Lent Devotions written by Rev. Kazimera I.H. Fraley and Rev. Christy Gunter Leppert for March 8-15.
Daily Meditation One
Exodus 20:1-17
“Hey look the Ten Commandments! I’ve got that covered. I’ve got it: Don’t worship other gods, love my parents, don’t do mean things to other people, or desire to take their wives, donkeys or maid-servants. Don’t smoke, don’t chew and don’t go with those that do. Got that covered. This is God’s Big list of the Ten Big things for which I could burn for eternity.”
At least that is what many of us see when we look at this particular passage of scripture. But this is not a list. This is not the “rules of the house.” This is about love. It is about a God who loved us so much that that God was willing to bring us up our of our slavery, bring us up out of the deepest darkest places of our lives and desires to be in relationship with us. This relationship is a relationship of love. We are to love God and to love each other. It is about putting the First One first and the last one last. God is first, God is above all. God is alone to be worshipped. Then we are to put our neighbors before ourselves. We are to love the Lord God with all our hearts.
Reflection Questions:
Do you ever feel like your relationship with God is like a check list? Are there any other relationship where you feel you need to follow a checklist in order to be apart of that relationship?
What would it look like to have a relationship with God built on love? How would it be different than the relationship you have with God right now?
Prayer:
Dear Lord God, may we never look at our relationship with you and others as a check list. Save us from ourselves. May we look at the law as love from now on, a gift of God for the people of God-- to teach us, to love us, to love through us!
Weekly Action:
Go for a walk three times this week - take note of the things that are going on around you. Think about how they reflect who God is and God's decrees for you. List specific things (i.e. a Sunset, the beauty of trees beginning to bud, the laughter of the neighbors children, the sound of two people having a conversation) in which you can see the holiness of God reflected in the world around you.
Reflection Questions:
Do you ever feel like your relationship with God is like a check list? Are there any other relationship where you feel you need to follow a checklist in order to be apart of that relationship?
What would it look like to have a relationship with God built on love? How would it be different than the relationship you have with God right now?
Prayer:
Dear Lord God, may we never look at our relationship with you and others as a check list. Save us from ourselves. May we look at the law as love from now on, a gift of God for the people of God-- to teach us, to love us, to love through us!
Weekly Action:
Go for a walk three times this week - take note of the things that are going on around you. Think about how they reflect who God is and God's decrees for you. List specific things (i.e. a Sunset, the beauty of trees beginning to bud, the laughter of the neighbors children, the sound of two people having a conversation) in which you can see the holiness of God reflected in the world around you.
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Daily Meditation Two
Psalm 19
When reading the beginning of this passage the words of the hymn writer Michael Mills could easily ring in your head, “This is my Father’s world. And to my listening ears, all nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres. This is my Father’s world. I rest me in the thought of rocks and trees, of skies and seas- His hand the wonders wrought.”
There is great joy in walking; going for a walk, to simply look at this magnificent world all around. The season’s change, the birds build nests, the worms in my garden turn the soil and make it rich. Everything in creation seems to shout of the magnificence of its Creator. It is not hard to be silenced by the wonder and beauty of it all, how it all works together and is connected. All of creation is dancing together, moving in time with each other, reflecting the very nature of God.
The psalmist does not stop with simply the beauty of the created world but then goes on to describe the beauty and wonder of God’s decrees, God’s ordinances, and God’s commandments. Everything God created is filled with wonder and awe and this includes the commandments by which God calls people to live. The Palmist does not see the law as a burden but glories in the love it proclaims. It is through the ordinances and decrees of God the psalmist sees how God loves and calls people to live lives that reflect that love.
The psalm ends with a cry to this God who created the beauty of all creation including the wonder of a law of love. He asks God to detect his errors and clear him of his faults. When we look at the world around us—are we brought our knees in prayer? Does God’s creation cause us to desire to also reflect the nature of God’s being? When we see the wonder and beauty of creation we should always be reminded of the perfection, beauty, and love of our creator. It should stop us in our tracks and bring us to our knees, asking God that we might be cleansed; that we might reflect the love of God to those around us.
