Lenten Meditations & Reflections 2007

Luke 20:9-19 • The Rev. Carol Sanford

When the scribes and chief priests realized that he had told this parable against them, they wanted to lay hands on him at that very hour, but they feared the people. Luke 20.19

The scribes and the chief priests were afraid of the people. They were evidently also afraid of Jesus or they would have had no need to seek to destroy him. Fear closes our minds and our hearts to even the very best of news. Is there some fear that keeps me from hearing the truth and relaxing into God’s love? Is there someone with whom I can discuss that fear? Am I willing to release my fear to God’s care? When?

Psalm 23 • Adam Wade Duncan

If there was one phrase that stands out for me, as I read this well loved Psalm, it is the phrase in the middle of verse 4. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

So many times it is easy for us to feel the presence and love of the Lord in our lives when things are going well. The Lord feels close and caring when we are not in want, when we are on a great vacation at the lake beside quiet waters, when we are fully rested and fed. But the place of true grace in this Psalm is learning and trusting that God is with us ALL the time. When we face daily challenges, or when life is changing and hard times come, to not only trust, but to actually see the banquette table set before us in the presence of my enemies; to know that we are anointed, in that hard time; and that every day of our life, yes, EVERY DAY, that goodness and love are there literally following us around. Bugging us, devoted to us, pursuing us like a starry-eyed lover.

God loves us, and pursues us, and is not only available for us to think about, but is daily present for us to taste, feel, see, smell, and hear, in our real lives, everyday! God is present so that we can really know and experience everyday that we will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

Numbers 21:4-9 • Sandra Carter

Have you ever wondered why physicians chose a caduceus as the symbol for healing? It is believed this symbol came from the story told in this verse. When Moses prayed for those who had been poisoned by serpent bites, God told him to put a serpent on a pole and lift it up. Those who looked upon it were saved from death and given life.

God lifted up Jesus from the dead so that we might be saved. When we look upon the empty cross and believe, we are given eternal life.

John 8:31-42

This passage deals with the details of Jesus’ death and resurrection, where and by whom Jesus’ body is placed, and how that body comes to be guarded. As if by sheer weight of detail and argument, Matthew convinces us that Jesus is dead. He was so entombed that no one could have tampered with His body.

But our being convinced isn’t really the point. Our being certain of these events is not our calling. Faith without doubt isn’t faith at all. It is our belief in the face of facts unprovable, and events unlikely, that God demands of us. Let us pray for faith; not for certainty, for it would make our faith a dead thing.

Psalm 105 • Kristen and Andrew Ellis Johnson

Sharing a common story has always been a source of great blessing, as well as a source of great burden, for people of faith. For those of us who call Abraham an ancestor, this has proven to be especially true. Over the course of thousands of years, our common story has split and diverged and taken many different roads, often resulting in conflict and violence.

But the Psalmist reminds us, at the beginning of this re-telling of our common story, to “remember the wonderful works [God] has done.” Although we have a long history of cleaving from one another, God calls us to re-member, to put back together, the wonderful works God has done. Our tendency has been to divide; our calling is to put back together.

Psalm 18:2-7

We have all known the depths of despair. We cry out in our despair to God, hoping that some force will pull us out of the darkness. What is this force? Is it some grand, transcendent, distant cosmic being who will help us if we humble ourselves, pray hard enough, follow the Law? Something that lives in each of us speaks of love before law, of harmony before the destruction of enemies, of the everlasting grandness of life rather than metaphors of domination. Maybe God is Mother, Spirit, Lover rather than Father, Lord, Ruler. Perhaps God is much more than any human metaphor can explain. Today is a good day to meditate on the wonderful, confusing, inexplicable beauty of life. It is spring and life has returned. Today is a good day to hope.

John 11:45-57

Fear is often relative to transformation. Jesus’ ministry threatened the status quo and we are called by our baptism to do much the same thing. Granted, the subverting of governments is not likely to appear on our “to do” lists, but we can, by our witness, challenge the status quo that too often confuses power with justice, wealth with wisdom, and lies for truth. The church confronts the suffering and ignorance in the world by our presence, and will often evoke the same fear from those we hope will be transformed. While that may discourage us at times, we have the comfort of good company, our Savior and all the Saints.