10-DAY DEVOTIONAL RESTORING THE NARRATIVE
Restore NYC is a faith-based organization that exists to end sex trafficking in New York and restore the well-being and independence of foreign-national survivors.
restorenyc.org
A LETTER TO YOU For many of us, devotionals can be a source of much needed spiritual rhythm in our often hectic lives. It can be an opportunity to slow down and reflect on God, providing a time of peace and calm. But in this sense, the devotional you have in your hands may not be your traditional devotional. In the following pages, we will indeed reflect on some timeless truths of scripture, but also address our cultural context that seems in direct opposition to God’s hope for our world. In these daily readings, we will name and rebuke the reality of violence against women. We acknowledge this will likely bring you more heartache than peace, more conviction than it does comfort. But our hope is that through a holy discomfort we can begin to restore the biblical narrative that instills dignity, power, and beauty to women and girls. Ultimately, we hope that the church can be a redemptive force for good in a culture that desperately needs good news. May these words bless you in worship, that you may not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. (Romans 12:1-2) - Christopher Muller, MDiv. Director of Training and External Affairs, Restore NYC
DAY 1 GOOD
DAY 2 IMAGE
DAY 3 ECHO
DAY 4 LAMENT
DAY 5 WORTH
DAY 6 PUBLIC
DAY 7 SHOUT
DAY 8 WITNESS
DAY 9 GREATER
DAY 1 0 GOODNESS
DAY 1
GOOD “… God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31) READ: GENESIS 1 In the first chapter of Genesis, we see God speaking the world into existence. Light from darkness, stunning mountains and seas, even some cats to stay humble. God said it, and it was so. When God finishes, he looks over all that he made and proclaims it very good. So good, God takes a vacation the next day—yes, that good. This good is captured in the Hebrew concept of “shalom”, describing a world working in complete harmony. All relationships existed in complete peace—people with God, people with each other, people with themselves, and people with the environment. This was God’s brilliant and beautiful design. Can you imagine this? Spouses were never unfaithful. Nations were never at war. Free Wi-Fi was everywhere all day everyday. God said it, and it was so! Everything in the world worked exactly how it was supposed to. In this narrative, we see God exercising his creative power for the flourishing of all people. REFLECT: At Restore, we align ourselves with this narrative. A world where God’s intention is for us to flourish in all our relationships, a world where power is used for incredible good. But the stunning reality we confront every day does not tell this story. When we first meet a survivor, we hear a reality of exploitation, not flourishing. When she shares what she has endured, we witness a pattern of sexual violence, not peace. Friends, this is not shalom. This is not how it is supposed to be. In our work, we are privileged that we get to see God transform women’s histories of victimization into testimonies of freedom, healing, and empowerment. But this all begins by believing that violence has no place in God’s good creation. RESPOND: Where have you witnessed or experienced God’s broken shalom in our city? Pray for the freedom and flourishing of all survivors of sexual violence.
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DAY 2
IMAGE “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27) READ: GENESIS 1:26-31 The peak of the creation narrative occurs when God makes humanity. The root of who we are and why we exist lives in the truth that we are all created in the image of God. Men and women, created in the image of God. American, Russian, residents of New York and New Jersey, all created in the image of God. You and I, “us” and “them”, we are all equal representatives of God and of equal worth to God. God blesses and instructs humanity to fill the earth, exercise dominion, and take care of it all. By definition, these activities of image-bearers should then bear witness to God—who he is, what he cares about, and how he uses his power. So that later in scriptures, when we read prayers for God’s “glory to fill the earth”, this all alludes back to God’s original command to his image-bearers to fill the earth with what looks like, feels like, and acts like God. REFLECT: Across the globe, 98% of sex trafficking victims are women and girls. In the United States, 1 out of 5 women has been raped. Nearly half of American women have experienced some other form of sexual violence, such as sexual assault or unwanted sexual contact. The overwhelming majority of sex traffickers, sex buyers, and sexual offenders are men. This is a tragedy. God gives us, both men and women, the power and responsibility to fill the earth with God’s goodness. But instead, we see some men playing gods, distorting power for themselves, and systematically denying the image of God in women through acts of sexual violence. We see this from Hollywood to The Hill, from college campuses to church offices. In this cultural moment, it is not enough to say “we are all equal-image bearers” and stop there. We must name that women are not being treated as equal image-bearers with equal worth to God. For too long, women and girls have had to bear a world that dehumanizes them, that sees and treats them as objects for men’s consumption. This reality looks and feels nothing like our Creator. Friends, this problem cannot be reduced to only a women’s issue or a feminist critique. This reality is an offense to God, and as people of faith, this should offend us too. RESPOND: How does the social inequality of women impact your faith? Pray for the image of God in women and girls to be reclaimed and restored in your life, your community, and in our society.
