Late summer e-Devotion from Bob Dannals

Friday, August 24

 

"Back to the Salt Mine"

As if an internal clock ticks during the final days of vacation and the summer break, we are prompted by the “back to” messages of school, work, and routine. For Christians this doesn’t have to be a reluctant Jonah-like disdain for the work we’ve been given to do.

The most important thing we do is to show up with faithfulness, willingness, and encouragement. According to the scriptures, we don’t need to be certain or the best. We don’t have to perform or prove ourselves. According to the stories of significant saints, we don’t even have to want to be there. All of these would be significant if the restoration of the world were up to us!

In addition to faithfully showing up, we are also to receive and appropriate God’s vision of love and justice in our context — to recall the biblical salt mine and be reminded that Christ is calling each of us to be “salty” and press ourselves into the marrow of our society. What distinguished Jonah in Ninevah was not his reluctance but his vision of what God was doing through him for that city.

As the fall calendar gets filled up we have the outstanding privilege of breaking through the mundane of routine and realize how each of us can be “the salt of the earth and the light of the world.” In the journey may we cast our individual dreams and needs into the larger mission of the church — of connecting and engaging ourselves in worship, prayer, and study, of generosity and service so that we can be of good use to one another and to those beyond our parish campuses. 

e-Devotions: Inbox Inspirations from Bob Dannals

The Rev. Dr. Robert (Bob) Dannals is currently Interim Rector of  All Saints Episcopal Church, Beverly Hills, CA.  I became aware of his daily devotional pieces (based, for the most part, on the lectionary readings for each following Sunday) while he was Interim Rector at St. Bartholomew's Church in New York City.

ENJOY!!!!

Wednesday, August 22

... be strong in the Lord... Ephesians 6:10

The Epistle writer counters fear, doubt, anxiety, and anger with strength. He does not understand strength as brute force or domination. In fact, quite the opposite! He himself exhibited strength by submitting himself to sacrifice and self-discipline. He enacted it in countless ways including imprisonment and beatings.

Challenge and Opportunity:

This text portrays a believer who is ready to do his/her best in God's strength. Very often that begins with a realization of our weaknesses -- that we need God in our daily endeavors. It follows by a dedication to receive all of God's merciful benefits and to extend them to others. This often involves self-offering, a trait that our prevailing culture doesn't see as "strength." But Christians know better ... just look at the person of Jesus and we have our model.

 

Daily Devotionals - Based on RCL Proper 16, Year B:

Joshua 24:1-2, 14-18; Psalm 34:15-22; Ephesians 6:10-20; John 6:56-69

eDevotions from The Rev. Bob Dannals

The Rev. Dr. Robert (Bob) Dannals is currently Interim Rector of  All Saints Episcopal Church, Beverly Hills, CA.  I became aware of his daily devotional pieces (based, for the most part, on the lectionary readings for each following Sunday) while he was Interim Rector at St. Bartholomew's Church in New York City.

ENJOY!!!!

 

Tuesday, August 21

... choose this day whom you will serve ... but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. Joshua 24:15

To this day there is an enormous rock which sits at the edge of the valley at Shechem. It doesn't take a lot of imagination to see Joshua standing before the 12 Tribes of Israel speaking from that rock. Their forty years of wandering in the wilderness were over. They had successfully entered the Promised Land, and they are now forgetting what it means to live in a covenant with God. Thus, he is biding them to renew their commitment and to rediscover their allegiance.

Challenge and Opportunity:

In America we take choices for granted. One reason is that in our consumer culture, "Madison Avenue" has saturated our buying environment with options. Last month while shopping at a CVS I counted 30 different kinds of toothpaste. Really, do we need that many choices!? But to choose is a privilege from God called Free Will. God wants us to choose to be in relationship with the Living, Redeeming, and Merciful One, not out of compulsion, but in freedom, with joy. Every time we have a Baptism we all stand and we're given the choice to renew our Baptismal Covenant ... I can hear Joshua now: "choose you this day whom you will serve." By the way, we don't have to wait for the liturgy at church. You can renew your commitment by your bedside each morning.

 

Daily Devotionals - Based on RCL Proper 16, Year B:

Joshua 24:1-2, 14-18; Psalm 34:15-22; Ephesians 6:10-20; John 6:56-69