A Daily Lent

The Pattern Includes Resurrection Resurrection Sunday – April 12, 2020 Resurrection follows death. Every time. It is the immutable, God-given pattern for all of life. Death is not the end. Life is the end. In John 11, Martha, the sister of Mary and Lazarus, goes through a litany of titles for Jesus. Jesus tells her straight-out that he is the resurrection and the life. Then he asks, “Do you believe this ?” He is not asking if she believes in resurrection as an idea or as a theological proposition. He is asking if she believes that resurrection and life are God’s established pattern for the world. Affirming Jesus’ resurrection is not enough. Rather are you willing to enter into this rhythm of birth, life, death, and new life for yourself? This is not only new life. It is also real love. English mystic Evelyn Underhill wrote a great deal about spirituality in the last century. She taught both significant religious leaders and ordinary lay persons with a simplicity that I find c...

Rejoicing in Difficulties Holy Saturday – April 11, 2020 What does it mean to “rejoice in difficulties,” as Brother Lawrence suggests below? That may sound like good counsel in normal times – theologizing when life is more or less ordinary is much different than when we are actually in the midst of the storm! – but in days when we are forced to endure the disruption of daily routines, threats to our relationships, and uncertainty about the future, rejoicing sounds like a long-shot (thank you, coronavirus!). To be sure, it is not our first reaction to our situation. But rejoicing takes a longer view, sees through the immediacy of the current reality, notices the nuances and opportunities that arise when times are tough, and is not limited to what the world looks like in the current moment. Brother Lawrence says we should “ rejoice in our difficulties. ” The Apostle Paul says, “ Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say, ‘Rejoice! ’” Today is Holy Saturday. It is a day of ...

Centered in Love Tuesday of Holy Week – April 7, 2020 It seems as if no one has been unaffected by the coronavirus, as well as by the many advisories and precautions under which we live. Information changes daily. Our lives are consumed with numbers, bar graphs, and maps color-coded by hotspot areas. Some of us want to gather all the information we can possible take in . . . while others of us just want to keep our heads down and wait for the virus to go away. For six weeks or so, I’ve felt the need to drop anchor daily and to stay intentionally centered in love. There is so much that is uncertain, so much that tempts toward fear, so much that isolates . . . to stay centered in love seems essential to me. I rehearse how I have noticed God’s love alive in the world. I celebrate the creative expressions of love I notice amidst the difficulties of physical distancing. I meditate on love as an active force in the world, not merely as a word, an idea, or a feeling. Brother L...

Resurrection Sunday Daily Reading : John 20:1 – 9 Focus Passage : So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus' head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) (Jn. 20:3 – 9) In the two verses before this reading, we are given an important piece of information about the burial place of Jesus. John 19:41 – 42 says this: At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one ha...

Holy Saturday Daily Reading : Luke 23:50 – 56 Focus Passage : Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man, who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea, and he himself was waiting for the kingdom of God. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus' body. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin. The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment. (Lk. 23:50 – 56) Holy Saturday rests silently, darkly between Good Friday and Easter. Nestled between the crucifixion of Christ and the Resurrection, it is a somber day which remembers the hours Jesus spent in the tomb. ...

Good Friday Daily Reading : John 19:17 – 30 Focus Passage : Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I am thirsty." A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (Jn. 19:28 – 30) John editorializes about Jesus in verse 28: “ knowing that everything had now been finished . . . .” Then he writes of Jesus cry from the cross: “ It is finished .” The words announce his death. They also make a statement about his life-purpose. At other times in his ministry, Jesus claimed that his purpose was to complete the work God sent him to do. In John 4:34, for instance, when the disciples offered him food to eat, he said, “ My food is to do the will of the One who sent me and to finish God...

Maundy Thursday Daily Reading : John 13:1 – 15 Focus Passage : It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. (Jn. 13:1 – 5) All of Jesus’ actions, both on this night and through the last days of his life, are framed by these words: “ Jesus knew that he had come from God and was returning to God .” In other words, Jesus knew who he was. He knew his identi...

Wednesday of Holy Week Daily Reading : Matthew 26:14 – 25 Focus Passage : When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve. And while they were eating, he said, "Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me." They were very sad and began to say to him one after the other, "Surely not I, Lord?" Jesus replied, "The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me." (Matt. 26:20 – 23) The daily readings walking us through Holy Week give us a glimpse of the events which shape these difficult days in Jesus’ life. We cannot dismiss the intensity of their “passion” by simply saying, “Jesus was the Son of God, so none of this trial actually touched him.” Jesus was also the Son of Humanity (Son of Man in most translations), fully alive and a complete human. Yes, Jesus was touched by the defections and betrayals and accusations of the week. The Gospel writers knew what those sitting around the ta...

Tuesday of Holy Week Daily Reading : John 13:21 – 38 Focus Passage : After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, "Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me." His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, "Ask him which one he means." Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, "Lord, who is it?" Jesus answered, "It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish. . . ." “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (Jn. 13:21 – 26, 34 – 35) Today’s longer reading begins with a disciple about to betray Jesus and ends foretelling that the disciple called “the Rock” will disown Jesus. Betr...

Monday of Holy Week Daily Reading : John 12:1 – 11 Focus Passage : Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus' honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. (Jn. 12:1 – 3) As a young man in the ministry, I was convinced that I could save the world, and that I would do so single-handedly. I worked tirelessly, spending myself and doing for others in both official and unofficial capacities. I noticed early on, though, that when someone showed me kindness, gave a gift of appreciation to me, or paid me a compliment, I didn’t receive it well. I would say things like, “I don’t really deserve this,” or “It wasn’t really me.” Sometimes I would think, “I...

Palm Sunday Daily Reading : Luke 19:28 – 40 Focus Passage : After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, "Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' say, 'The Lord needs it.' " Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them. (Lk. 19:28 – 32) In Mark 14:12 – 16, Jesus prepared to eat the Passover with his disciples. When they inquired about a place in which to eat the meal, Jesus instructed them to go into the city and follow a man carrying a jar of water. When the man entered a house, they were to find the owner of the house and simply say, “The Teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”...

Saturday of the Fifth Week of Lent Daily Reading : John 11:45 – 56 Focus Passage : Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, "You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish." He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. So from that day on they plotted to take his life. (Jn. 11:49 – 53) This passage follows Jesus raising Lazarus from death. The dialogue and deliberations you read here are brought about by Jesus stretching his hand of life into Lazarus’ tomb, a precursor to his own death, burial, and Resurrection. The first half of John’s Gospel is given to the breadth of Jesus’ ministry. The second half of his Gospel is devoted to the last week of Jesus’ life...