DAY 3
ECHO “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1) READ: GENESIS 3 Genesis 3 tells the story of how the crafty serpent deceived Eve to eat fruit from the forbidden tree in the middle of the Garden of Eden. This interaction launches humanity into what Christians historically understand as “The Fall”, when sin entered the world and all our peaceful relationships became broken—our relationships with God, ourselves, each other, and creation. The world was now no longer how God intended it. Today, you and I still feel this same brokenness in our families, our city, and our Pinterest fails. And this all started with a lie. REFLECT: At Restore, what we see time and time again is that a survivor’s journey begins with a simple lie. Someone told them, “I have a good job for you.” “It’s just massage” or “it’s just modeling” or “it’s just working at a bar”. These were different lies about work that women we serve were told. What started as a lie, soon became manipulation. Manipulation became coercion, and then coercion became commercial sexual exploitation. This is how trafficking becomes a reality—it starts with a lie. The greater lie at the heart of a culture of violence is that girls are meant to be worth less than boys. For some, it may be too hard to imagine that this lie could somehow still exist or hold any weight in this day and age in America. But so many headlines are communicating this exact thing. When sexual violence occurs, but the upper class student still remains on campus. When sexual violence occurs, but the athlete still keeps his job and million dollar paycheck. When sexual violence occurs, but the businessman still gets a promotion. When sexual violence occurs, but the celebrity is never brought to trial. These are today’s narratives telling women and girls that you are worth less. Your voice, your body, and your dignity do not matter. These are the echoes of the crafty serpent. “Did God really say you were created in his image?” Thankfully, God had something to say to this in the person of Jesus, who is the truth that can set us free from every lie. RESPOND: Where have you experienced the destructive consequences of a lie? Pray for God’s truth to replace the lies many women have encountered in their personal, professional, and public lives.
DAY 4
LAMENT Our Father, we lament the reality of sex trafficking across all of New York City.
From the residential brothel to the massage parlor. From the strip club to the street corner.
We grieve the fact that thousands of vulnerable women and girls are being forcefully exploited for sex. We lament the traffickers who are buying, selling, and profiting off of women’s bodies. We grieve all forms of gender-based violence, sexual exploitation and harassment happening in our city and across the world. We mourn the suffering of women and girls, too often by the hands of men, happening in our workplaces, our homes, and in our churches. Father, is this the world that you have for our mothers, our sisters, and our daughters? Are you not the God who said we are all fearfully and wonderfully made? Yet why must she have to constantly fear sexual aggression? Why must she have to suffer constant objectification? Are you not the God who called us all precious and honored in your sight, created for your glory? Yet why must she be buried under the weight of shame? How can you tolerate this God? Does she not bear your image? Or are there those created more in your image than others? Are film producers and politicians created more in your image than her? Are policemen and pastors created more in your image than her? If not, and we are all equal image bearers, then why God must her divine image be the one repeatedly dismissed, deformed, and denied, so that their public images can be defended? Oh God, deliver us from this madness. In faith, we believe that you see every victim of sex trafficking and gender-based violence. So God, we pray your protection, deliverance, and restoration. We pray for justice for traffickers, and repentance for exploiters. Father, hear our prayers. We acknowledge the ways the church has historically abused scripture to justify the mistreatment of women. We confess how we as a church may have directly, indirectly, or unknowingly contributed to systems that treat women less than how you have called us. We praise you Father, and long for your Kingdom to come where there will be no sexual violence. We are grateful to serve a King, who took a stand against violence by becoming a victim of violence by the hands of men, laying down his life for us on the cross. And we pray all of this, in the name of Jesus Christ, your son and our Lord, amen.
DAY 5
WORTH “Who, being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage…” (Philippians 2:6) READ: LUKE 1:26-56, PHILIPPIANS 2:1-11 The Incarnation is the theology of Jesus, the Son of God, becoming man and dwelling among us, all for God’s purpose of saving the world through him. We see a beautiful portrayal of this in the apostle Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi. Our Savior doesn’t show up to a TMZ-worthy scene. There is no red carpet, no paparazzi, and no selfie sticks. He doesn’t arrive as a super-fit 20-something fresh-out-of-spin-class. Nope, Jesus shows up as a newborn baby to an unwed teen mother from the sketchy part of town. Let’s take this in. Jesus—the Lord of heaven and earth, whom in and through everything was made and for whom everything exists, with all the power of the universe at his disposal—comes as a baby. Unarmed. Helpless. Totally vulnerable. This is how redemption makes its entrance. REFLECT: Right now, power has a pretty bad reputation. Understandably so, because we see countless examples of power being misused. At Restore, we see a particular abuse of power called sex trafficking. Trafficking is often described as “the exploitation of vulnerabilities,” which boils down to a trafficker using some power advantage to exploit the power disadvantage of another. But whether it’s trafficking, sexual assault, or domestic violence, this same power dynamic is playing out in systems that afford more advantages to men than women. These systems could be smaller scale family systems, or larger scale political systems. Yet in the narrative of the Incarnation, we see power moving in the opposite direction we expect. Jesus has supreme authority and chooses the way of total vulnerability. Jesus has the greatest advantages and uses them to serve the least. Jesus has the status of perfect holiness and becomes sin so that we could be redeemed. Friends, this is the narrative of our redeemer. This is Jesus saying through his actions, “You are worth it.” RESPOND: — Luke 8:48 TPT How are you using the power you have, whether it be positional, relational, or economic? Pray for the power we have to be used like Jesus for God’s good purposes.
