Devotional 12-18-22

Read Matthew 1:18-25

Does this passage speak to you? For me it’s one of the most beautiful New Testament examples of the interaction between God and humankind. On the one hand, we have dreams, angels, and the Holy Spirit - ways in which God is at work in this story. On the other hand, we have a good man, someone who is well-versed in both the law and prophets. Joseph is already putting himself in the right frame of mind to be ready when God calls.  He recognizes his duty to honor the laws and traditions of his people . At the same time, he is looking for a compassionate way to do that for the sake of the young woman to whom he is engaged.  When  he first found out that she was expecting a child that was not his, Joseph had many options —- he could have ruined Mary’s life ( or, in the strictest interpretation of the law, put her life in danger by accusing her of adultery). Instead, even before his encounter with the holy in his dreams, Joseph is a caring person who tries to balance justice and mercy. No wonder he is someone that God would choose to protect and love the coming Messiah! When God speaks to Joseph through an angel in his dream, Joseph listens. He follows through with protecting Mary and naming the baby Jesus. He takes on huge responsibility while at the same time trusting God and the promises that God made through the prophets.  Joseph is a shining example of the ways in which human beings cooperate with God and help to bring about the Kingdom.  He is a role model for all of us as we grow in faith and discipleship. We truly can make a difference as we listen to God and open our hearts.

Prayer for the day: God of hopes, dreams, and promises help us to listen to your voice in all the many ways that you speak to us. Help us to say yes to your plans for us and for our world. Thank you again for the precious gift of Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen.

Rev. Terry Deane

Devotional 12-2-22

 Read Romans 15:4-13

Focus verse  15:7 
⁷ Accept one another then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. 

This fall, I have been honored to be one of the volunteers at our Thursday evening common grounds meals for anyone in the community who needs food.  A couple of weeks ago, after we had served dinner a man came up to me and handed me an envelope. He said “this is to help with the kitchen” and gave me a hug. After he left, I saw inside there was a $20 bill. I was surprised, but we never know which people we will impact when we do ministry, and we don’t know their back stories. We also don’t know how they will help to influence us and our community. I bless this man, who was offered a free meal and paid as if he was in a restaurant.

This fall, a group of us gathered on Wednesday evenings to talk about Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, for which this verse is one of the concluding parts. Paul had been writing to a divided community, made up of Jewish converts to Christianity and also gentile converts. The two groups did not always agree although they both believed that Jesus had done some thing amazing for them and for the world. This verse is one of Paul’s strongest statements about being inclusive. At Johnson Memorial we believe that God loves and calls all people. The people we serve on Thursday nights who may seem to be a different community than the one we see on Sunday morning, are loved and blessed by God. The people we see on the streets of Huntington are blessed and loved by God. During this advent season, when we remember that God has given this greatest gift to the world through his son Jesus Christ, let us remember again that this gift was given to all. Every person is sacred and beautiful. We are often given gifts that we don’t even realize or understand until after the fact; let’s try and be intentional about recognizing all our gifts now, and all the people who embody them. 

Let us pray: Amazing God, who loves and cares for us all, during this holy season help us to open our hearts and minds to your presence and power. Help us to go past our preconceptions and categories, and remember that your love and power is for everyone. Thank you so much for loving us, forgiving us, and offering us new life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Rev. Terry Deane

Devotional 12-19-21

Scriptures for the Day:  Micah 5:2-5a, Luke 1:46b-55, and Luke 1:39-45

Several years ago, I visited a nursing home in Parkersburg to sit with a member of my church who had recently moved there.   She and her out-of-state family had decided that her increasing dementia made it unsafe for her to live alone.  She sometimes forgot that the stove was on, or that the car was running, or that milk needs stored in the refrigerator.  But Lona (not her real name) was a retired school teacher who liked to tell amazing stories about her long life during the great depression and World War Two. The further back in time an event, the clearer her recall seemed to be.  I was a fairly new pastor then and was surprised, but in the years since I have seen that pattern in many people.   On this day, we started with her reminisces about her childhood.  I asked how many brothers and sisters she’d had, and she described a huge family—-and then said that she’d lost most of them during the flu pandemic that ravaged the world while she was still a girl.  She told about the experience of wearing a mask and of many painful goodbyes. I sat there, stunned.  How terrible and tragic.  But it was a story for another age: as we chatted in her room on that sunny afternoon we assured each other that with all the antibiotics and improvements in medicine, nothing like that would ever happen again.

