophet, could never have imagined that the repentance he was called to proclaim would actually come true. Every man, woman and child took up the fast, and wore the sackcloth symbolic of repentance. Every one, great and small, which means people who were important and wealthy, influential and powerful as well as the lowly and needy – those who had everything and those who had nothing – those who knew they needed God and those who were pretty sure they didn’t - they all repented. So, God “changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.” God decided not to punish the people of Ninevah.

The poet Robert Frost said, “After Jonah, you could never trust God not to be merciful again.” That confidence, that assurance, that trust in the reliable mercy of God, is a consistent biblical refrain: God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. No wonder the psalmist sings so longingly, “For God alone I wait in silence; truly my hope is in God.”

Almighty God, you ministered to all who came to you. Look with compassion upon all who have lost health and freedom. Restore to us all the assurance of your unfailing mercy, for your love’s sake. Amen.

Wednesday, February 3
Thomas Aquinas, teacher – 1274

In God is my deliverance and my honor; God is my strong rock and my refuge.
Put your trust in God always, O people, pour out your hearts before the one who is our refuge.
– Psalm 62:7-8

The psalmist lived in a world far removed from ours. Nevertheless, it is remarkable how alive these words remain for us. This is of course a key to why it is that we as Lutherans regard scripture as the Word of God. It is the Word because it is God still speaking, still delivering, still providing refuge even in a world the psalmist could never have imagined: a world grown small with technology at our fingertips, a world now capable of a destructive power inconceivable when the singer first sang those words.

And still, deliverance and refuge are human longings that are not limited to any single moment in time. In every generation there are prisoners who long for freedom from the shackles of ignorance, poverty, fear, oppression and guilt. In every time there are wanderers who long for a place to call home - contemporary “psalmists” who sing of an eternal human restlessness that can only find its end in the God who is the final and best refuge for all.

In you, our Lord, is marvelous and plenteous grace. You are our clothing; for love you wrap us and embrace us. You are our maker, our lover, our keeper. Teach us to believe that by your grace all shall be well. Amen.

Thursday, February 4

Brothers and sisters, the appointed time has grown short;…
For the present form of this world is passing away. -1 Cor. 7:29,31

No kidding! I’m sure St. Paul had no knowledge of the state of early 21st century, American Christianity in general or the state of the former ethnic enclaves of mid-western Lutheranism in particular. Nor did Paul have insider information on the future state of AIG, Wachovia, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae or the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Still, Paul said what he said and meant it, “the present form of this world is passing away.”

It turns out that this pronouncement is both bad news and good news, as God’s Word often is. It is both law and gospel. The bad news is that this form of the world to which we are all quite attached, it is passing away – like all things human, it is dying. The mirror of the law reveals the truth that all things human, including all human institutions, including much of what we call the church, they are all passing away.

At the very same time, in the same words, and in this very death, there is good news. The gospel of God is not bound by dying forms, the body of Christ is not entombed in the “silver casket” of nostalgia, what dies with all human illusion is the illusion itself and what is raised from death is Truth, Way, Life. This is the promise of a God who always brings something from nothing, life from death, hope from despair.

Dare we say with confidence, even hope, “Let the passing away begin.”

Almighty God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Friday, February 5

Jesus came to Galilee…

So, Jesus came to a small out of the way place at a particular moment in human history. Even such a simple statement has gospel written all through it. To say “Jesus came to Galilee…” establishes right from the beginning the enduring direction of God’s activity with all of humanity in every time and in every place.

There is a story that a seminary professor once stood without a single lecture note before a class of budding theologians. The teacher stepped to the board and drew an arrow pointing downward, put down the chalk and said to the class, “And that is all there is for you to know or say about our God. Class dismissed.”

Jesus, God with us, came to Galilee and continues to come to be with us - comes to Calumet and Elo and Cedarville and Minocqua and Bessemer and Washington, DC and Lansing and Madison and Baghdad and Kabul and Darfur. Jesus keeps on coming to Galilee, keeps being born, keeps dying and rising, right into this very moment.

Jesus not only comes proclaiming the good news of God, Jesus’ coming is the good news of God.

Almighty God, you wonderfully created the dignity of human nature and yet more wonderfully restored it. In your mercy, let us share the divine life of the one who came to share our humanity, Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Saturday, February 6

“And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you fish for people.’
And immediately they left their nets and followed him.”

How could they have done that? How could they have immediately, left their nets, their livelihoods, their way of life, to follow this one, this relative stranger?

I’d like to suggest, without taking anything away from sainted Peter, that you, yes you who happens to be sitting in front of your computer reading this little reflection right now, you too have your story of calling and following. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t still be reading these words, never would have wandered to this web page.

Your story may not seem as dramatic as Peter’s, but it is has the advantage of being your unique story. Once upon a time faithful parents or a friend led you to a church where you were baptized – called - just as surely as old Peter. God spoke your name, claimed you, and gave you a noble calling, the same calling Peter has - to fish for people – to speak good news – to reach into the chaotic waters of a scary world and gather into the net of God’s amazing grace all whom you encounter. It may only be a touch on the shoulder of a friend in grief, or a neighbor who needs a lift, or a stranger who needs a cup of cold water, but really, how else do any of us get through this life.

So, let’s not get too seduced by the drama of Peter’s story. We have our story too. It goes something like this: I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength, come to my Lord Jesus Christ or believe in Him. But, the Holy Spirit has called, gathered, enlightened, sanctified and kept me in true faith… just like Peter, just like you.

Almighty God, you have filled all the earth with the light of your incarnate Word. By your grace empower us to reflect your light in all that we do, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with your and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.