DAY 6
PUBLIC “In this world we are like Jesus.” (1 John 4:17) READ: ROMANS 12:1-21, 1 JOHN 4:7-21 Jesus is the embodiment of the highest form of love, a love translated from the Greek word “agape” (ah-GAH-peh). Agape love is selfless, sacrificial, and unconditional. It’s a kind of love that goes beyond empathy and demonstrates itself in action. The most definitive proof of Jesus’ sacrificial love is the cross. But we often miss the ways Jesus demonstrated this radical love throughout his entire ministry. In the words of Beyoncé, Jesus was crazy in love. He loved the Jew and the Gentile. He served synagogue leaders and the religiously unclean. He chilled with tax collectors, Jewish blue collar workers, and Roman military officials. His crazy love did not conform to the divisive identity politics of his day. Jesus shows us this is what agape love looks like in public, and often this type of radical love is disruptive. He was not disruptive for disruption’s sake, but this is the byproduct of God’s unconditional love expressed in a society bound by conditional love. REFLECT: At Restore, we believe there is no greater comfort for survivors of sexual violence than Jesus himself. In him there is no darkness, only light; no violence, only peace; no fear, only love. This is incredibly good news. The agape love of Jesus, God in the flesh, is a creative, powerful, shalom-restoring kind of love that is not bound by this world. This kind of love will inevitably conflict with the status quo. So when our current social narrative speaks of women’s inequality, we must ask ourselves, “How crazy is our love?” Or in the vein of Bonhoeffer, “How costly is our love?” Does our love go beyond empathy and demonstrate itself in public? Or have we domesticated Jesus’ love to private spaces? Is our love willing to not just love the survivor individually, but also challenge the cultural patterns that allow the sex market to even exist? Are we willing to love our female neighbors by naming, disrupting, and undoing systems of inequality that preserve and protect male dominance? We must learn that it is impossible to love our neighbors without caring about how systems treat them on a daily basis. If we desire to be in this world like Jesus, then our love must work to transform the systems that restrict the flourishing of women and girls. RESPOND: How is God’s love transforming the way you love your neighbor, on a relational and systemic level? Pray that the church would transform unjust cultural systems through costly love.
DAY 7
SHOUT “But with loud shouts they insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed.” (Luke 23:23) READ: LUKE 23:1-43, ISAIAH 53 The bible is full of shocking moments, arguably none more shocking than the crucifixion of Jesus. In the buildup to Jesus’ death, there is something we often overlook that was shocking to his adversaries—what Jesus didn’t do. When falsely accused by the high priest, Jesus remained silent. When attacked with questions by King Herod, Jesus gave him no answer. When Pontius Pilate urged Jesus to respond to the crowd, “he still made no reply, not even to a single charge—to the great amazement of the governor.” (Mt. 27:14) Pilate even went to the crowd and tried to release Jesus. “But with loud shouts they insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed.” REFLECT: Jesus is the crucified Messiah who exchanged the violence of the world for our peace with God. For survivors of sexual violence, the cross speaks of a God who knows the weight of your suffering. Trauma can be an isolating force, but know this—you are not alone. For survivors who have been falsely accused, Jesus was too. For survivors who have been publicly shamed, Jesus was too. For survivors who have endured questions to repeatedly retell your side of the story, but have chosen to remain silent, Jesus gave them no answer too. Jesus carried all this and more to the cross. Similar to Jesus’ context, we are also in a cultural moment filled with some influential voices that are shouting loudly. Voices that demean and redirect blame. Voices that attack a woman’s character. Voices that politicize a survivor’s courage to come forward. When these voices shout loud enough, they can drown out any cries for justice. This is the war of narrative supremacy. If the church remains silent on issues of sexual violence, then these will be the voices that prevail. If the church chooses passivity over engagement, then the narrative of victimization without accountability, power beyond reproach, and male entitlement to women’s bodies will continue to prevail. Friends, our silence is unacceptable to our mothers, sisters, and daughters. It’s time to raise our voice. RESPOND: How has your faith influenced your engagement with sexual violence in our culture? Pray for the faith community to be a redemptive voice in our city and our world.
