Pastor’s Email Devotion The Week of Pentecost 14 October 5, 2014 Offered by Brendan Armitage REFLECTION -- We shop at Stauffers. For years, I have cringed when I would see some (mature) lady or gentleman bending over at the waist, entirely stiff-legged, trying to pick some item off the lowest shelf or something that had fallen on the floor. Bend your knees!, I usually thought, certain in my authority and expertise. Until this past week...when I caught myself doing exactly the same thing because, at times, my knees hurt when I get into a deep squat. I had to ask myself: When did I stop bending my knees? At church, we try to bend with the times. Our society is constantly evolving. The youth are no longer on Facebook. Theyre on Instagram or, by the time you read this, some other social media site. We have new hymnals and new worship settings such as our New Day service (now with more comfortable seats. Thank you.). We bend to accept the LGBT community and millenials with tats, and in my case, my first pastor younger than I am. We, as a church living and spreading the Gospel of Jesus, try to keep-up and spread that good news in ways that the unchurched and under-churched and unsatisfactorily-churched will accept. Its hard. It is painful to change the traditions that comfort us, but we have to remain flexible in mind, in body, and in spirit. We have to bend our knees. In the quiet of your mind this morning, how would you answer; Have I stopped bending my knees? Am you still able to see the perspectives of others before you judge them from your own perspective? Stephen Covey had a great book with the theme, Do I seek first to understand, then (second) to be understood? When you see someone arrive under-dressed to our service, do you accept them as followers of Christ or judge them for not following our standards of dress? Have you stopped bending your knees? SCRIPTURE -- Matthew Chapter 12 verses 6-8 (from The Message) has the following guidance: And didnt you ever read in Gods Law that priests carrying out their Temple duties break Sabbath rules all the time and its not held against them? 6 There is far more at stake here than religion. 7If you had any idea what this Scripture meant - I prefer a flexible heart to an inflexible ritual - you wouldnt be nitpicking like this. 8 The Son of Man is no lackey to the Sabbath; hes in charge. Amen.
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 02:29:35 +0000
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