It seems naïve of me now but if anyone had told me two years ago about the pandemic journey that we’ve had to take in 2020 and now all of 2021, I’d have been incredulous.  On some days, I still am.  The masks, the shortages, the closed businesses and remote learning, endless zoom meetings, online worship, sad goodbyes, lonely isolation for some and constant work in essential fields for others…..we all have a list of the experiences that have marked us. It’s not what we expected, is it? It’s not what we prepared for.  So, to quote the opening lament of Psalm 137, how do we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?  How are we the People of God in this new reality?

The lectionary texts for this week may not supply easy answers, but they help point us toward faithful responses.  The prophet Micah, writing 700 years before the birth of Christ, promised that Bethlehem would one day bring forth a “ruler in Israel” who would “shepherd his flock” and become “one of peace.”  Given that Micah lived during the time when the northern kingdom of Israel was conquered, and Judah was repeatedly attacked and threatened, his hopeful words about the coming Messiah show deep faith and quiet confidence.  Centuries later, the young girl Mary and the much older Elizabeth bond over the reversals in their lives as they greet each other and Elizabeth recognizes that Mary carries the Messiah. Then Mary breaks into a song of praise, celebrating the way that God is at work “from one generation to the next,” bringing down the powers that be and lifting up the humble, hungry, and lowly. These scriptures affirm that God is at work, even during times when things seem broken, strange, unsure. Renewal and restoration are coming!  With Mary, let us glorify God and lean into the future God walks toward with us.  

Prayer for the Day:  God of all generations, we thank you for your mercy and your strength down through the ages.  In this, our age of uncertainty and challenges, give us your wisdom and grace. Help us to live as faithful witnesses to the reality of the new life in Christ.  Amen.     

Terry Deane

Devotional 12-13-20

 “Do you hear what I hear?”  asks a famous Christmas carol, written in the autumn of 1962 as a plea for peace during the Cuban missile crisis by a husband and wife duo (Shayne and Regney). The song takes its imagery from the gospel accounts of Jesus’ birth, and asks people to listen and think and pray. The scripture I want to focus on today similarly invites us to hear again the old, old story in a new way: 

Scripture Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11

The Lord God’s spirit is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me. He has sent me to bring good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim release for captives, and liberation for prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor....

If this powerful affirmation of mission and ministry sounds familiar to you, it may be because you recognize it from the Gospel according to Luke, where it’s the text for Jesus’ first sermon in his hometown of Nazareth  (Luke 4:14-30).  Several centuries separate the first proclamation in the writings of the prophet Isaiah from its reading and interpretation by Jesus, but the message resounds across time. People in Isaiah’s day faced war, persecution, and troubles.  Those in first century Israel did, too.   Here and now, we still have war, poverty, brokenness, captivity, and bondage to all kinds of troubles, not to mention a global pandemic that threatens millions.  And yet, to everyone, from over two thousand years ago right up to the present,  this scripture shouts that God is at work in our world and in our lives. We aren’t alone!  God’s spirit empowers us.  God’s spirit calls us.  God sends us a Savior, and a model for the work that we can do in this world together. 

We are called to follow Jesus and care for the poor, the broken, the imprisoned, the suffering in our world.  “I, the Lord, love justice....” Isaiah 61:8 reminds us, and verse 11 promises “As the earth puts out its growth, and as a garden grows its seeds, so the Lord God will grow righteousness and praise before all the nations.”  Although these words are comforting, they are also challenging.  In first century Nazareth, the crowd at the synagogue didn’t appreciate Jesus’ reminder to them that God was at work among people in other nations---they were so angry with Jesus’ illustrations that they ran him out of town! Similarly, in our own time, we have to work at “hearing” other people, at really listening to them and their stories, especially when we perceive them as different from ourselves. It’s easy to put people in categories, but the challenge is to see and hear each person as someone of divine worth, for whom Jesus came to our world. This holy season, let’s prayerfully remember this scripture and what Jesus said about it.  Let’s work for peace, for righteousness, and for justice for all.  

