March 28 Lenten Devotional "Walk on Two Legs"

OPENING PRAYER. . .Loving God, Creator of all that is, here I am--today in this place that you have given me, with all the senses you have given me. Help me to use them to experience you on a deeper level. May I experience you all around me, open me to know more of your ways and know that your goodness surrounds me. Thank you for this time to be with you and to just listen. Amen

LISTEN. . . One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.  The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.

CONSIDER. . . .Catherine of Siena wanted to live a contemplative life devoted to prayer, but she heard God calling her to an apostolic life. She resisted this call because she worried that her intimacy with God would diminish if she reached out to her neighbor. As God spoke to her heart, she came to understand that her care for others would be an avenue for a greater expressions of her love for him.

How could she walk with only the "one leg" of love for God if she also didn't walk with the "second leg" of love for God's people? She could not truly love the unseen God without giving herself in service to her brothers and sisters in need. Catherine traveled the streets of Siena alone, ministering to the sick and poor whom no one else would touch.

SO WHAT. . . This scripture calls us to walk on "two legs"--love of God and love of neighbor. The commitment to help our poorest sisters and brothers IS NOT AN OPTION, but an expression of our love of God. Lent is a time that invites us to turn away from sin and turn toward God with a singe-hearted devotion. But it's more than that. . . it's also a turning toward our neighbor with generous hearts and an empathetic spirit.

• Are you "crippled" in your spiritual life by walking only on "one leg"?
• Are you reluctant to walk on "two legs" because you refuse to see the need around you?
• How might you do a random act of kindness today as an expression of your love for God?

PRAYER. . . Loving God, help me to imitate the way of St. Catherine of Siena, walking as a disciple on "two legs" with a heart for you and a generous love for my neighbor. Lead me to see the needs around me and stand on my "two legs" and offer myself as Jesus would. Amen

You are always invited to comment on this post or any of the previous ones.

March 27 Lenten Devotional "How Many Times to Forgive?"

OPENING PRAYER. . .Loving God, Creator of all that is, here I am--today in this place that you have given me, with all the senses you have given me. Help me to use them to experience you on a deeper level. May I experience you all around me, open me to know more of your ways and know that your goodness surrounds me. Thank you for this time to be with you and to just listen. Amen

LISTEN. . . Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”  Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times." (Matthew 18:21-23)

CONSIDER. . . .In 2006, in rural Pennsylvania, a man barricaded himself in an Amish Schoolhouse and shot and killed 5 young girls and then himself. Less than 48 hours later, the grandfather of one of the slain girls urged the community to forgive the killer. The community itself embraced the widow of the killer including sharing monetary donations with her.  This story of the Amish response to such a horrific act is a sign of God's amazing grace at work within a community; healing broken relationship, effecting harmony, creating peace and restoring wholeness.

Peter's idea to forgive seven times sounds incredibly generous until Jesus responds. Jesus goes far beyond solely increasing the number of times to forgive. Jesus' response is about the nature of forgiveness--deep and radical Gospel living.

SO WHAT. . . Whoever counts has not forgiven. . . This kind of forgiving is beyond all calculations and is possible only through God's amazing grace. During the Lenten season, we seek mercy and forgiveness from God but it is also a time for us to be reconciled with our brothers and sisters. Not seven times. . . but beyond counting.  Who is it in your life that you are struggling to forgive?  What wrongs are struggling to let go of? During this Lenten season can you express the kind of forgiveness that Jesus talks about?

PRAYER. . . Dear God, forgive me for my transgressions and help me to forgive those who have wronged me in my eyes. Help me to show mercy and Christ's compassion in this broken world. May I share the kind of forgiveness that you taught Peter. Amen.

March 26 Lenten Devotional "All Are Welcome"

OPENING PRAYER. . .Loving God, Creator of all that is, here I am--today in this place that you have given me, with all the senses you have given me. Help me to use them to experience you on a deeper level. May I experience you all around me, open me to know more of your ways and know that your goodness surrounds me. Thank you for this time to be with you and to just listen. Amen

LISTEN. . . "Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown.  I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land.  Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon.  And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”
All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this.  They got up, drove him out of the town. . .

