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Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Today's Frontline Devotion Monday, March 29, 2004 March Madness |
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FRONTLINE DEVOTION FOR MONDAY, MARCH 29, 2004, by Fritz Foltz
Scripture:
Luke
10: 25-37
It’s “March Madness” when we all go crazy deciding who is the best college
basketball team. It is insane. Most of us get terribly worked up about teams
with whom we have no real ties and over players we do not even know. How come we
never go to the games at the local high school where our next-door neighbor’s
daughter is the star?
For that matter, most of us spend a great more time with Katey Couric and
Matt Lauer or Ophra and Madonna or Labronne James and Tiger Woods or Garrison
Kiellor and Billy Graham or Tom Cruise and Sandra Bullock. (I sense I have
misspelled half these names, but I am not going to waste my time looking them
up. It would ruin my argument!) than we do with the people who live right across
the street. We’re probably lucky if we even know those people’s names.
And we spend more time talking about the affairs of Brittney Spears, Kobe
Bryant, Michael Jackson, Martha Stewart, and Joe Gibbs than we do discussing
what is going on with our spouses and children. In fact, big business expects we
shall buy all sorts of things on their recommendations, and we have never even
been introduced to them.
It is very interesting when Jesus is asked to name the greatest commandment, he
mentions two that he indicates have to go together: “Love God with everything
you’ve got and your neighbor as yourself” The latter is found in that format
throughout the Gospels and epistles. We are to love our neighbor, someone we
normally regard as living near us.
When the challenger asks Jesus to define exactly whom he means by
“neighbor”, Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan. The neighbor
might not live near us, might not even look like us; the neighbor is anyone in
my immediate vicinity wherever I find myself. The people who are really
important in my life and to whom I owe love are those who are bodily present
nearby.
That means right now we should all ask, “Who is bodily present most closely
around me at this moment?”. It those people to whom we must pay attention,
with whom we should get emotionally involved and to whom we should be offering
to share our resources. It is also those people to whom we should be sharing our
conversation.
It might be a good exercise to ask who are the people bodily present around us
on Tuesday at 9 a.m., on Wednesday at noon, on Thursday at 5:00 p.m., on Friday
at
7:30 p.m., on Saturday at 3:00 p.m., and on Sunday at 10:00 a.m.? Did you
include Jesus at every one of those hours? It’s time to stop acting like mad
people and to begin paying attention who really plays an important part in our
lives.
Let us pray: Father, open our eyes to those around us, especially those in need.
Grant us the compassion to reach out and touch them. And stand in our way when
we try to escape by spending our time with electronic images of people we do not
know. Make Christ present to us this Lent and grant us the courage to follow his
lead. We pray in his name. Amen.
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All are welcome to join and share in our Devotional Ministry on the "Frontlines" of the world. Frontline Devotions are sent via email daily. Sign up by clicking on the box to the left. Pastor Dave welcomes feedback. Contact him at pastordave@goodshepherdonline.org. |
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