Monday - May 27, 2024

SCRI PTURE Psalm 53:1-3 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and their ways are vile; there is no one who does good. God looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. Everyone has turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one. WORDS OF HOPE So, Psalm 53 is not a happy praise song. It is a Psalm that gets down to business and reminds us that everyone, believers and non-believers alike, are all pretty corrupt. Psalm 53 opens with a declaration that "the fool" is the person who denies God's existence. The Hebrew word translated as "fool" in this verse is nā'bāl. This kind of fool isn’t someone who is stupid or incapable. It is someone who is senseless, irrational, or lacking in wisdom. Even intelligent people can act like fools and David asserts that there is nothing more foolish than denying the very existence of God. However, David goes on to proclaim in this psalm that non-believers are not the only ones who are corrupt and vile. He says that the entire human race is seen by God as wayward, corrupt, and largely incapable of good deeds. Personally, I don’t like being lumped into the same box as corrupt fools. Those evil-doing, self-centered narcissists are the “bad” people and I don’t want to accept that we’re in the same lot as them. But David says it pretty plainly in verse 3 when he writes that there is no one who does good, not even one. In the paraphrase of this verse in The Message, it reads like this: “Useless, unshepherded sheep, taking turns pretending to be the Shepherd. The ninety and nine follow the one”. Perhaps the take-away from this isn’t solely about the foolish unbelievers and what we want God to do to them. It’s also about how we “all fall short of the glory of God” as Paul writes in the third chapter of Romans. We can’t and shouldn’t believe that we’re better than the fool. David ends the Psalm with a wish for the restoration of God to God’s people. That should be our wish as well. For those fools perceived as “them” and for those fools that are us, God is always working that restoration. PRAYER Look down from Heaven, loving God, and see your creation. Open our eyes to see who you are, for we are lost and corrupt without you. Our goodness comes up short every time. Come Lord Jesus and bring salvation to us all. Amen. DEVOTION AUTHOR Thomas Riggs

SCRIPTURE Colossians 3.14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. WORDS OF HOPE Love at No Cost The secret to how to love yourself is simply this: stop looking for a reason to love yourself because if you need a reason to love, then it is not love. If love has a cost, then its value has been measured. When the value of love is measured, it is forever limited by that measurement. Unless love is free, no one can afford it, for it is too great a gift to ever sell. Love is far greater than gold, so then, what commodity could we trade that would be of equal or of a greater value than love? There is altogether nothing as precious as love, for it is because of love that anything that ever was, came to be. By love, God created every living thing. God never required payment for our lives, rather, our life was His gift to us. If God did require payment, then the charge would exceed our lives; for as long as we kept on living, we would owe payment. Therefore, parents do not make their children debtors. On the contrary, because love is free, a good parent will keep giving their children love as long as they are alive. When love is a free gift, there is an endless supply. Do not measure love by requirements of beauty, wealth, or possessions because once they are gone the love runs out. Love that is free is both given and received freely, which means that anyone who wants it should have it. If we are prejudiced, then we are not loving. We have heard it been said that “if you do not love yourself, then no one else will.” Consider this, if you do not love others, then how can you love yourself? The truth is that you cannot, because love’s only standard is that it must and can only be for everyone. Otherwise, you have measured love and have made it altogether worthless. If God loves you freely, then you ought to love others and yourself at the same cost. PRAYER Loving God, Bless You for Your great love. Teach us to love others and ourselves as you have loved us. Let us not be wise in our own eyes, but humble, meek, and tender. Undo our philosophies and grant us real wisdom. Do not let us fall into the ways of the world but teach us the ways of heaven. We need Your love so that we may know what it is and how to give it freely. Bless You heavenly Creator, for we live because of Your love. Amen. DEVOTION AUTHOR Jonathon McClellan Order of St. Francis and St. Clare

