April 21, 2014
UCC Daily Devotional
“For God will command the angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.” Psalm 91
Today is the 118th Boston Marathon. It is the world’s oldest marathon and, with over 500,000 spectators in attendance, the single most popular athletic competition in all of New England–sorry, Red Sox. Of course, you can look that up on Wikipedia. Heaven knows I did.
What you can’t learn from Wikipedia is that on the day before the Boston Marathon, Old South Church hosts one of our largest annual worship services. Only Christmas Eve and Easter compare to “Marathon Sunday”.
Yesterday, by the sly work of the Holy Spirit, Easter Sunday and Marathon Sunday fell on the same day. Hundreds of marathon runners from all over the world gathered in the sanctuary of Old South. The smell of lilies mingled with the smell of broken-in shoe rubber. The majestic pipe-organ of “Christ the Lord is Risen Today” stood in beautiful contrast to the pounding piano of “Guide My Feet”.
Hundreds stood with heads held high and were wrapped in the love and courage which was knit, stitch by stitch, into over 7,000 scarves, many sent from UCC churches all over the country. Hundreds stood to have our traditional words of blessing showered upon them, words drawn from the prophet Isaiah: may you run and not grow weary, walk and not faint. Aware of the fear that was engendered by last year’s terrorist attacks at the Boston Marathon, yet unwilling to bow before the power of death on Easter, today we add another prayer. It is a prayer uttered from the depths of our souls for the 118th Boston Marathon runners: May God command the angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.
Prayer
O God, we pray that today’s Boston Marathon will be a day of peace. And though we know it is our task to make peace, we need your help.
Rev. John M. Edgerton