Monday February 25, 2008
Luke 22:44:
And being in anguish, he prayed more
earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.[a]
Anguish is a heavy word. Similar words are agony, suffering, grief, torment,
pain, sorrow, distress. Not words we
like to hear, even less we like to experience.
Yet I suspect that life for each of us has borne our share of anguish. I have been in anguish over extremely painful
circumstances in my life; because of difficulties my loved ones were
experiencing; due to unresolved vocational conflicts; for the children with
whom I work and for whom life holds so little promise of happiness. Anguish.
There have been those moments when I’ve asked myself, is it worth
it? Why bother? Give up and find some easier way than plowing
through this quagmire of misery. I’ve
been there, and I’m guessing so have you.
Perhaps right now is that point in your life’s journey. Anguish.
Jesus was facing the crisis of
ultimate dimensions. He realized that
time was short and the anguish he felt, I believe, was not fear of death, but
the nagging fear that he had not fulfilled what God had planned for him. Was he going to let God down? Had he led his disciples and followers down
to a dead end, literally? The Gospel
writer describes the scene using the powerful image of sweating blood. Anguished, but yet not defeated. In just moments, Jesus would get up and face
the world once again, persisting in his quest to complete the task, not out of a
sense of duty or owing it to God, but because of Jesus’ love for God and
unlimited love for humanity.
With that kind of love on our
side, our call during this Lenten season is to keep on the journey way. We continue in the process, stay open to the
strength of God’s gentle Spirit when anguish overtakes us, and persevere in
faithful confidence that God is present.
God’s power in us can overcome any obstacle, as Jesus was able to
overcome even death on a cross. Easter
provides us the assurance that we can persevere when we feel like giving
up.
PRAYER:
Strengthen me, God, so that I might be able to fight through the anguishes in
my life and carry out your plans on earth and in heaven. Amen.
Tuesday February 26, 2008
Luke 8:15:
But the seed on good soil stands for
those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by
persevering produce a crop.
In this parable of the sower who went out to sow his seed Jesus teaches us to be
like the seed that, “fell on good
ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold.”
This parable highlights the potential of a single seed to
provide a “hundredfold” of nourishment, but the right environment is
required. God’s word lived with
“patience” and “an honest and good heart”
constitutes that environment. The
remainder of the parable is about seeds that failed to bare fruit because that
environment didn’t exist.
This parable has special
meaning to me. Growing up on a wheat
farm in western
In this season of Lent we
should be mindful of the “good ground” of God’s word and have patience and a
good heart so that we might help multiply the fruit of love and forgiveness for
which Jesus came.
Prayer:
Help us to be
fertile soil so that the grace of Jesus might multiply on this earth. Amen.
Wednesday February 27, 2008
Hebrews
12:1:God Disciplines His
Sons
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a
great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin
that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out
for us.
When
I enter into an old church building or a cathedral for the first time, I always
have a sense that I am surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. In this place, people have worshiped and
prayed and sung and offered themselves to God for generations. People have come to this community of
believers in order to be surrounded by the faithful and to have their lives
enriched by through its ministries.
People have died from this community, leaving behind those with whom
they’ve had Bible studies and served in soup kitchens.
Unfortunately,
this first verse of Hebrews simply isn’t enough for perseverance. Certainly, being surround
by other believers and the competition of running a race is encouraging. However, the only means to perseverance when
others fail to bring us encouragement is found in the next verse. Hebrews 12:2 says that we must be “looking to
Jesus… who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross.”
Jesus sacrificed his own life for our reconciliation with God. Therefore, not only can we persevere through
whatever challenges us in life, but we must
persevere because we have been reconciled to the source of all life. With our minds and wills set firmly on Jesus
we find both the courage and the example for the great cloud of witnesses who
make up the church and for our own lives of devotion.
Thursday February 28, 2008
Matthew
4:10:
Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan!
For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'[a]"
I stand at the library table at
The story of the temptation of Jesus is told in variation
in three of the Gospels. John skips it
and goes right from Jesus baptism by John directly into the beginnings of His
ministry. (I’ve always wondered how
anyone knew this occurred in order to have written about it. Jesus comes back from near starvation in the
wilderness and starts to recruit disciples and one day at lunch says, “Man, you
guys won’t believe what I had to go through to get here…” Or, maybe:
“Let me tell you what happens if you don’t get enough to eat.”)
But there’s no doubt this really is a story about
Perseverance and that we are all faced with the options of follow Satan or God
in the similar ways that Jesus was. We
[I] too are tempted to seek relief from our suffering by looking for someone to
blame rather than relying on God’s Grace.
We too are tempted to test God if only because our faith is too weak to
trust Him. We too are tempted to put our
faith in materialism or the next pop culture remedy that comes along in order
to increase our lot in life rather than worshiping God alone. In the end, the Devil’s persistence could not
outlast Jesus’ Perseverance even in his famished weakness. Jesus tells the Devil to “BE GONE!” and so
away the Devil goes and Jesus is waited on by the angels. Perseverance in Faith was a necessity for
Jesus’ journey through his Wilderness; it is a necessity for our Journey as
well.