CONSIDER. . . .The kingdom of God preached by God is open and inclusive, all are welcome. Jesus is in his own town preaching and healing. At first the neighbors are delighted to have a profit in their midst. They consider it to be a great blessing until it becomes clear that Jesus is reading the scriptures differently than they are. That hometown group is interpreting the scriptures to mean that God's kingdom is open exclusively to them.  Jesus' philosophy is opposite--ALL ARE WELCOME to receive God's gracious love and blessings. JESUS LEAVES NO ONE OUT.  He connects his ministry to the prophets Elijah and Elisha; like them, he opens his ministry to those beyond the Jewish community. In fact, he welcomes the whole world in.

SO WHAT. . . This particular Gospel scene reminds us that God's grace cannot be fenced in like a private garden.  It is not limited to the boundaries of any town, nation, church, group, race, gender or sexual orientation. GOD'S LOVE IS OPEN TO ALL WHO ENTER IN FAITH.  All means all. . .

Where have you excluded someone unnecessarily? Where have you neglected to welcome another into conversation or have just been inhospitable? How might this scripture call you to change your attitude or learn to be more open to those different than you?

Here we go again. . . asking questions that make us look at ourselves and our behaviors. Let us continue with the self-examination. . .

PRAYER. . . Dear God, help me to expand my notion of community and welcome all kinds of people into my heart and life. Lead me to transcend the boundaries of love that I have built. Teach me to welcome everyone and to love like you love. Help me to understand that all means all. Amen

March 25 Lenten Devotional "For What Are You Thirsting?"

OPENING PRAYER. . .Loving God, Creator of all that is, here I am--today in this place that you have given me, with all the senses you have given me. Help me to use them to experience you on a deeper level. May I experience you all around me, open me to know more of your ways and know that your goodness surrounds me. Thank you for this time to be with you and to just listen. Amen

LISTEN. . . "Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,  but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
"The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” (John 4:13-15)

CONSIDER. . . .A couple of years ago, I spent 10 days in Thomas, Haiti. I absolutely fell in love with the children and the people of Haiti. Despite the devastation from the earthquake there was such a beauty in the people that touched me deeply.  While I was there, we had to be very careful about the water that we drank. We could only drink the water that was provided for us. Of course, I was constantly thirsty. In fact, so thirsty that when I was offered fresh coconut juice, right from the coconut to drink, I gulped it down. I expected it to quench my deep thirst. Unfortunately, all it did was make me quite ill. . . and I was still thirsty.

The Samaritan woman had been searching, and her search had led to five different husbands, leaving her empty and bitter--that is, until the day she encountered Jesus at the well and received the water of eternal life. She left her water jar behind and ran back to her village to witness to her transforming encounter with Jesus.

SO WHAT. . . For what are you thirsting?  Where do you quench your thirst? Are you drawn to certain wells?  There are many wells out there, but they often make us more thirsty or even addicted.  These are wells of superficial pleasures and quick fixes that satisfy only for a moment and leave us thirsting for more.

When you are tired and discouraged, be refreshed and strengthened by the Word of Christ.  Allow yourself to be fed by his body and blood so you might go forth and tell of Christ's saving love!

PRAYER. . . Dear God, help me to turn to you when I am in need of emotional or spiritual refreshment. Direct me toward the well filled with the water of eternal life and not to the wells that leave me thirsting for more. Help me to bring others to the well. Amen.

March 24 Lenten Devotional "Are Your Eyes Open?"

OPENING PRAYER. . .Loving God, Creator of all that is, here I am--today in this place that you have given me, with all the senses you have given me. Help me to use them to experience you on a deeper level. May I experience you all around me, open me to know more of your ways and know that your goodness surrounds me. Thank you for this time to be with you and to just listen. Amen

LISTEN. . . “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day.  At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores¹ and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried.  In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side." (Luke 16:19-23)

CONSIDER. . . .Our parable today tells us that the rich man stepped over suffering Lazarus each day. Did he ever look Lazarus in the eye? I doubt it. Did he even notice the hunger and sores of this brother or was he too busy with his own life to notice? This is a shocking parable that shows very little mercy to the rich man who neither dressed Lazarus' sores nor fed his hunger. The rich man chose to serve his own wealth instead of God and, at his death, paid the consequence.

