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Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Today's Frontline Devotion February 10, 2009 I'm Glad You Asked! |
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Frontline Devotion for Tuesday, February 10, 2009 by Matt Pensinger
Acts 2:37-38 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, 'Brothers,* what should we do?' 38Peter said to them, 'Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
This interruption at the peak of Peter's sermon in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost is by people who can't keep quiet any longer, who have heard the proclamation that "this Jesus whom you crucified... God has raised up... God has made him both Lord and Messiah" and BELIEVED it, and now they need to know, right now, urgently, interrupting... brothers, what should we do? You got it, you got us, you convinced us, we're looking at things differently now... so now what? This feels like it should make a BIG difference... so what is it, what difference does it make? Brothers, what should we DO?
In Brian McClaren's retelling of Acts (The Dust Off Their Feet, available through The Voice project at www.hearthevoice.com), what Peter replies to them is simple: "Reconsider your lives. Change your direction." Repent. Be baptized, participate in the ritual of cleansing and acceptance and beginning. Reconsider your life. Change your direction.
This is a description of the beginning, the birth moment of something new: a new way, a new community, a new church. And how it begins is this: reconsider your lives. Give up the things that took you in other directions. Put aside everything that's holding you back. Change your direction. Repent.
New things, new starts, new lives: they don't always come easily. There's something in us and in things and in organizations and religions and cultures and human nature that resists a change in direction, a reconsideration, a new or renewed focus. Repenting might sound easy at first... but then, what does repenting require? Admitting what's true? Admitting how not like we say we are, we are? Admitting how much our lives and our outlooks conform to what's expected and/or to what's familiar and/or to what's comfortable? Admitting that we've been and that we are, wrong? Admitting that we've been and that we are, sinful? Admitting that we've been and that we are desperately in need of some help, some renewal, some change, some Spirit?
The story of Acts begins with the coming of the Spirit, the explanation by witnesses, and then... the acceptance, the cutting to the heart, the "what should we do?" The rest of the story goes on to tell what happened as the people began to live out the "what should we do." There are reconsidered lives... there are changed directions... and in verse 42, it says that the first thing they did was this: "they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers." People who are devoted to community and to learning, to each other and to sharing and to love... those are changed people, and redirected people, and people who have the power of the Spirit. And, they are people who draw attention...
Help me to reconsider my life this day and every day, Lord God. Bring me the clarity to see your goodness and my forgetfulness, give me the courage to start anew and to reach for your kingdom, fill me with the Spirit of love and understanding and devotion, this day and every day. 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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