A Daily Lent

Can I Trust My Response? Sunday of the Second Week of Lent – March 8, 2020 Too often our life with God is segregated so that a life of worship, prayer, devotion, and love of God is taken as a different thing than a life of service, mission, action, and love of neighbor. Every Christian community I know struggles to balance these two movements. Some give themselves to prayer and devotion, feeling that it is the better part. Others give themselves to action, wanting to see the fruit of their faith. Then a large group – perhaps the majority – stand in the middle, confused over the whole matter, and thus paralyzed, not doing a thing. Of course, the answer is not “either/or” but rather “both/and.” An inward journey of prayer, meditation and openness leads to a love of God that transforms life. When we travel into the heart of God, we begin to see differently and think differently. Inner transformation happens in that seeing and thinking. Transformation is not for our personal enjo...

Inner Experience of Oneness Friday of the First Week of Lent – March 6, 2020 To engage the interior work of the spiritual life means that we begin a journey which will be long, slow, and messy. I don’t know any way around that reality. I first made conscious contact with God in the context of a faith tradition which promised – both implicitly and sometimes explicitly – that conversion was a one-time decision that would set you up for a lifetime. The goal was the moment of conversion, and any growth or becoming after that initial experience was a bonus. I quickly realized within my own self that simply responding to an altar call and mouthing some words about giving my life to Jesus did not change all that was sideways in my life. But at that time, I had no idea what to do about it. My best guess was that every time I “sinned,” I lost Jesus and had to go back through the process all over again – I must not have “really meant it” when I gave my life to Jesus all those previous ti...

Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent Daily Reading : John 5:1 – 16 Focus Passage : One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?" "Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me." (Jn. 5:5 – 7) The challenges of being healthy of body, mind, emotion and soul sometimes outweigh the difficulties inherent in sickness and disability. Spiritual health does not happen by osmosis. It is not a matter of joining the right church or being a regular attender in worship or having parents who live with a growing faith. Spiritual health, like physical or mental health, happens with intentionality. We make decisions about how we intend to live, about the kind of persons we want to be. In the spir...

The Third Sunday of Lent Daily Reading : Luke 13:1 – 9 Focus Passage : Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish." (Lk. 13:1 – 5) The story and parable have an odd and convoluted sense about them, especially for those of us disconnected by centuries from the events to which the narrative alludes. First, notice that Jesus addressed a general group of people, “some present at that time.” The audience was not disciples, scribes and Pharisees, or the Sadducees, but a more general, more amb...

Friday of the Second Week of Lent Daily Reading : Matthew 21:33 – 46 Focus Passage : "But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, 'This is the heir. Come, let's kill him and take his inheritance.' So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. . . . "'The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes'? (Matt. 21:38 – 39, 42) God has no interest in forcing a kingdom of Love and Transformation on people. The very act of forcing Love and Transformation on another would violate the essence of love and transformation. God is patient, waiting long for persons to wake up to the reality of this life-giving kingdom, sending all sorts of messengers and servants to announce the kingdom and to collect the fruit of the kingdom. We humans, though, are fickle. Rarely do we allow that there could be another plan larger than our own. Infrequently do ...

Monday of the Second Week of Lent Daily Reading : Luke 6:36 – 38 Focus Passage : “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." (Lk. 6:36 – 38) Those who dismiss Jesus as Messiah but glibly call him a good teacher are either extremely naïve or terribly misinformed. Those who put forth Jesus’ teachings as a way to get ahead in the world haven’t listened deeply to his teachings. Try taking his words in this passage into your workplace, school, politics, or neighborhood group. You won’t get you very far in our culture’s framework. Mercy, non-judgment, forgiveness, generosity, and a refusal to condemn are not recipes for success, corporately or personall...