READING “God of Rainbow, Fiery Pillar, leading where the eagles soar. We thy people, ours the journey, now and ever, now and ever more. “ (“Ours the Journey,” Julian B. Rush) WORDS OF HOPE I am writing the evening of Pride Sunday—after the color-splashed marching, the jubilant, raucous, and sometimes raunchy, celebration of who we are as individuals and as a community—we border crossing, transgressive people who chant... LOVE IS LOVE IS LOVE! We proud of the hard- won advances of recent years like marriage equality, while keenly aware of the very real threats to our liberty and safety today. Even in the face of such danger, we boldly proclaim, WE’RE HERE, WE’RE QUEER, AND WE’RE PROUD. I confess that the word Queer can still evoke the pain of its use as a hurtful barb hurled at those suspected of being LGBTQAI+ folk. And I remember crying into the night when I first felt powerful adolescent longings for another woman and imagined a secretive and tortured life, a life depicted in books like Radcliffe Hall’s “The Well of Loneliness.” What a relief to discover “Ruby Fruit Jungle” “an eminently queer tornado of a book,” according to Jonathan Katz, …in which the protagonist Molly didn’t wrestle with her sexuality, never apologized, and gleefully rejected anything that didn’t please her. Her story, for all its struggles, was about something we hadn’t yet even named: queer joy” ( New York Times, Nov. 20, 2023). Recently, an online retreat led by UCC Pastor Cassidy Hall called “Queering Contemplation” has prompted me to ponder: While many of us now celebrate living a queer lifestyle in its various manifestations, I wonder if we have imagined what it might mean to embrace a queer spirituality? To step into an understanding of what such a spirituality might offer us, Rev. Dr. Pamela Lightsey, womanist queer theory scholar, explains, “[T]o say I am queer…is not only my self- identity, it is also my active engagement against heteronormativity. In other words, queerness is resistance against dominant societal forces—subverting these forces with love, justice, and liberation for all people.” To extend even more, Black Canadian poet Brandon Wint offers: “Queer, like escaping definition. Queer, like some sort of fluidity and limitlessness at once. Queer, like freedom too strange to be conquered. Queer, like the fearlessness to imagine what love can look like and pursue it.” Reading Wint’s definition convicts me. I know that while my own spiritual and religious seeking continues to press beyond the traditional beliefs of my Methodist girlhood with its masculine, score-keeping God, and to embrace the divine feminine and a dark-skinned Jesus, for example, my perspectives seem pale in comparison. Even when I have been seized by the Spirit’s power and called to the expansiveness of the Open Heart, it feels tame compared to entering Wint’s unconquerable freedom and fearless love. So I wonder aloud, Might today might be the day each of us asks: what would a queer spirituality look like for me? PRAYER Come, queering God, and help us throw off the self- imposed and culturally imposed restraints to imagining who you are and where you might lead us. May your glorious, glittering Dancing Queen freedom show us new visions, new ways of loving. Amen. DEVOTION AUTHOR Dr. Pat Saxon

SCRIPTURE Romans 15:13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. WORDS OF HOPE Are you happy? We all have good days and bad days. Some of us have more of one than the other for lots of reasons. Generally speaking, I am a creative; specifically a writer and artist, among a few other things. Throughout my life, I have found myself constantly doing the things that make me happy and make me feel good. I’ve always known that these are very specific choices I’ve made. As with so many other people, life was difficult growing up. But when I look back and often compare myself to someone else’s situation, I usually find myself very fortunate because I know it could’ve been worse. There are so many factors in life that don’t afford us the opportunity to choose between being happy or just giving up and living with what it is. But that is a specific spectrum of things that are relative to factors of our chemistry, thinking, environment, and a host of other things that impact life. The question is, “are you happy?” What are the reasons you feel happy? Is this feeling a constant thing happening within you or do you do things to cause it? Are you able to manipulate your circumstances to feel better when you are otherwise blue. Is it a constant concern for you to feel happy most of the time? I ask this last one because I find myself wanting to maintain a certain happy disposition as much as I can produce it on my own. There are definite life challenges, and I do find myself sometimes easily swayed to temporary early allow my balloon to be burst, but it doesn’t take much for me to bounce back quickly. I am very fortunate, I know. I have spoken with people who are clinically depressed, or others, who seem to have a pessimistic view; a dark cloud hanging over their head. One of the first things I can think of that will snap me back to my better self is taking a moment to feel gratitude, and to be thankful for the things I have, and the situation of being blessed. Our attitude often begets more of the same. First and foremost, I am grateful to God who not only gave me life, but sustains it. That is especially in the dark times, or times that I just have to pause and say this situation will not change. I know God will somehow see me through both. I’m speaking to myself when I say “smile, be thankful, and know it’s ok to live with ‘what is’ for some things but the big HOWEVER is change what you can to find happiness. PRAYER Give me the patience to live with “what is” and the courage to change what should be changed. May I always take a moment to feel gratitude to you. Amen. DEVOTION AUTHOR Charlie C. Rose Order of St. Francis and St. Clare

