Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Stephen replied, ‘Brothers and fathers, listen to me. The God of glory appeared to our ancestor Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, and said to him, “Leave your country and your relatives and go to the land that I will show you.”’”
NL Daily Devotion for Wednesday, April 27, 2022
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Speaking of change (yesterday’s devotion)… Can you imagine God telling you to pick up and leave everything you know and then just doing it? Stephen’s point in his sermon probably wasn’t to point this particular aspect of Jewish history, but rather to lay out the whole context of their faith. Still, I can’t help but think about the start contrast between the willingness of Abraham to trust God and embrace change and the unwillingness of the Jewish authorities to accept the changes Jesus’ community of disciples hoped to bring to the world. I think it comes down to power. Abraham didn’t have much. He was just a nomadic herder. He didn’t have any land of his own. He had very little to lose in picking up and following where God led. By the time of Jesus, there was a firmly established status quo among Abraham’s descendants, and it allowed a lot of people to enjoy a certain amount of privilege. The teachings of Jesus went counter to that. How things change when what starts as something radical and new becomes entrenched.
When have I had to completely trust God because of a change in my life?