Reflection Questions:
What in God's creation do you find the most fascinating? The most beautiful? The hardest thing to understand? How do you view creation? How do you view the law?
Could the Psalmist teach you anything about how God's love is reflected in creation and the law?
Prayer:
Lord God, magnificent Creator, we come before you full of awe. When we encounter you & see how you connect things, our eyes widen in adoration. You are truly amazing.
Weekly Action:
Go for a walk three times this week - take note of the things that are going on around you. Think about how they reflect who God is and God's decrees for you. List specific things (i.e. a Sunset, the beauty of trees beginning to bud, the laughter of the neighbors children, the sound of two people having a conversation) in which you can see the holiness of God reflected in the world around you.
Reflection Questions:
What in God's creation do you find the most fascinating? The most beautiful? The hardest thing to understand? How do you view creation? How do you view the law?
Could the Psalmist teach you anything about how God's love is reflected in creation and the law?
Prayer:
Lord God, magnificent Creator, we come before you full of awe. When we encounter you & see how you connect things, our eyes widen in adoration. You are truly amazing.
Weekly Action:
Go for a walk three times this week - take note of the things that are going on around you. Think about how they reflect who God is and God's decrees for you. List specific things (i.e. a Sunset, the beauty of trees beginning to bud, the laughter of the neighbors children, the sound of two people having a conversation) in which you can see the holiness of God reflected in the world around you.
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Daily Meditation Three
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
It seems completely logical that everyone upon reading scripture should understand its message. It seems entirely comprehensible that each person as they encounter the Word should fully discern its meaning. We like to think that the Bible and the Gospel of Jesus Christ is logical; that it just makes sense. We do not understand why so many people have a hard time just believing, or why they do not understand the plain logic that put forth in the Bible. It is written there in plain English, why can the world not just read it, accept it and believe it? Scripture, the stories of the Old Testament, the teaching of Jesus, his life, death and resurrection just make sense. Thus, it only makes sense then that people should see the truth in it all and come to believe in Jesus Christ, invite him into their lives and begin to live the way God calls us all to live.
But it does not make sense! Paul tells us, "the cross is foolishness.” He tells us the cross is a "stumbling block." The fact of the matter is this thing (that makes sense to us, the only thing which is truly truth) is so hard for us to wrap our minds around, it seems to be utter foolishness and is a stumbling block.
God calls us to embrace the foolishness that we see in scriptures for the true wisdom that it is. God calls us to give up what we see as logical, to give up what we feel is right, and accept God's righteousness. We are fools for God, and it is our calling to bring God's foolish wisdom to a world that has a hard time seeing and understanding. We need to have compassion on them and help them to see the truth that we see and the wisdom that we know.
Reflection Questions:
What about the gospel seems to make perfect sense to you? What about the gospel would seem to be foolish? Are you ready to be a fool for Jesus?
Is there anyone in your life who sees the thoughts and ideas expressed in parts of the gospel or part of scripture as a stumbling block to being able to believe? What would it be like to be looking at Christianity from their point of view?
Prayer:
God, we want to be fools for you. When things do not make sense to the world, remind us of how your cross is foolish to the world and living as reflections of your life make us appear foolish too. God, make us fools for you.
Weekly Action:
Go for a walk three times this week - take note of the things that are going on around you. Think about how they reflect who God is and God's decrees for you. List specific things (i.e. a Sunset, the beauty of trees beginning to bud, the laughter of the neighbors children, the sound of two people having a conversation) in which you can see the holiness of God reflected in the world around you.
Reflection Questions:
What about the gospel seems to make perfect sense to you? What about the gospel would seem to be foolish? Are you ready to be a fool for Jesus?
