Week of Sabbath I, Day Six, Evening Devotion

Prayer for hope and healing:

Gracious and holy God,
I pray that I have made a difference today. I pray that I have touched someone, made someone’s day better, lifted someone’s spirits. As I rest, may I be refreshed and renewed, so that I might be a blessing to someone again tomorrow.
Amen

Reading: Luke 6:24-26: Woe is me.

‘But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. ‘Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.‘Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.
‘Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.

Meditation:

These woes are all hard to take. Odds are, we can all see ourselves in the former categories, as the objects of woe. We might not be rich…but we’re not so much hungry.

I find the hardest of the woes to be the last, though. To be honest, I want others to speak well of me. Psychologists developed the term “people pleaser” for those folks who want to be liked, but it’s one of those terms like “dysfunctional family” that tend to be liberally applied. Most of us are “people pleasers.” We want other people to like us, to “speak well of us.” The alternative is rather unpleasant, actually.

Surely Jesus doesn’t want people to speak ill of us? Not at all. What he does want, though, is for us to speak the truth to a world which doesn’t always want to hear it. The final woe is a reminder not to offer the false promises of the false prophets, who secured their places in the courts and temples by saying whatever those in power wanted to hear.

It’s hard to “speak the truth in love,” as Paul reminds us in his letter to the Ephesians. First we have to know what the truth is, by taking to heart the teachings of Jesus—even the hard ones. Then we have to be willing to stand up, to speak up, to call the world to a better way than the way of riches and false prophecy.

--How are you able to speak the truth in love? Do you think others hear you?

Prayer of joy:

Lord of Love,
I give you thanks this day for all of your teaching—the simple and the difficult. Grant me the strength to seek the truth you offer, and to share that truth with the world. Free me from worries about what others will think, and lend me your strong voice. For your call is a call to true prophecy, for the sake of all of the blessed ones.
Amen