Will you pray now for peace? 
Blessings,  
Rev. Terry Deane

Devotional 12-24-19

Scripture Luke 2:1-20

“O Little Town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie”  begins the familiar 19th century hymn, and yet Bethlehem wasn’t quiet two thousand years ago, with crowds flocking there for the census Luke tells us about in today’s gospel lesson.  It isn’t quiet now, either.  I recently had the privilege of visiting Bethlehem with a group from our church.  We were with over two hundred spiritual pilgrims from the West Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church, led by our Bishop to “walk with Jesus” through the Holy Land.  Of course our first days were spent in the area where scripture tells us that Jesus was born.  Bethlehem is in Palestine, surrounded by border guards and fences, and on every corner and parking lot merchants hawk their wares while tour buses inch past each other on the narrow streets.   The first church we visited was the Chapel of the Shepherd’s Field, built in 1953 on top of much earlier ruins and a cave.  Tradition says this is the site where angels announced Jesus’ birth to the shepherds.  The current church is cleverly designed with a dome that resembles a nomad’s tent.  Outside, a fountain includes a flock of stone sheep.  Inside are lovely paintings depicting the events described in Luke’s gospel, but we had to navigate around many other tour groups and ongoing worship services.  It was difficult to imagine a quiet night, or angels’ songs, in the chapel itself.  I found a quiet spot in the gardens and spent some minutes in prayer.

The Church of the Nativity sits in Manger Square, not far away.  In the second century, the Roman Emperor Hadrian had a pagan temple built there, over top of caves that early Christians were already revering as the site of Jesus’ birth.  When Constantine made Christianity the religion of the Empire in the fourth century, he sent his mother to the Holy Land to find the places and relics important to the gospel stories.  Ironically, it’s the pagan temple that marked the spot for Helena to find it, and there have been Christian churches there continuously since 339 CE.  It is one of the most crowded tourist attractions in the Holy Land, and there’s a long wait to go down narrow steps to a grotto marked with a silver star.  A cleric stands nearby, constantly asking people not to linger, but somehow we all do, for just a minute’s whispered prayer.  Is this really the place where God’s son was born?  I don’t actually know, but I recognize that two thousand years of prayer and devotion have made it sacred.  I certainly felt the Spirit there.  At the same time, it was noisy, crowded, touristy in a lot of ways, not at all like the images from Christmas hymns.

During our Advent study this year, we’ve been using James W. Moore’s Finding Bethlehem in the Midst of Bedlam.  One of the main teachings of this study is that God always comes to us in the midst of our crowded, busy, messy lives.  There’s always bedlam, but it’s also always possible to encounter God and feel the love and peace that were promised on this Holy Night, so long ago.  The Roman Empire couldn’t stop people from worship, and actually  saved the memory of a sacred location by trying to stamp out Christianity in its early days.  The crowds in Bethlehem, when Mary and Joseph journeyed there, and the crowds that are there now, have no power to prevent the greatest gift of all,  the presence of the Holy One in our midst.  My prayer for you this evening is that you find Bethlehem in your heart, and are revived and renewed.  Merry, holy Christmas.
   
Rev. Terry Deane

Devotional 12-16-18

Lectionary texts  Zephaniah 3 14-20, Isaiah 12:2-6, Philippians 4:4-7, Luke 3: 7-18

 “...I have come that they might have life, and have it abundantly,” Jesus says in John’s gospel, chapter ten, verse ten.  This has long been one of my favorite scriptures. Jesus’ words are like a personal mission statement for the Messiah:  this is why I came, and here are the results that will flow from my actions. During this holy season of Advent, when we are called to study the promises surrounding the coming of the Christ, and their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus, his own understanding of his mission as a life-giving gift can be a powerful source of comfort and hope. So much in our world and its history focus on power and punishment, on judging and dividing people, on condemnation and conflict.  The lectionary texts for the third week of Advent draw us into a deeper focus on joy at the coming of the Christ, the bringer of abundant life.

