September 1: Free to Worship
Having trouble viewing this message? View it in your browser. http://act.ucc.org/site/R?i=86r00xUOducZ6FJ2whdKpg September 1, 2011 Free to Worship Exodus 9:1 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: “Let my people go, so that they may worship me.’” (NIV) Reflection by Kenneth L. Samuel In the southern church I serve in Georgia, congregants are sometimes disturbed when they hear “too much politics from the pulpit.” “Just stick to the gospel,” they say. “All we want to hear is what saith the Lord!” I suspect that my church is not unlike many. In the minds of many Christians, there is a vast divide between sacred worship on Sundays and the everyday political debates that plague us. But our faith is built upon God’s direct intervention into a political debate that took place in Egypt centuries ago. The issue was whether the Hebrew slaves, who held up Egypt’s economy with their free labor, should be liberated. God anointed and empowered Moses and the freedom fighters in Egypt, and after some 400 years of political, social and economic enslavement, the children of Israel were set free. The political climate in Egypt leading up to the liberation of the Hebrew slaves must have been tense, to say the least, but God was certainly the instigator of it all. So what does this have to do with worship? God said to Egypt: “Let my people go, so that they may worship me.” This doesn’t mean that oppressed people can’t worship God. It means that all people should be free to bow to no other god but God. No person should have to bow to any god of racism, imperialism, sexism, heterosexism, nationalism or materialism. God wants all people free to worship God and God alone. Worship, at its best, is a celebration of God’s liberating activity in the world. When we are liberated from every dimension of personal, inter-personal and political distress, we are made free to bow before no other god, but God. Political? Yes. Divine? Resounding yes! Prayer Dear God, empower our struggles against every exalted oppression that rivals your place on the throne. Make us free to worship you and you alone. Amen. [object Object] About the Author Kenneth L. Samuel is Pastor of Victory for the World Church, Stone Mountain, Georgia. The Daily Devotional is now on Facebook. Become a fan! http://act.ucc.org/site/R?i=hdgMVl2Mjr5zx3kYIeEAig Sign up to receive Daily Devotionals http://act.ucc.org/site/R?i=IlFKPwsLE1-Z4csR1K9mjw More items written by the Stillspeaking Writers’ Group http://act.ucc.org/site/R?i=qvIAiAot7pFwBniwBwU0VA Facebook Fan Page http://act.ucc.org/site/R?i=etzPJR6Ob_754fJzKrOrfQ Forward to a Friend http://act.ucc.org/site/R?i=4sHtA0q-E9rQdzogZYFvOQ Signup for the Daily Devotional http://act.ucc.org/site/R?i=cPBeT0fpZsDr3xPYIIwoTQ Writers Group http://act.ucc.org/site/R?i=8Du3PJl8YTe8xnb1BdtT5Q The Stillspeaking Daily Devotional is a free service and is supported by your gifts to Our Church’s Wider Mission. Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America,adapted. Used by permission. All rights reserved. http://act.ucc.org/site/R?i=8e0yFHcvkviYPIuV3kizqg Unsubscribe or edit your settings http://act.ucc.org/site/CO?i=D9l89uVUOq8iuCNr_4f9_Z62KZn9pBgH&cid=1072
