Ten Minutes for Teachers
Mar. 11, 2007
Vol. 7, Issue 2

Worship Texts:  1 Cor. 10:1-13; Ps. 63:1-8; Luke 13:1-9
Worship Theme:  Changing Ways on the Way
Other Texts:  Isaiah 55:1-9
 
Reminder:
This Sunday marks another shift in Daylight Savings Time – so remember to “spring forward” an hour!

New Sunday School Class:
Check your bulletin and keep your eyes posted for information regarding a new Sunday school class opportunity.  The class led by Adam Lister will be reading and discussing God – A Biography – winner of the Pulitzer Prize – which looks at God’s character in the Old Testament.

Devotion: 
There are many ways to express satisfaction – depending on which culture you live in.  In America, satisfaction seems best expressed by tilting your head back, closing your eyes, and letting a deep “aaaahhhhh!” tumble out of your lungs and mouth.  At least, that is the image I usually see from Coca-Cola or Gatorade commercials!  That’s the catch, though.  In our culture:  satisfaction comes from things or from experiences. 

Compare that belief with the Psalmist’s voice:  “O God, you are my God; eagerly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you, as in a barren and dry land where there is no water” (Ps. 63:1).  According to the Psalmist, taking big gulps of God’s goodness, digesting healthy doses of God’s word leads to satisfaction.

Our hope is to leave behind the idea that satisfaction comes from “stuff” and to return to our ancestor’s claim that satisfaction comes from God. 

However, it is difficult to understand the Psalmist since most of us live with ample opportunities to satisfy ourselves.  Experience tells us satisfaction is best understood and accentuated by the reality of starvation or thirst (Anyone who has had a “campfire meal” after hiking many miles knows the truth of this paradox). Instead, though, most (if not all) of us enjoy full refrigerators and limitless water from the faucet on a daily basis, and we end most days fully satisfied.

Imagine, though, a person whose health and diet is still very much dependent upon the amount of rain that falls from the sky or comes down stream.  Imagine a time without food processing, refrigerators or food delivery.  Such a world – a world where starvation was an annual fear – increases the analogy used by the Psalmist, since he or she would have known better the fine line between malnutrition and satisfaction.

This adds to the significance and passion of in Psalm 63!  Satisfaction is from God and nowhere else.  That’s a bold statement, but a beautiful one as well.

Something to Chew On:
One of Jesus’ responses to the devil’s temptations was, “[we] do not live on bread alone,” and the follow up to that idea is that we live by the word of God. 

How often do you consider reading the Bible as a place of nutrition and satisfaction for your soul?  Have you ever considered Sunday school, Bible study or worship (where we digest the Word) as a place to be nourished? 

Perhaps this week, after you get done reading Psalm 63 in your Sunday school class, you can have everyone tilt their head back, close their eyes and let out a nice big “aaaaahhhh!”  You can also do the same thing during the worship service (it would make your pastors smile!). 

Besides, saying “aaaaahhhh!” is essentially what we are doing when we respond to the “Word of the Lord” with a hearty, “Thanks be to God!”  For by God’s Word to us we are fed, satisfied and prepared to feed others.

Prayer for the day:
“Remind us of your presence, O God, in the way that one who thirsts constantly thinks of water’s taste and gift.  But do more than remind us of you.  Be present to us in our need, in our weakness, in our fear, in our love.  In Jesus Christ.  Amen.” Seasons of the Spirit: Lent, Easter.  Pg. 15.