SCRIPTURE Ecclesiastes 3:18-21 “Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?” WORDS OF HOPE Those of us who share our lives with pets know that doing so brings the deepest kind of love and also the deepest kind of loss. I know many people, myself included, that do not cry at the loss of human life in a movie, but when an animal dies, the box of tissue better be full. How many tears have been shed for Bambi’s mother, Old Yeller, Charlotte the spider, and Marley? And, why does the loss of animal life have such a profound effect on us? For many of us, pets show us a kind of love that we often do not find in human love. My dogs want to be with me, whatever that me looks like, at the moment. Their love is non-judgmental and unconditional. Humans have so much to learn from our furry friends about life and love. This poem by Taylor Mali, “Falling in love is like owning a dog” is a powerful testament to that kind of love. "Falling in love is like owning a dog," by Taylor Mali First of all, it's a big responsibility, especially in a city like New York. So think long and hard before deciding on love. On the other hand, love gives you a sense of security: when you're walking down the street late at night and you have a leash on love ain't no one going to mess with you. Because crooks and muggers think love is unpredictable. Who knows what love could do in its own defense? On cold winter nights, love is warm. It lies between you and lives and breathes and makes funny noises. Love wakes you up all hours of the night with its needs. It needs to be fed so it will grow and stay healthy. Love doesn't like being left alone for long. But come home and love is always happy to see you. It may break a few things accidentally in its passion for life, but you can never be mad at love for long. Is love good all the time? No! No! Love can be bad. Bad, love, bad! Very bad love. Love makes messes. Love leaves you little surprises here and there. Love needs lots of cleaning up after. Sometimes you just want to get love fixed. Sometimes you want to roll up a piece of newspaper and swat love on the nose, not so much to cause pain, just to let love know Don't you ever do that again! Sometimes love just wants to go for a nice long walk. Because love loves exercise. It runs you around the block and leaves you panting. It pulls you in several different directions at once, or winds around and around you until you're all wound up and can't move. But love makes you meet people wherever you go. People who have nothing in common but love stop and talk to each other on the street. Throw things away and love will bring them back, again, and again, and again. But most of all, love needs love, lots of it. And in return, love loves you and never stops. Dogs are indeed like love. Read the poem again and replace “love” with God. If dogs equal love and love equals God, then perhaps our deep relationship with dogs is because in them we find a tangible way to feel and experience God. And this is why we feel such an emptiness when we lose a pet. Today is World Pet Memorial Day. Think about the pets with whom you have been blessed to share your life. Remember them. Honor the smiles and tears that those memories bring. Know that with them, you walked hand in paw with God. PRAYER Loving God, who creates all living things, I give you thanks for the animals I have known and loved. Help me to honor them by sharing the kind of love, joy, and friendship that they showed to me with the animals and humans that I encounter today. Amen. DEVOTION AUTHOR Kris Baker Order of Saint Francis and Saint Clare