Obstacle Does Not Mean Impossible

(A devotion for our church for this past Sunday.)

Obstacle Does Not Mean Impossible

Luke 1:39-45

Paul Stroble

To quote the introduction to the sermon series, “Sometimes, God places a clear challenge before us. We may even wish that we couldn’t see as much detail because now we know how big a mountain we are being asked to move. This week we will consider the stories of two women who could clearly see how much God’s ‘ask’ was going to complicate their lives. How might their responses help us tackle God’s next ‘ask?’”

I enjoy the story of Mary and Elizabeth. It is a beautiful story of how the Holy Spirit “networks” people and accomplishes God’s wonderful work. At one point in my career, I considered doing ministry among older adults. Mary’s seeking out of Elizabeth is a reminder (as Pastor Linda points out) of the wisdom to be found among folks who have lived a long time.

Right before this story in Luke, Mary is greeted by the angel Gabriel. Gabriel promises to her a son named Jesus, “the Son of the Most High” who will assume the throne of David and rule for his people forever (Luke 1:28-33).

Martin Luther once wrote, “…there are here three miracles: that God and man should be joined in this Child; that a mother should remain a virgin; that Mary should have such faith as to believe that this mystery would be accomplished in her.” Luther added that Mary’s faith was as great as these other miracles. Hypothetically, she could have disbelieved the angel’s words. But she did believe and became the mother of God.

At the time, Elizabeth is six months pregnant. Elizabeth is past child-bearing years and has no children. She, too, has been given a great gift—a son who would herald the arrival of Messiah. In our story, Mary traveled in haste to visit Elizabeth, perhaps in happiness at Gabriel’s announcement, perhaps to feel affirmed through the company of a trusted relative. (For whatever reason, Mary’s parents are not mentioned in the Christmas stories.) Writers have speculated that Mary’s journey may have lasted three or four days, through hill country that was not necessarily hospitable. Mary was a strong person to begin with!

Of course, the episode brims over with excitement, anticipation, and joy. As Pastor Linda says in her message, Elizabeth has been keeping to herself, with a temporarily mute husband. When she and Mary meet, Elizabeth’s child—who would be named John—leaps in her womb. Elizabeth declares through the Spirit’s power:

“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”

The first sentence of that scripture is the text of the beautiful Ave Maria: Benedicta tu in mulieribus et benedictus fructus ventris tui. In the power of the Spirit, Elizabeth blessed Mary and the child in her womb.

The smallness of the story is also a lesson in God’s ability to overcome any human obstacles. In all the vast area of the Roman Empire, in an occupied territory of the near east, we learn of two women who are not at all insignificant. They are the major figures in God’s salvation of the world!

These, of course, are stories of Bible people, whom we’d expect to be special. But has God removed obstacles in your life? How have you known God’s amazing grace? In my own life, I’ve known several surprising circumstances that shows me God’s work for good (Rom. 8:28). Events that didn’t make much sense became meaningful overtime—sometimes across many years. I realized how God had guided me all along, even though I wasn’t at all sure of God’s provision.

Eventually, Mary knew great sorrow when her son was put to death. But shortly, her sorrow was turned to joy. With God, even death is not an obstacle!

Prayer: Dear Lord, help us have faith in your wonderful work in our lives, no matter how difficult things seem to be. Amen.

(I wrote on this scripture in the 1997 and 2009 Advent study books for Abingdon Press. I reworked, condensed, and adapted those studies for this devotion.)

Landscape: Josef Stoitzner

 Josef Stoitzner (Austrian, 1884–1951) After the Rain. 

Copied under fair use principles. 

"How America Failed in Afghanistan"

Interesting New Yorker interview. 

https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/how-america-failed-in-afghanistan?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Daily_081521&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&bxid=608b46bec12218465e4e03ec&cndid=64895482&hasha=163986279f01a2019644d80d9e8ffed6&hashb=76e87931f255e86e78a9c7cdedd4d5b148927633&hashc=efbf586b86a6704df62d6031f65140990d0dfd9a97cba02ce5da8c54649fd7f3&esrc=KEYWEE_FB_NEWS&mbid=CRMNYR012019&utm_content=A&utm_term=TNY_Daily

You Gotta Have Hope

My wife Beth's devotion for our church for this past Sunday 

You Gotta Have Hope

By Beth Stroble

You may have heard this cautionary statement in a variety of settings voiced by individuals with different political viewpoints or business perspectives: “Hope is not a strategy.”  Many attribute the statement to the late football coach Vincent Lombardi, with this corollary: “Fear is not an option.”  Apparently, neither statement can be verified as his.  Yet, they capture in succinct ways a perspective that came to mind as I thought about abundant hope, the focus of this week’s message.