Seven centuries before the birth of Jesus, the prophet Isaiah spoke about the people’s future:  “You will draw water with joy from the springs of salvation....and you will say on that day ‘Thank the Lord...’ “ (Isaiah 12, verses 3,4).  Seventy years or so later, the prophet Zephaniah proclaimed “On that day, it will be said to Jerusalem:...The Lord your God is in your midst....he will rejoice over you with singing....” (Zeph 3: excerpts from verses 16.17)  These prophets wrote during times of civil unrest and international conflicts, and some of their words are a call to repentance, but it is interesting that they come back, ultimately, to a sense of joy and hope.  The first generations of Christians, steeped in the Hebrew Scriptures, saw the fulfillment of this hope in the life of Jesus.  The gospel text from Luke shows a divided people, hearing good news that calls them to new and abundant life.  Within the crowds coming to John for baptism, some claim special treatment because of their ancestry as children of Abraham.  Others are not sure about sharing their resources with those in need.  Some are tax collectors, representatives in that time and place of the Roman Empire, and famously unjust.  Others are soldiers, and John’s words to them show that they were also prone to abuses of power.  It’s a vast and diverse crowd of people, each with needs and expectations, and John’s preaching causes some to wonder whether he is the Christ.  John deflates that idea quickly, affirming that “one who is more powerful than me is coming. I’m not worthy to loosen the strap of his sandals.” (Luke 3:16) John talks about the sifting process, the burning away of husks and the bringing of life, “proclaiming the good news to the people,” according to Luke.

A few years later, the apostle Paul exhorts the Christian community in Philippi to rejoice “always” and to be kind to others.   “The Lord is near,” he says, “Don’t be anxious about anything....” (Philippians 4:5b-6a).  Paul is writing from a prison cell, twenty-five or thirty years after the death and resurrection of Jesus.  The Roman Empire is still persecuting the fledgling faith, and Paul himself has also been beaten and run out of towns by both political and religious leaders.  This isn’t his first imprisonment.  He will eventually die for the faith. And yet, he sings the same song that the prophets knew, a song of joy and hope.  God is with us!  Don’t be anxious, but bring your concerns to God, who will “keep your hearts and minds safe in Jesus Christ.”  (Philippians 4:7b)

We still live in an imperfect world, and there are surely things we could focus on that might lead to worry or even despair.  But God’s word has been steady over the centuries, in this call to hope and joy.  I leave you with a modern poet/songwriter’s call to faithful life:   “Ring the bells that still can ring, forget your perfect offering, there is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”  (lyrics from Anthem, by Leonard Cohen)

A Prayer for the Day:
God of abundant life and hope, thank you for your faithfulness down through the centuries.  Help us to live with joy and faith, in the midst of all the ups and downs of life.  Let our song rise up to you in thanks and praise, in this life and the one to come.  In Jesus’ name, amen.

Rev. Teresa Deane

Devotional 12-24-17

Luke 1:26-38, and 46b-55 are the scripture readings for the day.  This familiar story includes a surprising twist, one that speaks as powerfully to our time as it did to the first hearers, two thousand years ago. The angel Gabriel is sent to Nazareth, a town (not really a city) in Galilee, to a young unmarried woman named Mary.  Given the time and place, Mary is almost surely a teenager; she avows in the story that she is a virgin.  Approached by a messenger from God, she initially needs reassurance: “Don’t be afraid,” Gabriel tells her.  After the announcement that she will bear a son, and name him Jesus, a ruler for David’ s house and kingdom, Mary begins to find her voice.  She asks, point blank, “How...?” Gabriel tells her she will be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, and this baby will be God’s Son. He tells her that her relative Elizabeth is six months pregnant, even though she is old and was thought to be unable to conceive a child.  Whether one is old or young “nothing’s impossible for God,” Gabriel insists.  Mary says “let it be with me just as you have said.”  

