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Weekly Devotional

January 19, 2009

God’s Peace be with you all.

1 Peter 2:4-5   ⁴ Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God's sight, and  ⁵ like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Revelation 1:4-6   John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne,  ⁵ and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood,  ⁶ and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Today we celebrate the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.  Many of you were alive when Dr. King led the call for equality among all people.  I am sure that you can paint vivid pictures in your minds about the events that happened during those times.  Yesterday we discussed in Sunday School how even though it seems that people are equal today, there is still segregation in this country.  There is even segregation that is happening in Spartanburg County.  While it may not be by government order, it is still happening.

Segregation is not limited to race though.  We can look around and see segregation happening on a lot of levels, including in the church.  There are churches where people are not welcome because of their color, sexual orientation, age, economic class, etc.  That list could go on forever.  I am thankful to be a part of a church that welcomes whoever walks in the door.  Christ welcomed whoever came before him, why should the church not do the same thing?

About 500 years ago Martin Luther ran into segregation in the church.  However, he experienced it on a different level.  He saw that only the leaders in the church were able to read the Bible, and that parishioners were told what the leaders wanted them to hear.  He saw leaders telling the churchgoers that money was what got them into heaven.  As you all know, Luther had a major problem with this.  He worked toward integrating the church, and we have the outcome of that today.

And so as you ponder today, and remember the events of the late 60’s, keep in mind this quote from Luther: 

“Let every man recognize what he is, and be certain that we are all equally priests, that is, we have the same power in the word and in any sacrament whatever.”

In our prayers this week: 

Alma, Ann, Joseph, St. John’s Lutheran Church, Marjorie

God’s Peace,

Pastor Judson