The prophet Isaiah encourages and assures the people of God’s redemptive power, repeating the Lord’s own message: “Don’t fear, for I have redeemed you: I have called you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; when through the rivers, they won’t sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you won’t be scorched and flame won’t burn you.” (Isaiah 43: 1-2).

Such vivid images of the threats to life!  How difficult for us, if faced with these physical sources of harm and destruction, to lay claim to these promises!  Much less can rattle me, shaking my confidence and sense of security. Then I think of David’s faithful words from the 23rd Psalm: “Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no danger because you are with me. Your rod and your staff—they protect me.”

These scripture passages address that second apocryphal assertion, that fear is not an option.  But what about hope? How does hope figure in the absence of fear?  While hope may not be a strategy, I think abundant hope is at the heart of facing fear. It’s a matter of where hope resides.  If we approach hope as a strategy, then we may be placing our hope primarily in our own power, abilities, or skills. If instead we hold hope as a result of our trust and confidence in already being redeemed by God, our hope resides in a power greater than our own.  Thanks be to God.

Absent hope, our fears are magnified. Absent hope, cynicism creeps in. Absent hope, we cling to what gives us false security, even to our own peril.

Turning those two statements around, it might be more useful for us as God’s children to say: “Fear is not an option.  Hope in the Lord with all your heart.”

No strategy for our lives can succeed without that kind of hope. Let us proclaim, in the words of these great hymns, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness,” “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine,” “If thou but suffer God to guide thee, and hope in God through all thy ways, God will give strength, whate’er betide thee.”

Hope, abundant hope, is loving and trusting in God’s eternal care. In the words of the song verse from the musical Damn Yankees, “Ya gotta have hope.”  Lack of hope is not an option. It is what carried the people from the Babylonian exile on their return to Jerusalem.  It is what will carry us through the challenges of our day.

Lord God, creator, redeemer, holy comforter, in these times of so much that rocks our confidence and inner peace, help us hold to our hope in you.  Restore us when we falter. Strengthen our confidence in your care. Remove our fear. And give us the courage to be givers of hope to others, messengers of the abundant hope found only in you.  Amen.

My Blooming, Varied Career

Someone has said that depression is like a suit of armor, that keeps the good things out and retains the painful thoughts. That certainly describes me! I'm better than I used to be. But lately, for some reason, my blues have been focused on my career. 

In college, I hoped to have a career using my various talents and interests dedicated to God. That was really my "call." So many pastors privilege the specific call to parish ministry, and my call included that plus other things that God might show me. Having a wonderful marriage wherein Beth and I are partners certainly has added amazing dimensions to the work of both of us. Plus, I've been able to have a career that gives me plenty of available time when our daughter Emily needs me.  

I decided to sketch out how my different interests were used in different settings and projects. I haven't done too badly, LOL. I wish I could quit feeling insecure about my work, once and for all. On this chart, he books that have asterisks are all related to the period (1997-2015) when I wrote and published ten or eleven church-related study books. I hope that period hasn't ended entirely! But since 2015, I've been focusing on poetry. 

In fact, Beth said that I hadn't represented my poetry sufficiently on the chart, so I added it in some categories. 

At Greenville College (now University), I majored in history, with an informal minor in religion, including a good philosophy component. I was socially lonely in college, but I appreciated my program. In hindsight, college prepared me well for all these categories. My masters at Yale Divinity School was an all around Mdiv degree: Bible, theology, history, and practical theology. My PhD at University of Virginia was philosophy and theology. One of the wonderful things about teaching at Webster U has been the ability to put a lot of my doctoral course work to good use, in undergraduate classes. 

I have a bachelors in history, which normally might not be enough to teach undergrads. But my Vandalia book (U of I Press, 1992) was kind of a substitute doctoral dissertation in history, although I hadn't planned it that way. This turned out to be wonderful, because at two crucial moments I was qualified to teach history--at Indiana University Southeast and University of Akron. 

