Daily Devotions and Podcasts
Prayer: Lord, help me to see You in every part of my day, even in the places I least expect. Open my eyes to Your presence in the ordinary and the extraordinary moments of life. Amen.
The Cathedral of Hope Devotion Ministry began as an answer to Progressive Christians who wanted to start their days with a little insight, observation, or wisdom about the Christian faith from their own point of view. Conservative internet devotions were abundant, but there was not much out there for liberal thinkers. The need was clear.
Being a large church, we had a generous amount of writing talent available and also a large number of congregants with theological training who were not on the pulpit. In the early days of the ministry, most of the writing was done by the clergy, but gradually the majority of the writers emerged from those lay volunteers.
That dynamic is still in place as new authors are always joining in to keep the ideas fresh. It’s a fitting structure for any center of progressive thought. This particular Body of Christ has many voices and each one has a unique and important story to tell.
SCRIPTURE John 5.3-9 ļ»æ In Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate at the pool, a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. WORDS OF HOPE It’s August, the month in Texas when many of us look to a refreshing dip in the pool as our savior from the heat! The Savior’s pool mentioned in today’s scripture lesson was thought to have genuinely miraculous healing powers by the people of Jerusalem. It was visited often by the infirm. The man who was not able to walk would have been a typical visitor. His exchange with Jesus is interesting on several levels and inspires some questions. Had the man actually been coming to the pool for thirty-eight years? If so, who had been bringing him there since he could not walk? Couldn’t they also have carried him into the pool and not just deposited him there beside it? When Jesus asks if he wants to get well, instead of enthusiastically saying “yes”, he immediately starts making excuses about why he has not been able to get into the water, saying that no one will help him in and besides, everyone else breaks in line ahead of him. All in all, it’s simply not his fault. Everyone else is to blame. I’m sure you are not one of them, but I have known a lot of people throughout the years who are masters at making excuses. I could list a few politicians. George Washington Carver once said, “Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.” You probably know a few expert excuse-makers, too. They are usually people who, consciously or subconsciously, want to fail. Failure requires a great deal less work than success. Jesus’ reply to the invalid is succinct. “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk!” He didn’t waste time commiserating with the man about the cruel fate that surrounds him or condemning the selfish attitudes of the other pool patrons. He didn’t give the man a chance to elaborate on his excuses. It would seem that the man was shocked into action because not only was he immediately cured, but he also didn’t need any magic water to do it. Are you prepared to let Jesus shock you into action today? Are you ready to share the priceless gift of encouragement with someone who is discouraged, despondent, and down to their last excuse? Jesus didn’t judge or care about excuses. He just did what needed to be done. Considering the amounts of circumstances in all of our lives that are catalysts for excuses, you’ll probably have the opportunity soon to give someone a helpful nudge, too. PRAYER May we always follow the example of Jesus, being healers and never contributors to the adverse circumstances of life. As your followers, we have no excuses. Amen. DEVOTION AUTHOR Dan Peeler Order of St. Francis and St. Clare
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Words of Hope Podcast
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SCRIPTURE John 5.3-9 ļ»æ In Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate at the pool, a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. WORDS OF HOPE It’s August, the month in Texas when many of us look to a refreshing dip in the pool as our savior from the heat! The Savior’s pool mentioned in today’s scripture lesson was thought to have genuinely miraculous healing powers by the people of Jerusalem. It was visited often by the infirm. The man who was not able to walk would have been a typical visitor. His exchange with Jesus is interesting on several levels and inspires some questions. Had the man actually been coming to the pool for thirty-eight years? If so, who had been bringing him there since he could not walk? Couldn’t they also have carried him into the pool and not just deposited him there beside it? When Jesus asks if he wants to get well, instead of enthusiastically saying “yes”, he immediately starts making excuses about why he has not been able to get into the water, saying that no one will help him in and besides, everyone else breaks in line ahead of him. All in all, it’s simply not his fault. Everyone else is to blame. I’m sure you are not one of them, but I have known a lot of people throughout the years who are masters at making excuses. I