3/30 Holy Saturday

3/29 Good Friday

3/28 Maundy Thursday

3/27 Wednesday in Holy Week

3/26 Tuesday in Holy Week

3/25 Monday in Holy Week

3/24 Palm Sunday

An offering from John Pomeroy

The Passion story tells me several things as I struggle with it every year to discover its meaning.

God is present in a different way I might suppose. God did not prevent the cross, but allowed it so that something more important would come about—a reunion with the human community by being involved with suffering rather than staying aloof, disconnected, apart from it. God does not remain in heaven. My temptation is to fix things—repair the brokenness, but God’s way is to heal and transform instead.

I have to relearn each Lent that the boundaries of life as they appear to me are not God’s boundaries. What I perceive as life and death are permeable boundaries for God. He moves through those boundaries easily, loving us just the way we are, even when we don’t deserve it, even when we ignore, crucify and mock what is new, what can change us.

The final meaning for me is that the Passion story does not end with Jesus on the cross. The Passion is not a tale of a failed prophet who just got a few too many people angry but is instead a message that going to the heart of darkness involves God going me. In my darkest moments of disappointment and loss, God does not give up or abandon me, but instead transforms that darkness into something new. There will be suffering and  death, but there will be something radically new given in God’s good time to me and to you if we see that suffering for what it is: the beginning of the greater gift of life and reunion with God who loves us so much that, “He gave is only begotten son that we might live….”

Prayer

I want to close with a prayer from Paul’s letter to the Romans, a prayer that unites us with one another not only today but across God’s history: God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the gospel of his son, is my witness to how constantly I remember you in my prayers; and I pray that now at last, by God’s will, the way will be opened for me to come to you. I long to see you so that I may share with you some spiritual gift to strengthen you—that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged be each other’s faith.

3/21 Thursday in the Fifth Week of Lent

Isaiah 43:20-21

The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise.

An offering from Rob Leacock.

It seems that the older I get the more concerned I am with issues relating to the environment.  Perhaps it is having children and my concern for the world in which they grow up.  Perhaps it is living in an environmentally-aware community like Austin.  Perhaps it is the rise in environmental reporting in our media.  More than likely it is a combination of all of these things.

For me, though, it is a theological matter.  When I claim that God created the heavens and the earth, it is implicit (at least to me) that God formed his creation with divine intentions.  God creates life from nothing.  Humans God forms from the dust.  God makes water to bubble up in a desert.  And God intends it for good.

More and more I see my own identity as it relates to the whole of creation.  Am I fitting into God’s divine ordering of creation?  And often I wonder how my actions run counter to God’s purpose for his creation.  As an aside, the commandment that is probably disregarded the most is keeping the Sabbath, which is far less about “going to church” than it is about honoring God’s creation.  Ultimately, I remember that God’s divine intention for the world is what gives the creation its goodness.  God created the world for God’s joy and delight and ours.

Prayer for Joy in God's Creation

O heavenly Father, who has filled the world with beauty: Open our eyes to behold your gracious hand in all your works; that, rejoicing in your whole creation, we may learn to serve you with gladness; for the sake of him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

3/19 Tuesday in the Fifth Week of Lent

John 12:1-8

Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

An offering from Jamie Ebersole

This passage disarms me. Mary’s passionate gesture of annointing Jesus’ feet with her hair and Jesus’ subsequent chiding of Judas’ complaint make for a stark contrast.

I can’t help but notice that it’s one of Jesus’ disciples, one of those who is supposed to know him best, who misses the point of Mary’s gesture and the signs of Jesus’ impending death. While it may be easy for us to dismiss the seemingly corrupt Judas or see this as a foreshadowing of his later betrayal of his friend, he’s not the only disciple to be near-sighted and literal in his interpretations of events. So it’s left to society’s outcast, Mary, to be open to be sensitive to Jesus’ situation. She understands much more fully the import of Jesus’ teaching and responds with the sort of loving gesture appropriate to the moment.

More than anything, this passage reminds me that our reactions to events can sometimes be sanctimonious and judgmental when compassion and open-mindedness are needed.

Prayer

Lord, give us the strength to show compassion rather than leap to judgment, to be open to the truth and to the divine wherever and whenever and however it manifests itself.

3/11 Monday in the Fourth Week of Lent

2 Corinthians 5:16-19

 From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view;even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.