Is there anyone in your life who sees the thoughts and ideas expressed in parts of the gospel or part of scripture as a stumbling block to being able to believe? What would it be like to be looking at Christianity from their point of view?
Prayer:
God, we want to be fools for you. When things do not make sense to the world, remind us of how your cross is foolish to the world and living as reflections of your life make us appear foolish too. God, make us fools for you.
Weekly Action:
Go for a walk three times this week - take note of the things that are going on around you. Think about how they reflect who God is and God's decrees for you. List specific things (i.e. a Sunset, the beauty of trees beginning to bud, the laughter of the neighbors children, the sound of two people having a conversation) in which you can see the holiness of God reflected in the world around you.
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Daily Meditation Four
John 2:13-22
No Easter Passion Play would be complete without a scene where Jesus is swinging a whip, turning over cages, chasing out pudgy, greedy looking men, and setting live tame birds free. We like the very human picture of Jesus in all his fury. It is a great image though perhaps Jesus’ fury is not the point here.
We began our journey this week in the commandments and we end here in the temple; the very place where the one true living God (besides whom we are to have no other gods and will not allow any false idols) resides. The temple was supposed to be the one place where the nature of God was reflected to the people. All the items of the temple were pure, the sacrifices were unblemished; everything inside the temple reflected the holiness and purity of God.
When Jesus stepped into the temple that day he did not see a reflection of the Father, he saw the dirty, rotten reflection of men and women using God’s house to raise themselves up. He saw the reflection of men and women who were using God’s house to get ahead. He saw the reflection of their selfishness, their greed and their sin. He saw sin reflected in the Father’s house, in the place were the very presence of God was suppose to be seen in the world.
The problem was not the money; the problem was not the buying and selling. The problem was that the people were set up there in the place where God was, and they were there only to further themselves and their own interests. They were there, in the place where God’s desires and God’s interests should be presiding, and they were lifting themselves us next to God and putting their desires and their interests before those of the one true God.
They were making themselves idols; they were sitting next to God in God’s holy temple among God’s holy things.
Whenever we bring our interests and our desires into the Church and set them up next to the interests and desires of God we are doing the same thing.
The Church is to be a mirror which is held up in front of God reflecting the very nature of God to this world. When we put our interests and desires forward instead of allowing ourselves to be a reflection of God, we are taking the mirror in our own hands and holding it up in front of ourselves. So instead of being the reflection we are making ourselves the one who is reflected.
Reflection Questions:
In what ways are we like the money changes in the temple?
How do we reflect our own interests and desires in the church?
How can we better reflect God to our world?
Prayer:
Dear Lord God, forgive us for the times we turn your Church from all about you to all about us. Forgive us for the times we seek ways to use the holy things of God to benefit ourselves. Forgive us for needing you to come turn over the tables in our lives. But we invite you to come in the temple of our hearts and show us how we might be reflections of you.
Weekly Action:
Go for a walk three times this week - take note of the things that are going on around you. Think about how they reflect who God is and God's decrees for you. List specific things (i.e. a Sunset, the beauty of trees beginning to bud, the laughter of the neighbors children, the sound of two people having a conversation) in which you can see the holiness of God reflected in the world around you.
Reflection Questions:
In what ways are we like the money changes in the temple?
How do we reflect our own interests and desires in the church?
How can we better reflect God to our world?
Prayer:
Dear Lord God, forgive us for the times we turn your Church from all about you to all about us. Forgive us for the times we seek ways to use the holy things of God to benefit ourselves. Forgive us for needing you to come turn over the tables in our lives. But we invite you to come in the temple of our hearts and show us how we might be reflections of you.
Weekly Action:
Go for a walk three times this week - take note of the things that are going on around you. Think about how they reflect who God is and God's decrees for you. List specific things (i.e. a Sunset, the beauty of trees beginning to bud, the laughter of the neighbors children, the sound of two people having a conversation) in which you can see the holiness of God reflected in the world around you.
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