Lord
God,
We pray
that we may recognize when we are being tempted. We pray that we may persevere in our faith in
you in the face of temptation. We pray
that we may live by Jesus’ example and can send Evil away from us by our words
and our actions. Amen
Friday February 29, 2008
Isaiah
53:7:
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did
not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep
before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
As I sit here and prepare to put thoughts to paper I am
truly wondering why I chose this scripture.
I believe I was drawn by the word OBEDIENCE- the categorical listing for
this particular passage.
I
must admit I am not a fan of the word obedience. I think of dogs attending obedience schools,
and “love, honor and obey” for husbands and wives (or is that just for wives!),
and “She’s such an obedient child” meaning children should be seen and not
heard. There is a very short definition in the dictionary for obedient or
obedience- doing what one is told to do. Now don’t get me wrong- I was a very
obedient child and even an obedient teenager!
And looking back on it I tended not to speak up for myself or step out
of line.
So-
what to think of Jesus’ model from the Old Testament- like a lamb led to the
slaughter, with not a “mumblin’ word”. And should this then be our model when we are
faced with our own oppression, injustice, affliction. I believe that the companion word to obedience is
TRUST. We first must trust the object of
our obedience.
A
child believes that his parents are the most important people in the world, the
source of food, physical comfort and love.
As each day of a newborn’s life passes he grows into loving and trusting
the people that are his world- his family.
This trust and love brings forth his/her first steps in obedience.
God
the creator asks us to trust, sometimes to trust and wait, sometimes to trust
and love, sometimes to trust and obey.
The stronger our relationship with God the easier it is to trust, even
when the road is long and the way is dark.
And perhaps when the love is strong the heart obeys with ease. And it becomes a gift to obey rather than a
command.
So Love, Trust,
and Obedience, playing back and forth, one giving life to the other.
Lord show me the joyful way -
the way to love, the way to trust, and the way to obey.
Saturday March 1, 2008
John 15:10
“If you keep my
commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s
commandments and abide in his love.”
As I
consider how this scripture speaks to me, I start with the meaning of the two
verbs ‘keep’ and ‘abide’. In this
context, I apply ‘keep’ as both (1) to maintain for use or service (they’re not
just good advice, the commandments are useful to me in my daily life), and (2)
to celebrate and to observe (because I intend to follow the commandments with
joy and awareness). I understand ‘abide’
to mean both (1) to remain in a place and (2) to dwell or sojourn.
According
to Matthew 22:36-40, the greatest commandment is “You shall love the Lord your
God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all
your mind,” and the second is “You shall love your neighbor as
yourself.” Thus, when I keep these two
greatest commandments, I am putting love into practice in thought and deed in
my relationship not only with God, but also in my relationships with other
people. Is this the full meaning of
abiding in God’s love?
I
think that there’s more to what it means to abide in God’s love. I think that I also should choose to ‘remain
in a place’ and ‘dwell’ in a space where I allow myself to have a connection
with God and tend to my spiritual growth.
I accept the challenge to quiet my restlessness during my busy daily
schedule; I also acknowledge that God is here with me along every step of the
way and deserves more time and effort from me than what’s left over after other
demands from the rest of my life. I
choose to abide in God’s love.
Sunday March 2, 2008
Philippians
2:8:
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death— even death on a
cross!
He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of
death—even death on a cross.
I have always thought I was a
rather obedient person;
however, my mother would probably laugh at that assumption. She tells stories of my resistance to doing
what was expected of me quite often. If
I am truly honest about it, I am a pretty passive-aggressive person. I don’t like conflict, so I don’t openly
rebel, but I am a master of procrastination.
I frequently put off the things I don’t want to do or don’t want to face
with a zillion rational excuses.
When I read the passage for
today, I have to really look inward and ask, “Could I do that?” “Would I have lots of excuses about putting
off my obedience to God?” I am afraid I would
not be able to be that obedient. Could I
be as obedient as Abraham when he took Isaac up on the mountain? Or, would I have said, “OK, God, as soon as I
can get to it, but right now I have to read this article.”
Obedience is not an easy
concept when called to do difficult things, especially face persecution or
death. Fortunately for most of us, we
aren’t asked to go to that extreme very often.
But even so, what are the things God is asking us to do that we passively-aggressively
avoid? How can I be a more obedient Christian in
my life? What is God calling us at
This week as you meditate on
God’s love for us, think about your ability to be obedient.
An activity you can share with
the children in your family:
Play a game like Simon Says,
or Mother May I, to practice listening and following directions. Then talk about how that game is like
following God’s word. End your play time
and discussion with a simple prayer:
Dear God, help us
to listen to your word, and to follow what you are leading us to do and be,
even though it may be different that what we think. Help us to obey. Amen.