Daily Devotion – October 29, 2020 – Dr. Pat Taylor Ellison
Psalm 78:1-7
78:1 Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
78:2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old,
78:3 things that we have heard and known, that our ancestors have told us.
78:4 We will not hide them from their children; we will tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might, and the wonders that he has done.
78:5 He established a decree in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach to their children;
78:6 that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and rise up and tell them to their children,
78:7 so that they should set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments.
Over the past 30 years I have had the privilege of working with hundreds of Christian congregations on three continents. These 30 years have been a pivotal time for the church, especially the mainline Protestant church (Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist…) because even as we made the leap to the 21st century, our local churches seemed to be shrinking or even dying.
There was plenty of blame to be tossed around – secularization, changes in US priorities, school sports on Sundays, young women not being eager to join their grandmothers in WELCA. And this wonderful psalm puts its finger right on a major reason for the mainline church’s decline in numbers. Verse 5 says it clearly: He established a decree in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach to their children…who would rise up to teach their children…
Somehow, many of us faithful people have not passed the faith along to our children. People will not admit it. It is a hard thing for believers to own up to. It takes more than a year of trust-building, working with a congregation before they will tell you that they weep for how their children have not found communities of faith and don’t even talk about the faith, how they didn’t pass their faith to \the next generation.
Here it is, in Psalm 78: What our ancestors have told us, we will not hide from our children, but instead tell them of the glories of the Lord and help them tell their children, so that they set their hope in God. It’s not too late. We can still share our faith with our kids. And what’s more, it’s not just about our kids. We have neighbors who might be equally interested in the story of the glory of God. Look at the people joining us at St John during this pandemic! So, does as the psalmist describes: Tell the story of the glory of God, even to one other person, so that people will have something powerful to set their hope upon.
Gracious God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for teaching us even now. Help us to tell the story of the glory of God. Help us to realize when we might have an eager audience, and help us to use those moments to give our children and our neighbors something to set their hope in! Amen.