SO WHAT. . . This parable clearly urges us to share food with the hungry, but it goes even deeper than that. It insists we be good neighbors, especially to the most needy.  True charity is more than giving a few coins to someone begging on a street corner, or writing a check at Christmas time.  It is noticing, caring, and acting on the needs of our brothers and sisters--it is about cultivating a heart that suffers with our neighbors and compels us to respond compassionately. 

•  Do you see with Christ's eyes?
• Are your eyes open to the brokenness around you?
•  Is God calling you to respond with more of you than just a check?

 Lent is a time for self-examination, how do you answer. . .


PRAYER. . . Dear God, please give me a heart of mercy, help me to see with your eyes and to respond to my neighbors with compassion and care.  May I look the needy in the eye and show the face of Christ in my response. May I be filled with a spirit of committed love for your children, rich or poor. Amen

March 23 Lenten Devotional "Knocking on the doors of Mercy"

OPENING PRAYER. . .Loving God, Creator of all that is, here I am--today in this place that you have given me, with all the senses you have given me. Help me to use them to experience you on a deeper level. May I experience you all around me, open me to know more of your ways and know that your goodness surrounds me. Thank you for this time to be with you and to just listen. Amen

LISTEN. . . "Ask and it will be given you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For anyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened." (Matthew 7:7-8)

CONSIDER. . . .Locked doors can seem daunting.  Sometimes even after repeated knocking that grows into pounding, the door is unrelenting. Other times, our perseverance is rewarded; the door creaks open. . .and we breathe a sigh of relief. This scripture comes from the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is encouraging his disciples to pray--to ask, to seek and to knock. "Knocking on the doors of mercy" is a Jewish expression of prayer. Prayer opens the doors of mercy and God acts. Prayer is about our relationship with God..

SO WHAT. . . No matter what you face today, no matter how many closed doors you encounter, keep calling on the God who loves you for help.  We are encouraged to bring our needs to prayer, not in order to in form or change the way God acts in our lives, but to express our relationship with God as Disciple of Jesus Christ. What doors seem closed to you today? Have you given up in knocking on those doors? God wants you to "keep knocking on the doors of mercy", lifting our prayers and concerns to Him. He hears your knocking. . .


PRAYER. . . Dear God, thank you for inviting me into a relationship with you and for answering my prayer with gracious and wise gifts.  Bless me with a portion of your generous spirit so I may freely give to others wherever I find an open door.  Amen.

March 22 Lenten Devotional "Seize the Day for Christ"

OPENING PRAYER. . .Loving God, Creator of all that is, here I am--today in this place that you have given me, with all the senses you have given me. Help me to use them to experience you on a deeper level. May I experience you all around me, open me to know more of your ways and know that your goodness surrounds me. Thank you for this time to be with you and to just listen. Amen

LISTEN. . . "While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them, 'This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.'"

CONSIDER. . . .Above the entrance to our church is a sign that says, "God is Love". Some people have said that the sign caught their attention in their most difficult times and brought them closer to God--although some in our community have hardly even noticed the sign.  There are signs all around us that point to God--the beauty of a sunset, the roaring of the waves on the ocean or even Lake Michigan, the birth of a baby, the spontaneous hug from a child, or the care and concern of a friend--if we only have eyes to recognize them.  However, the greatest sign of God's love and presence is JESUS, the power and compassion of our God.  After Jesus heals a man of an evil spirit, the people in the crowd respond by saying his works are by the power of the devil, and others call for him to give them a sign.  His healing of the man is not enough but Jesus refuses to give them another sign and calls them to hear and obey the Word of God.  The Ninevites hear Jonah's preaching and repent and change their lives, and yet those seeing Jesus healing this man, refuse to hear and obey Jesus, the Word of God.

SO WHAT. . . Lent is an opportunity for us to hear once again Jesus' call to change our hearts and live according to the Gospel.  Are we like the crowds following Jesus and asking for yet another sign?  Or will we take the opportunity we have to repent of our selfish ways and follow Christ?  That's what the Lenten season is about; seizing each day to repent and choosing to follow Christ. No half-hearted response to God's unconditional love revealed in Jesus will be sufficient. Are you ready to seize today for Christ and in each subsequent day of Lent?  It's your choice.

PRAYER. . . Dear God, please open my eyes to the signs of your love today and in the coming days.  Cleanse my heart, open my ears to your voice and renew my spirit today and every day. Amen.