A Daily Lent

Thursday of the Second Week of Lent Luke 16:19 – 31 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want...

Wednesday of the Second Week of Lent Matthew 20:20 – 23 Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked a favor of him. And he said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Declare that these two sons of mine will sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.” But Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?” They said to him, “We are able.” He said to them, “You will indeed drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left, this is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.” “You do not know what you are asking.” This single line is an appropriate description of our most common approaches to prayer. We bring our prayer lists to God, tell God what we want, and believe that whatever we ask will be granted. If we step into it blindly, this format can tend toward genie-in-a-bottle prayer and ...

Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent Matthew 23:1 – 12 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. “Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to have people call them ‘Rabbi.’ “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called ‘teacher,’ for you have one Teacher, the ...

Monday of the Second Week of Lent Luke 6:36 – 38 “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Be merciful . . . Do not judge . . . Do not condemn . . . Forgive . . . Give . . . Before these five qualities are actions, they are ways of being, or stances toward life. Of course, it is possible to engage in an act of mercy or to forgive, for example, or to do any of these things once in a while . . . or even once or twice or several times. In other words, you can give without being a generous person . . . you can forgive someone without being a forgiving person . . . . At one level, Jesus is encouraging this behavior. It truly makes a difference. But even mo...

The Second Sunday of Lent Luke 9:28 – 36 Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah” — not knowing what he said. While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” When the voice had ...

Saturday of the First Week of Lent Matthew 5:43 – 48 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” I’ve heard contemporary Franciscans talk about how Francis of Assisi loved the Sermon on the Mount, how it was for Francis the core of his spirituality and connection to God. It is a radical teaching, in which Jesus challenges every part of who we are and what we invest ourselves in. The complete corpus of the teaching is in Matthew 5 – 7. For instance, today’s te...

Friday of the First Week of Lent Matthew 16:13 – 19 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of death will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” “Who do you say I am?” We are not called to live at a level of theories and belief systems. Those things provide a lens for our seeing. But we can only answer ...

Thursday of the First Week of Lent Matthew 7:7 – 12 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; those who seek find; and to those who knock, the door will be opened. “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” Ask, seek, and knock relentlessly. Don’t stop. Resist the impulse to put down roots into anything you believe and any insight you have. Be continually open. Don’t build monuments to what has happened in you in the past. Stand watch for what is happening right now. Ask. Lean into the questions. You are not trying to find the right answers. Life is ...

Wednesday of the First Week of Lent Luke 11:29 – 30 As the crowds increased, Jesus said, “This is a wicked generation. It asks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation.” People of every generation assume that God is present mostly in the huge, over-the-top, send-a-chill-down-my-spine extravaganzas. I’ve heard people claim that they would believe in God if only God would “show up” and be manifested for them . . . a voice from the heavens, a parting of the seas, walking on the subdivision lake, multiplying the Thanksgiving meal, granting a huge catch of fish . . . that kind of thing, always seeking a sign. The life and mystery of God are woven into every created thing. The creation reflects the Creator. You can find something of Van Gogh in his paintings. You can find something of Mary Oliver in her poems. You can know something of God in the world God creat...

Tuesday of the First Week of Lent Matthew 6:7 – 13 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’” The “babbling” in the first line is translated in other versions as “heaping up empty phrases.” I have to admit that my mind has mostly gone to that phrase. It sounds like a rock pile or a heap of dirt. Except that in this pseudo-prayer, we are heaping up “empty-phrases” and meaningless jargon instead. It’s not that the words we say in prayer are untrue or impotent . . . Jesus’ point is that when we manipulate pra...

Monday of the First Week of Lent Matthew 25:37 – 40 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’" The passage is part of the larger “sheep and goats” story Jesus tells. It resists simplistic interpretations. I am struck by the repetition of the phrase, “Lord, when did we see you . . .?” Those who were commended for feeding the hungry, giving drink, caring for the stranger, clothing the naked, and visiting those in distress did not know they were doing so. They weren’t expecting the hidden presence of the Lord. They were surprised at the revelation of Jesus present in ordinary people. In verse 44, those who did ...

Sunday of the First Week of Lent Luke 4:1 – 13 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘People do not live on bread alone.’” The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’” The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concern...

Saturday after Ash Wednesday Luke 5:27 – 32 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” I’m struck today by the sight of this table at which Jesus reclined. Around the table were persons of disrepute, those who were considered crooks and traitors, and some who were known “sinners.” Yet, there was a place for all of them at the table of Jesus. I am dismayed by the lines drawn in contemporary life that polarize and cre...

Friday after Ash Wednesday Matthew 9:14 – 15 One day the disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus and asked him, “Why don’t your disciples fast like we do and the Pharisees do?” Jesus replied, “Do wedding guests mourn while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.” Before this is a text about fasting, it makes a statement about living in comparison to others. Comparison seems to be such a routine part of human life that we don’t see anything wrong with it. Males are trained to think, “I’m a man, I was made to compete with others.” Or we believe, “How can I know how well I am doing if I don’t know what other people are doing?” We can’t seem to resist measuring our lives vis a vis the lives of people around us. We face that temptation everywhere, including in our spirituality. I was raised to compete, to win, to be better than others. I knew how well I was doing in life by how many people I c...

Thursday after Ash Wednesday Luke 9:23 - 25 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for you to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit your very self? It is possible to gain many things in the world (success, knowledge, money, acclaim, power, influence, education, rank) but lose yourself. In fact, conventional wisdom says that gaining these things will help you find yourself, or at least make it easier for you to find yourself, but that almost never happens. Accumulating “the world” is a hollow acquisition, because whatever we accumulate is never enough. Like a thirsty person drinking salt water, we hunger for more. We accumulate, and figure it will take just a little more – always, just a little more – to quench the thirst. More of “the world” (knowledge, vocation, rela...

Ash Wednesday Matthew 6:1 – 6; 16 – 19; 21 “Watch out! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven. When you give to someone in need, don’t do as the hypocrites do—blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I tell you the truth, they have received all the reward they will ever get. But when you give to someone in need, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. “When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get. But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. . . . “And when you fast, don’t make it obvi...