could list a few politicians. George Washington Carver once said, “Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.” You probably know a few expert excuse-makers, too. They are usually people who, consciously or subconsciously, want to fail. Failure requires a great deal less work than success. Jesus’ reply to the invalid is succinct. “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk!” He didn’t waste time commiserating with the man about the cruel fate that surrounds him or condemning the selfish attitudes of the other pool patrons. He didn’t give the man a chance to elaborate on his excuses. It would seem that the man was shocked into action because not only was he immediately cured, but he also didn’t need any magic water to do it. Are you prepared to let Jesus shock you into action today? Are you ready to share the priceless gift of encouragement with someone who is discouraged, despondent, and down to their last excuse? Jesus didn’t judge or care about excuses. He just did what needed to be done. Considering the amounts of circumstances in all of our lives that are catalysts for excuses, you’ll probably have the opportunity soon to give someone a helpful nudge, too. PRAYER May we always follow the example of Jesus, being healers and never contributors to the adverse circumstances of life. As your followers, we have no excuses. Amen. DEVOTION AUTHOR Dan Peeler Order of St. Francis and St. Clare
SCRIPTURE Isaiah 27: 1 On that day the Lord with his cruel and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea. WORDS OF HOPE The image of slaying dragons is a strong one and perhaps something that might work better in a fantasy book than scripture, but Isaiah was a prophet. Prophets often spoke in fantastic imagery and it does what he intended in my opinion, he got our attention. He is speaking of a future time when Israel is reestablished, and the Temple is rebuilt. It is a passage that is intended to bring hope to those who are oppressed and exiled. Perhaps we can look on it in more personal terms. We all have dragons in our lives that need slaying. Leviathans of worry, debt, depression, illness; creatures that can take over our lives and block out everything else. I listen to Isaiah and hear a message of hope, that with God’s guidance, I can get through whatever troubles I face. I might not triumph over them, but I can take away their overwhelming power and relegate them to a more realistic perspective. I can live my life following God’s path and let those dragons take care of themselves. PRAYER May I find the strength God gives me and may it be present in my every waking hour. DEVOTION AUTHOR Hardy Haberman
SCRIPTURE ļ»æ Acts 7: 44-53 Our ancestors had the tent of testimony in the wilderness, as God directed when he spoke to Moses, ordering him to make it according to the pattern he had seen. Our ancestors in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our ancestors. And it was there until the time of David, who found favor with God and asked that he might find a dwelling-place for the house of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built a house for him. Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands; as the prophet says, “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? Did not my hand make all these things?” ‘You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. You are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it.’ WORDS OF HOPE Sometimes we have a propensity for seeing God as very small. We wish to shrink God into a box that fits our biases and prejudices. We all heard this said in sermons and teachings before. And I will admit that sometimes I do this still. And even though the passage above talks about the Israelites shrinking God into a temple, it is still tiny compared to the size of what God has made. At least that seems to be the meaning of the first part of this quotation. The juxtaposition of words about fitting God into a small space directly before a rebuke for not listening to the Holy Spirit is not accidental, I think. Just saying that the listeners are uncircumcised in heart and ears is a clear message. Circumcision was a sign of belonging in the Jewish tradition. Being uncircumcised in heart and ear is a metaphor for not understanding or not truly accepting the teachings of Jesus. It is a greater rebuke because it implies, to me, that not accepting or living by the example of Jesus is the same as murdering him. Just as the prophets of more ancient times were betrayed and murdered. Indeed, although not specifically mentioned here one would throw in John the baptizer as a prophet or contemporary to the writer of this passage and those listening. So perhaps trying to fit God into a little box whether that box is as large as a temple or a small as our own imagination, has more to do with putting ourselves in a box, and thinking that the box has God in it with us. PRAYER Gracious God, the universe that You have made is vast, and yet we know in our hearts that even that cannot contain You. Break us out of the boxes that we put ourselves in when we try to restrain you to a world of our making. DEVOTION AUTHOR Weber Baker. Order of Saint Francis in Saint Clare
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