DAY 8
WITNESS “Now he had to go through Samaria.” (John 4:4) READ: JOHN 4:1-42 The interaction of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well is profound. Jesus is the one who engages first, and she is rightfully shocked. It was unlawful for a Jewish man to speak to a woman in public, even his wife, let alone a woman from Samaria! Jesus is truthful and merciful as they converse, and he reveals to her that he is the Messiah. When the disciples return, they are stunned. Just witnessing this interaction would be extremely uncomfortable and messy. Hence the thought, “Why are you talking with her?” But Jesus engages with her, and he entrusts the message of salvation to a woman that even by her own culture’s standards would’ve been viewed as misguided, unclean, and unlovable. The woman came to the well for water, but after experiencing Jesus face to face, she immediately leaves her water jar to call the rest of her town to come to Jesus. Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman affirms her dignity and empowers her voice. “Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony.” REFLECT: Today, many of us tend to avoid difficult situations. And if we’re totally honest, this often means we avoid difficult people—just think about who we ignore on the subway or who we unfollow on Instagram. Maybe we do this because it’s uncomfortable or inconvenient. Maybe because we can’t fix the problem on our own. Or maybe because engaging just gets too messy. But the radical story of God’s love is that God loved us first. Like Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman, Jesus takes the lead in engaging us first. And by engaging us he chooses to embrace the awkward, shocking, and uncomfortable mess we have made, all for the sake of God’s love. A love that heals the sick, saves the lost, and reconciles a broken world back to the Father. For Christ-followers, are we willing to follow Jesus through Samaria? Are we engaging the uncomfortable mess of sexual violence being exposed in our society and in our faith communities? How are we acknowledging the image of God in the potential victim and the potential offender? Are we willing to love our neighbors over our institutions, even when that institution is the church? I believe when we do this well, it will bear a powerful witness to a world in desperate need of good news. RESPOND: What are ways you can bear witness to the gospel in the midst of brokenness? Pray for faith communities to be a place of refuge and safety for a hurting world.
DAY 9
GREATER “He will swallow up death in victory.” (Isaiah 25:8) READ: LUKE 24:1-12, EPHESIANS 6:10-17 The resurrection of Jesus is central to Christianity. It is like the breath that gives life to the Christian faith. It is like the crazy-beautiful-100%-redeemed-alternative to The Walking Dead. The resurrection totally defies logic. Yet, so does a God who becomes a baby, a Savior who loves his enemies, a Lord who washes feet like a servant, and a King who leaves an eternal throne for a temporary crown of thorns. The resurrection puts on display a definitively different use of power than the abuse of power we too often witness on a daily basis. But more so, by rising from the dead, Jesus puts on display a greater power at work in our world. As Paul writes in Colossians, Jesus “disarmed the powers and authorities” by “triumphing over them” (Col. 2:15) This is the hope for the world. It is not a country, not a political candidate, nor a passionate justice movement. As believers, our hope is the victory we have in Christ. REFLECT: There is an old saying, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” With the brokenness all around us, this saying feels like an absolute truth. But in the face of Jesus, this line is exposed for what it truly is—a lie. The One with absolute power is God, and what is corrupted about Jesus and his use of absolute power? Jesus himself is both the best expression of power and the redemption of fallen power itself. Jesus defeated all sin and every evil imaginable—past, present, and future. For us, this means that the power of oppression cannot stand against the power of the resurrection. The power of God’s love has triumphed over the power of sexual violence. No matter how big and profitable the commercial sex industry is across the globe. No matter how entrenched gender inequality is in our culture and our church. And no matter how much worse the problems may get, we know this story ends in victory. This is the narrative we believe. This is the hope in the resurrection. Jesus is the risen King we are called to worship, his is the kingdom reality we are called to live into, and this is good news we are called to preach to the nations. RESPOND: In your faith journey, where have you experienced the power of resurrection? Pray for all women and girls who have experienced sexual violence to experience God’s greater love.
DAY 1 0
GOODNESS I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise your name for ever and ever. Every day I will praise you and extol your name for ever and ever. Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom. One generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts. They speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty— and I will meditate on your wonderful works. They tell of the power of your awesome works— and I will proclaim your great deeds. They celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness. The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made. All your works praise you, Lord; your faithful people extol you. They tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might, so that all people may know of your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does. PSALM 145: 1-13
CONNECT We would love to connect. Whether you’re interested in having a Restore speaker share at a Sunday service, lead a workshop on a faith-based response to sexual violence, or if you simply want to learn more about how we can partner together to stand up for justice, please visit restorenyc.org/church.
Our mission is to end sex trafficking in New York and restore the well-being and independence of foreign-national survivors.
restorenyc.org