July 12 & 13

Nehemiah 9,10 Psalm 78:38-72

I am assuming that most of the people who are reading this are Presbyterians, since this blog is hosted by First Presbyterian Church in Williamsburg, Iowa. If you are reading this and you are not a Presbyterian, please forgive a little inside discussion, but perhaps you will be able to equate this to practices in your own church.

Can you name the different parts of the celebration of the Lord's Supper, what most Presbyterians would refer to as communion? Did you even realize that there are various parts? Is there one segment of the service (even if you did not realize that it can be divided into various parts) that you sometimes thinks goes on too long or during which your mind wanders a little bit? If so, that is probably what is called the "Great Prayer of Thanksgiving." This is the prayer that is said after the invitation to the table. The pastor has already kind of laid out for you what this is about and who is invited to come (something like "Jesus invites all those who trust him to share in this meal which he has prepared.") Then there is a prayer. Sometimes congregations are asked to make responses--sometimes these responses are even sung--and the prayer continues. Often it ends with the Lord's Prayer.

Have you listened carefully to that prayer? It is almost exactly what Ezra the priest is praying in this ninth chapter of Nehemiah. It is a reminder of where they have been as a people of Godand of how God has been with them all along the way and has saved them over and over again. There is even a verse that might be pretty familiar to you. It is part of 9:17 (this is from the NRSV) "But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. . ." That is something we can build our lives on. The Psalm for today is the same kind of great prayer of thanksgiving.

If you were to write a great prayer of thanksgiving for your own life, what would it be like? How would you trace the times in which you have felt the power of God moving in your life? How have you felt God's forgiveness along the way? If you are journaling while you are reading through the Bible, that might be something good to include in your journal for today.

July 13

Nehemiah 11 and 12; Luke 9

Really, writer of Nehemiah? More lists? Somehow this must have been very important for the people who first wrote these words and read them. It might be kind of like reading through the history of your town or county and looking for names of your ancestors. Maybe that kept the first readers going. We may have ancestors among these lists, but I could not really identify them for myself, so let's look at Luke.

This chapter is the heart of Luke's gospel. Some scholars, you know, say that the gospel stories are really just the story of Jesus' death and resurrection with a long introduction. This is the heart of that introduction for Luke. It is in this chapter where it becomes clear who Jesus is, what is relationship to the Old Testament is, and where it will end. Just like our own lives, though, the people who were actually living through this with Jesus did not perceive the import of these events until they could look back at them and understand their meaning a little more clearly.

Look at all that happens here. The first church--the twelve--are sent out to do the work of God in Jesus Christ. That is exactly what we are still to be doing. How are you casting out what we might call "demons" in the 21st century? How are you helping to cure diseases? How are you proclaiming the gospel in a way that changes people's lives? Those are all acts of mercy that are better done when we gather together in congregations to carry them out, so that when we get discouraged and need to "shake the dust off our feet" that we can continue on in the work we have been called to do.

Herod then sets up the rest of the chapter. "Who is this guy." Luke provides the answer. Jesus is the one who feeds us as we need to be fed even when we cannot see how there is any hope of food. Jesus is the long-awaited savior. Jesus is the one who will give his own life and be raised from the dead so that we might know that God's power triumphs over every power in this world and beyond. Jesus is the one who continues the line of all those who have spoken to us in God's name and has a unique role in that line. Jesus is the one who heals a little boy who is suffering and he is, ultimately, the one who demands much of his followers.

Read this chapter aloud as if you were reading this as a story to a child. What part of the chapter strikes you as being most meaningful for you life today? What might you do to respond to this Savior who calls us to follow him?