Lenten Daily Devotion - March 3

Daily Lenten Devotions throughout Lent 2017.  

(from "free indeed", Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis, 2017)

March 3 

The First Commandment:

Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy.

What is this? or What does this mean?

WE are to fear and love God, so that we do not despise preaching or God's word, but instead keep that word holy and gladly hear and learn it.

To ponder:

The reverend of the church stopped her pleasantly as she stepped into the vestibule.  Did he say, as they thought he did, "Auntie, you know this is not your church?"  As if one could choose the wrong one. But no one remembers, for they never spoke of it afterward.

-Alice Walker, The Welcome Table.

God's big welcome table

Church signs proclaim, "All are welcome!"  Church people worry about declining worship attendance and blame soccer (hockey).  They worry about people with no church affiliation - and about people who say they are done with church.  How will we attract young people?  How will we attract people of colour?   How will we make the sabbath day a priority for our members again?

Alice Walker tells the story of an old, dying black woman who is literally thrown - picked up and thrown - out of a white church on a Sunday morning.  Tossed out on the street, she meets Jesus.  She walks with Jesus along the highway, ecstatic, filled with joy even in her moment of death.  Jesus welcomes her.

It is one thing to say, "All are welcome."  It is another thing to take an honest look around our holy spaces and see who has been excluded, and how, and why.  A holy sabbath, a kept sabbath, is a welcome table.

Prayer:

God, your welcome table has room for everyone and then some.  Keep us honest, make us faithful, give us ears to hear and eyes to see beyond our own needs, wants, and stories.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.