I wrote and/or researched the current events curriculum FaithLink in 1996-2011. Although written for the benefit of church folks, the work became a great education in social issues and ethics generally. So I've been able to teach social topics at Webster U and also Eden Seminary for the past few years. "Current events and social issues" could've been a separate category. Funny to think that I tried to read the New York Times during seminary years, to try to educate myself on current events, but I couldn't get into it. 

Thank you, Lord, for leading me in different ways, forgiving me for so much self-doubt, and helping me "bloom where planted"

Dangers of the American Right

"It’s a peculiar statement of our times that Hungary — a small nation whose modest economy gets buoyed by E.U. handouts and whose government goes in search of Chinese loans — has become such a lodestar for the right-wing movement in the world’s most powerful country. But that is where we are. In its index tracking the political direction of democratic parties around the world, the Sweden-based V-Dem Institute found that the Republican Party had slid toward the illiberalism of ruling parties in Turkey and Hungary, both home to right-wing, majoritarian governments that have eroded democratic norms to maintain power." 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/08/04/american-conservatives-orban-hungary/?fbclid=IwAR36mh0hmAvl35zswBpR_dNfVnTBDEQUPgzTCde8KJmN2Uscr_TwkuwhOjU

Lincoln's First Political Success

On August 4, 1834, twenty-five year old Abraham Lincoln was elected to the Illinois Legislature for the first time. My hometown was state capital. He went on to serve four two-year terms, two more at Vandalia and one at Springfield. Here's the big man when he was about 37, in the earliest photo of him. 

Abundant Joy

A devotion for our church for this past Sunday 

Abundant Joy

Philippians 4:4-9

A long-time Baptist preacher in my hometown had a weekly newspaper column of Bible studies. He always concluded them with a quotation from this week’s scripture, “THINK ON THESE THINGS!” 

Our scripture certainly invites us to meditate on its meanings! What if I’m not feeling joy (vs. 4)? How can I suspend all my worries and anxieties (vs. 6)? What if peace of mind eludes me (vs. 7)? What if the things I think about fall short of the high standards Paul sets (vs. 8)?   

Beth and I were talking about this scripture. Beth wondered how other cultures define joy. Interesting question! 

Happiness and joy aren’t exactly the same thing, but I found articles online that discuss cultural attitudes toward happiness. In the U.S., we tend to associate personal achievement and freedom with happiness, while in Japan, happiness is connected to moderation, social harmony, and good luck. When we visited Japan in 2016, we saw so many shrines in urban neighborhoods, where passersby could honor the spirits of good fortune. We also experienced the cleanliness of urban environments, and an eagerness of people to help you if you’re distressed or look lost. 

Another article discussed how family ties and social relationships are important in places like India, where happiness seemed to abate as income grew. In the U.S., the pursuit of happiness is a natural right, as stated in the Declaration of Independence, while in other countries, happiness is associated with chance, and therefore not something worth seeking actively. 

I suppose I think of happiness as a specific emotional response—I have a great day with the family, I buy an antique book that I like, and so on—while joy is more like an attitude. Similarly, my feeling of happiness (say, I’m watching a favorite TV show) is different from peace of mind, a more long-lasting emotion. “The peace which surpasses all understanding” (verse 7) is deeper still. 

Where do abundant joy and transcending peace come from? They are gifts of the Spirit, provided as we grow in our relationship with God.  

I like to think of Christ's death and resurrection as bringing about a kind of reality, which is forceful and real for us today. Our sins and wrongdoings and failures (and our smallness in the universe) have no ability to separate us from God—because we’re protected in that resurrection reality. 

Eternal life is like being kept in a protective and secure place, out of reach of danger. Obviously, we still face difficult and dangerous, painful situations. But if we have a relationship with Christ, then Christ keeps us shielded from the full powers of death and evil. Our very lives are tucked away and protected, because we’re already sharing in the divine life of Christ. We have a new identity for the remainder of our physical existence, characterized and empowered by God’s tremendous and infinite love.

This is our reality! As Paul teaches, we can keep these things in mind, and through God’s Spirit, we can rejoice in our hearts. Paul is in prison as he writes these words, a good illustration of how he has thought a lot about his life in Christ. As we all go about our lives, we will still worry about things, but we understand that God is very near. We have an inner peace that is so pervasive through good times and bad, that we know it’s from the Lord!  

Prayer: Lord, give us the joy and peace that nothing can take away. Amen.