The Mary in this part of the story is often portrayed in art as a meek, quiet small-town girl, eyes downcast, as she says that big “yes” to God.  But this is where the story begins to move, literally and figuratively, into new territory.  In Luke’s narrative, Mary immediately leaves her home and most of her family (not to mention her fiancé’ Joseph) and travels to the hill country, to Elizabeth’s home. This is a surprising journey for a young, unmarried woman in 1st century Galilee.  She is welcomed and affirmed, both by Elizabeth and her unborn son.  And then Mary breaks into song.  The Magnificat, as it is known, is Mary’s song glorifying God and celebrating the powerful reversal that God can create. Mary begins with the personal--”He has looked with favor on the lowly status of his servant,” but moves quickly to the universal: “He shows mercy to everyone...who honors him as God.” Mary praises God for action in history: “He has scattered those with arrogant thoughts and proud inclinations.  He has pulled down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly.” She testifies from her own experience “He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty-handed.”  Mary praises God for coming to the aid of her people, “just as he promised to our ancestors....”

For me, the powerful movement in this story is how God’s Messiah has already changed Mary’s life and world, even before his birth.  She begins as a frightened young woman, asking questions and then moving to acceptance.  That could be all we hear.  But instead, Mary becomes a person with a mission.  She takes a journey, shares her good news, and then celebrates that news.  She recognizes that the promise isn’t just for her, but will radically transform the world.  Mary sees the reversal of favor from the “rich and powerful”  whom the worldly assume are recipients of God’s favor, to the “lowly and hungry,” and she sings thanks and praise.  God is with us! Even when we have limited resources, whether we are old or young, wherever we are, God remembers God’s promises, and offers new life in this world and the next.  Thanks be to God. Amen. 

Rev. Terry Deane

Devotional 12-25-16

“Same story, different town.”  This is my first Christmas at Johnson Memorial, but, after more than twenty-five years in ministry, I find myself telling the same stories again and again.  During this season, I have lots of family memories:  there was the time my little cousin cried on Christmas eve because bigger people had “blocked her view” and that was the only reason she couldn’t see Santa’s reindeer in the sky,  the December day when my aunt held a new baby boy and cried her thanks to God, because she was dying and had feared that she would not live to see him born, the time we all went to church and came home to find Barbies and Lincoln Logs piled in front of our tree and the dog running circles, barking for joy….there was that December Sunday morning when my family’s general store burned to the ground,  and the volunteer firefighters were late because they had been in church, but we all held hands and prayed in the ashes.  Light and darkness, joys and tears, all mixed together, overflowing. 

As a pastor, I used to worry about how to tell the ancient stories of our faith in a new way, and especially this story—-the birth of the Christ Child.  After years of Christmas pageants, with wise men and shepherds, angels and animals, children wearing bathrobes and tinsel crowns, don’t we all know this story, maybe a bit too well?  Haven’t we sung it, said it, chanted it, so often, that there’s little room for wonder?  Every year, at this church and thousands of others, we share scriptures about the promised One from God, the longing and the waiting, the evil King in his palace and the baby in the manger, fulfillment at last.  It’s so easy to summarize the story, and then leave it alone, not connecting it to the lives we lead. I majored in history, and also love folklore, so there’s no happier set of words to me than “once upon a time….”  But the Holy Mystery of the Incarnation demands more of me, more of us:  “And the Word became flesh and lived among us….” John’s gospel proclaims.  This is a stunning pronouncement, with consequences all the way through time and history.  Human life becomes the vessel for Holy life, and our story and God’s story entwine in amazing and beautiful ways, not just as history but as present reality. When we tell our stories, we are telling a part of God’s story, too.  Suddenly, the light and darkness, laughing and crying, winning and losing, every single part of life from the smallest to the vast, is touched by the numinous power of God.  And it all matters—-Thanks be to God, it all matters!

I wish you joy this holy day, and I leave you with another favorite scripture about the connect between body and spirit:
“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’  “  (Isaiah 52:7)  You’ve got beautiful feet, and a beautiful, God-touched life.  Joy to the World.

Rev. Terry Deane