Wednesday of the First Week of Lent Daily Reading : Luke 11:29 – 32 Focus Passage : “The people of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and now one greater than Jonah is here.” (Lk. 11:32) Don’t let yourself drown in analysis of the passage. Jesus used two sets of figures – Jonah in Nineveh and the Queen of the South listening to Solomon – which would have made a point with his original hearers about their willingness to adjust their lives. We may not fully understand the images, but Jonah with the people of Nineveh and Solomon with the “Queen of the South” likely would have been recognizable to Jesus’ first-century hearers. We, therefore, can immediately get over our fixation with knowing the intricacies of the references. If the names had been unrecognizable or obscure to Jesus’ original audience, he would have provided an explanation. Both references point to groups or persons who heeded t...

Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent – March 3, 2015 EVAGRIUS PONTICUS wrote, “Notice whether or not you are truly in God’s presence when you pray. It could be that you are looking for recognition and approval from other people. If this is your motivation for prayer, it is a hollow prayer.” [Bernard Bangley, By Way of the Desert , p. 361.] The Desert Christians took solitude very seriously. In one of the most famous sayings of the Desert, the wise Abba told the young seeker, “Go into your cell. Your cell will teach you everything.” The monk’s cell was his/her living quarters, usually a cave or a hut, and for these Christians, the quiet and solitude of the cell was where a person was most likely to confront his or her interior darkness. The cell became a kind of “furnace of transformation,” as some called it. Going into one’s cell meant withdrawal from other contact and concerns. In fact, most of these men and women fled into the desert to escape the wordy world of social manipul...

Thursday of the First Week of Lent – February 26, 2015 ABBA ZENO told us, “If you want God to hear your prayer when you stand, stretching out your hands toward God, you must sincerely begin by praying for your enemies. When you do this, God will respect all you request.” [Bernard Bangley, By Way of the Desert , p. 79.] For Abba Zeno, prayer began with praying for others. More specifically, the beginning of prayer is sincerely praying for your enemies. You cannot pray for your enemies for long without the experience changing you. Mostly, when you pray for your enemies, you learn that they are not truly enemies. They are simply other human beings who live life differently, see life differently, or believe differently that you do. They are wounded and broken, certainly, but so are you in different ways. Praying for your enemies is a transforming practice. It likely won’t transform your “enemies” nearly as much as it transforms you.

Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent John 7:50 – 53 Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?” They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.” Then they all went home. Those in positions of privilege and power most always want things to remain as they are. These persons enjoy the benefits of the system, and mostly are interested in keeping those benefits for themselves. In modern parlance, they are the “conservatives,” those who want to conserve things as they are. They see no reason to change, because a change in the system might mean that they lose their privilege and power. Those in control are never in favor of revolution, in other words. Revolution, change, and transformation tend to be the language of those on the bottom, those who are not have power, those who ...

Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent Matthew 5:17 – 19 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” The Law and the Prophets both represent the Hebrew Scriptures in general. They have, however, very different tenors about them. The Law has a strict sense of code, mandate, and obligation. The Prophets take a step forward in faith development, applying the Law to life-situations with more humanity and less rigidity. The wisdom and ethical emphasis in the Prophets represent a huge step ...

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 ...

John 19:17 - 30 Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). Here they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle. Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.” Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.” When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. “Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.” This happened that the scripture...

John 8:31 – 42 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word. I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.” “Abraham is our father,” they answered. “If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do what Abraham did. As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraha...

John 7:40 – 53 On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.” Others said, “He is the Messiah.” Still others asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee? Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendants and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?” Thus the people were divided because of Jesus. Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him. Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?” “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied. “You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted. “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.” Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?” They replied, “Are you f...

Matthew 20:17 – 28 Now Jesus was going up to Jerusalem. On the way, he took the Twelve aside and said to them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!” Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him. “What is it you want?” he asked. She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.” “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said to them. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?” “We can,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father.” When the ten heard about this, they wer...

Luke 11:29 – 32 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. The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom; and now one greater than Solomon is here. The people of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and now one greater than Jonah is here." It would be easy to get lost in the details of the passage, but don’t drown in analysis. Jesus uses two figures – Jonah/Nineveh and Queen of the South/Solomon – that likely would have resonated with his original hearers to make a point about the willingness – or lack thereof – to adjust one’s life. We may not get the images, but Jonah with the p...