An Offering from Chris Martin

Neighborhood

( Simone Scholtz / WPN )

Easy Nofemela stands in Guguletu, the area where he grew up. He is one of four men convicted in the murder of Amy Biehl, and one of two who now works for the charity that bears her name. Nofemela emerged from prison to become a community leader in Guguletu. The former soccer star coordinates the foundation’s instruction in soccer, cricket, field hockey and other sports.

Prayer

O God, the Father of all, whose Son commanded us to love
our enemies: Lead them and us from prejudice to truth:
deliver them and us from hatred, cruelty, and revenge; and in
your good time enable us all to stand reconciled before you,through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen..

3/9 Saturday in the Third Week of Lent

Exodus 3:13-16

Moses said to God, "If I come to the Israelites and say to them, "The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,' and they ask me, "What is his name?' what shall I say to them?"  God said to Moses, "I am who I am." He said further, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, "I am has sent me to you.' "  God also said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, "The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you': This is my name forever, and this my title for all generations.

An offering from Rob Leacock

In this exchange with Moses, we can see God’s eagerness to reveal himself to Moses and the Israelites.  God’s readiness to disclose himself intimately to Moses has profound implications for the Israelites.  It is not just a moment of revelation, but one that is identity-giving.

When I was in seminary, during a course called Systematic Theology I went to the usual Friday discussion section led by our teaching assistant, Edwin.  A brilliant scholar and teacher, Edwin began to outline the reading assignments and the lecture.  That week we happened to be covering theological models of the Incarnation (the theology that discusses the hows and whys of God becoming human in the person of Jesus), and Edwin was going to help walk us through this often complicated theology.  Edwin took up a dry erase marker and wrote his first bullet point boldly:

“Before all else, God chooses to give himself to that which is not God.”

It might not seem so, but that was a profound moment for me.  It was a moment that altered my own understanding of God and my relationship with him and even my identity.  As Edwin would explain, our God, our loving God, is a God of self-disclosure.  God calls us into deeper relationship with him (and with each other) by continually offering himself, giving himself, showing himself, revealing himself to us.

Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, you know our necessities before we ask and our ignorance in asking: Have compassion on our weakness, and mercifully give us those things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness we cannot ask; through the worthiness of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. 

3/7 Thursday in the Third Week of Lent

Exodus 3: 7-12

Then the LORD said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters.  Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.  The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them.  So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites out of Egypt.”  But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”  He said, “I will be with you; and this shall be a sign for you that it is I who sent you:  when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.”

An offering from Cheyenne Maechtle

What this passage means to me is…

A skinny country kid stands waiting in September’s dew

As roaring comes a yellow beast whose mouth snaps open all at once

To emit a thousand raucous screams of unschooled life.

A mother’s gentle push is not enough to convince him it is safe

Until a friendly voice intones… Don’t be scared, kid.  Sit Right here.

I’ll be with you all the way.

A scent born on eastern winds draws a young man to unseen shores

Where new dreams and deeds fill long days with the hum of life just begun.

Yet ancient tongues speak a code unknown while a million little quirks

Unnerve, upset, twist him around so that he faces his home of old again.

But a compatriot’s caring words can stop him short… Don’t worry, friend.

I’ll be with you through it all. 

Just who are you to step aboard an adventure?  Who am I to seek my fortune far away?  And who was Moses but a man who heard a voice?   It said, “I’ll be with you!”  We are little, but with that one simple sentence, we are linked to all the power of the universe and grow great in potential.

Prayer

May we, like Moses, hear that voice which calls out, “I’ll be with you.”  And may we be brave enough to believe these words.  Amen.

3/6 Wednesday in the Third Week of Lent

I Corinthians 10:12-13

If you think you are standing firm you had better be careful that you do not fall.  Every test that you have experienced is the kind that normally comes to people.  But God keeps his promise, and he will not allow you to be tested beyond your power to remain firm; at the time you are put to the test, he will give you the strength to endure it, and so provide you with a way out.

An offering from Laura Cox

In life there are many challenges; most require that we make a decision.  There are times when we know the right decision, but that decision is not always the easiest.  Strength of faith and love of God and his creatures will aid us as we struggle to do what is right and kind and respectful of others.

Prayer

 

Dear God, Thank you for this day and every day, each is a gift.  Guide and strengthen us to love one another.  With each decision we make, remind us that we should treat each other as we would like to be treated.  Love and empathy are powerful blessings.

In God’s name we pray.  Amen