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My Deliverer Is Coming
The angel of the Lord appeared to the [wife of Manoah] and said to her, “You shall conceive and bear a son. It is he who shall begin to deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines.” – Judges 13:3-5, excerpted (NRSV)
We all long for a deliverer, at least once in a while: someone to untangle a problem we cannot resolve, someone to provide a haven when we are weary, someone to tackle a mountain that threatens our wellbeing. The longing for deliverance is common, and it permeates our stories.
Fairy tales are full of deliverers, often armed with magic or cunning or righteousness. Political discourse rallies around deliverance, whether this country is vowing to “rescue” another country or a politician is promising to “save” voters from [insert scapegoat here]. Novels and movies love a redemption story with a victorious ending. Deliverance is also the overarching narrative of scripture.
“From whence will my help come?” we ask.
The ancient Israelites cried for relief from their ongoing conflict with the Philistines. God sent an angel to Manoah’s wife to advise her of the exceptional child she would deliver for the people’s deliverance. Her son, Samson, grew up to be a folk hero of the people—fighting Philistines with a donkey’s jawbone and killing lions with his bare hands.
“Deliver us!” we cry.
“Next-day delivery,” we specify.
Ah, but God is not Amazon Prime. God’s deliverance comes at the speed of a baby growing to adulthood: simultaneously endless and fleeting. God’s deliverance comes at the pace of a folktale, repeated and renewed over generations. God’s deliverance unfolds with the tempo of a song, with the seasons of an oak tree, with the hindsight of freedom, with the slow rise of yeast and the quick breaking of bread.
Prayer: Be our deliverer, O Holy Child, through the moments that feel like an eternity and in these lifetimes of ours that fade like grass.
cross-posted with the UCC Daily Devotional
The Mess of Money
Hear this, you that trample on the needy, saying, “When will the sabbath be over so that we may offer wheat for sale? We will make the ephah small and the shekel great, and practice deceit by selling the sweepings of the wheat.” The Lord will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation. – Amos 8:4-6, 10a (abridged)
Money is fake. (Hear me out.) It’s an imaginary language we invented to communicate our needs and desires and their respective values.
Subsequently, economics is a series of fictional stories we’ve conjured to assign social purpose to the value of need and the value of desire, stories that manage our collective expectation of wellbeing.
Stories like: your credit score is a measure of your worth. Stories like: healthy, fresh foods are bougie. Stories like: you should be grateful to have a mere 10 days of PTO each year. Stories like: everyone should have a side hustle to make ends meet. Stories like: an executive is more valuable than a teacher. Stories like: you can become a millionaire if you just give up your morning coffee.
Stories like: if we just squeeze more value out of a limited quantity and more labor out of fewer workers, our bottom line will improve. Just shrink the dry measure of the ephah, as they were doing in the time of Amos, dilute the contents of the ephah with some milling dust from the wheat, and then increase its price tag by a few shekels.
Bottom lines make a mess of relational lines. Fake stories about value make a mess of the ancient story of holy value. Nevertheless, our days are shaped by these fictional stories, and our bottom lines are very real. The tale entitled, “Economics,” is one in which we all take part.
Money may be a reality of life, but that doesn’t mean money tells the true story of life. “Seek me and live,” God says in Amos. In the Holy One is our life’s value and wellbeing.
Prayer: God almighty, this existence of ours is messy. Daily demands and social systems so often conflict with the truth of your love. Let me believe the story of love above all else.
cross-posted with the UCC Daily Devotional
Going to Battle
King Neco of Egypt went up to fight at Carchemish, and Josiah went out against him. But Neco sent envoys to him, saying, “What have I to do with you, king of Judah? I am not coming out against you today. Cease opposing God, who is with me, so that he will not destroy...
Whose Glory?
Deborah, a prophetess, used to sit under a palm in the hill country of Ephraim. She summoned Barak and said to him, “The God of Israel commands you, ‘Go, take position at Mount Tabor; I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin’s army, to meet you with his chariots...
Praise
Praise the Lord! Praise God, sun and moon; praise God, all you shining stars! Praise God from the earth, you sea monsters and creatures of the depths, you fire and hail, snow and frost! (Psalm 148:1-2 & 7-8, NRSV adapted) What makes the T-Rex dinosaur a scientific...
Bad News
The spirit of the Holy One is upon me, because the One has anointed me and sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of divine favor, and the day...
Advent’s Harvest
Where the ground is frozen, raspberries will ripen. Where the street is empty, dancers will parade. Where the embers are cold, a phoenix will soar. Where hope's heart is broken, compassion will bloom. on Jeremiah 33:10-11
Let It Count
Let it count in our favor, O God, that it's been a rough year. Let it be to our credit, O God, that we can still find a prayer— or at least a swear in your direction, which should also count. Put a "plus" in our column, O God, for all the strikes against us. Let it...
About Those Chickens
Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord guards the city, the guard keeps watch in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for God gives sleep to those who are...
Begrudged Blessings
The Lord restored the fortunes of Job, [giving] Job twice as much as he had before. The Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; and he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 donkeys. He also had 7 sons and 3 daughters. - Job...
Today
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear God’s voice, do not harden your hearts.” Take care, siblings, that none of you has an unbelieving heart that turns from the living God. Exhort one another every day, so long as it is called “today.” - Hebrews...
