Bible Readings and Devotion for October 21, 2020
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Devotion for October 21, 2020
By Pastor David Tinker
A few years ago my family attended a pop culture convention in Arlington, Texas, called Retropalooza. This was as a kind favor to our teen son. He had heard that one of his favorite YouTube creators was going to be in attendance and would be offering seminar and meet and greet time at the event. This YouTuber goes by the name, “Chadtronic.”
Chadtronic, or Chad, has an outrageous and fun personality in his videos. On his Youtube channel he offers video reviews of pop culture items, low quality training videos, toys, and the like. He almost shouts at times and is generally silly and entertaining. I enjoy his videos as well.
So, we first meet him at his promotions table at the convention. Interestingly, he was pretty much a normal, somewhat soft-spoken man. When talking with our son he spoke in normal, conversational tones. This was mildly surprising, since in his videos he is sometimes over-the-top. Then we go to the meet and greet. Chad is there, along with dozens of other fans of his channel. While he did do some of the presentation in his video channel voice, otherwise he was using that normal conversational tone. We had an impression that he was an over the top video presenter, and that he talked like that all the time. He does that well, but he is also a normal, soft-spoken man. He is married and he works hard to support his family. He is like us, but we often just see what he does best and most publicly.
This reminds me of what St. Paul writes in today’s reading from Galatians chapter 6. This is part of the closing of this letter to the church. We read, “See what large letters I make when I am writing in my own hand!” For whatever reason, Paul’s handwriting was larger than average. It was larger than that of the scribe who received his dictation for the letter. In a very real sense, Paul was a normal person. His handwriting was not that great. Paul also had some health issues. According to Eutychus, as shown in Acts 20:7-12, Paul was a very boring and long-winded preacher. What we do know is that his great strength was his immense intelligence and his ability to present the message of Jesus through the written word. This God given ability was what we have the most of in church history. Thirteen books of the New Testament are letters by Paul. God used a flawed human to bring the Gospel to billions of fellow, flawed humans.
St. Paul was just like all of us, and like Chadtronic. He was a sinner in need to God’s love and forgiveness. He was a person who was given abilities to be a blessing to others. We are people who have God given abilities to be a blessing to others. Paul, Chadtronic, you and I are all real people loved by God. With God’s power, forgiveness and gifting, we all have the opportunity to do great things for the Lord.
Prayer
Almighty God, your Holy Spirit equips the church with a rich variety of gifts. Grant that we may use them to bear witness to Christ in lives that are built on faith and love. Make us ready to live the gospel and eager to do your will, so that we may share with all your church in the joys of eternal life; through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.
Martin Luther Lutheran Church 