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Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Today's Frontline Devotion January 21, 2009 Newsworthy |
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Frontline Devotion for Wednesday, January 21, 2009 by Penny Risen
Galatians 5:13 -15 "For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don't use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' " New Living Translation Bible
Very seldom when I visited my grandmother, did we watch TV or listen to the radio. We were too busy playing with cousins, exploring her root cellar or attic, eating her wonderful hot, cherry soup, or walking along the shore to enjoy the beauty of Door County, Wisconsin. That's what made a summer afternoon in 1965 so unusual.
My big brothers and I came in from climbing Grandma Schumann's twin willow trees to find the adults gathering around a radio listening to the news. It was July 10: The day the U.S. House of Representatives voted to approve the Voting Rights Act.
Grandma didn't see a reason to buy a television until shows routinely went to broadcasts in color, because she said B&W programs "didn't look like real life." She was a very literal person and looked at life with simplicity. As the widow of a small town Lutheran pastor, she welcomed change if it meant progress and usefulness - otherwise, it was just a passing fancy, not worthy of her concern.
As I slid next to Grandma in a big chair, I knew I'd get a straight answer when I asked what was so important on the radio. The government is changing things for people, she whispered.
"We are all equal in His sight," she said quietly but resolutely,"... just like Lord Jesus said."
absorbed this simple truth from her, as much as an elementary school kid could. I learned later that as shaped by President Lyndon Johnson, the Voting Rights Act aimed to eliminate restrictive laws to prevent blacks and other minorities from voting.
I hadn't thought about this prescient moment with my dear grandma --- one of my treasured clouds of witnesses - for many years, until I heard snatches of the Jan. 20, 2009 inaugural address by President Barack Obama. Like other presidents before him, Obama stressed how our equality and liberty hold a responsibility for us to behave as brothers and sisters. We are bound as one in mission and in love as neighbors.
Today's passage in Galatians echoes the same good news from Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, urging "Love your neighbor as yourself." Having this freedom and equality as people of God, we share a common task to turn against sin and strive for harmony, justice and peace.
In his first inaugural address, President Abraham Lincoln hoped all people of the Union would be "touched by better angels of our nature." Lincoln devotee Obama also called for our nation (and partisans) to embrace these better angels, and to fulfill the promises of citizenship, recognize our collective responsibility and to serve one another - as Paul repeated to the new believers in his epistle.
Would Pastor Schumann's wife, my grandmother, approve of this rallying cry for change, consider it worthy to focus on love of neighbors, and move away from selfishness toward shared responsibility? Knowing how she spoke in a humble tone of the 1965 news of voter equality, I think she would embrace it.
Prayer for the Day: Dear Lord, thank you for the gift of freedom. Make us worthy of the challenge to love our neighbors. Help us to hear the voices of our better angels, our witnesses, and our forebears to form bonds with our neighbors. 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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