Lenten Devotion - March 7

March 7, 2017

(excerpted from free indeed: devotions for Lent 2017, Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis)

The Seventh Commandment:

You shall not steal.

What is this? or What does this mean?

We are to fear and love God, so that we neither take our neighbours' money or property nor acquire them by using shoddy merchandise or crooked deals, but instead help them to improve and protect their property and income.

To ponder:

For my careening cabbie, the infrequent and oft-exaggerated dangers of public life were clearly outweighed by the benefits of interacting daily with strangers.  He welcomed their company not merely because they helped him make a living - they helped him feel alive.  As he practiced hospitality toward the stranger, he grew more at home, embracing rather than fearing the tensions of diversity as a path of learning and living.
     - Parker J. Palmer, Healing the Heart of Democracy

Bridging the distance between us:

All of the first-year divinity school students stood in a single line across the middle of a long, narrow room.  We were a diverse group: racially and ethnically, men and women, a wide age range, a lengthy list of Christian denominations, as well as atheists and agnostics.  We stood in our line, and leaders asked us questions.  It was going well...and then:
            "Take a step off the line if you've ever stolen something."

Almost everyone took a step.  I didn't.  One of my classmates noticed and yelled, "Liar!  Is the next questions about lying, because this one needs to take a step for that!"  Well, if they'd asked for people to take a step if they'd ever lied, I would have been in that group.  But, I wasn't lying about not stealing.

I've never stolen anything, but I participate in a culture where fear of stealing leads many of us to build higher and higher walls, to fear our neighbours and barricade ourselves in our castles.  

The space between my classmate and me was wider than one step, and we knew it.

Prayer:

God, tear down the walls of fear we build around us.  Jesus, bridge our divides.  Amen.

Lenten Devotion: March 6th.

March 6, 2017

(excerpted from free indeed: devotions for Lent 2017, Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis)

The Sixth Commandment:

You shall not commit adultery.

What is this? or What does this mean?

We are to fear and love God, so that we lead pure and decent lives in word and deed, and each of us loves and donors his or her spouse.

To ponder:

If words are free why can't I spare the best for you?

       -Julia Fordham, "Porcelain"


Love means being loving:

Person A:            If we were able to spend more time together, I would feel happy.

Person B:            What I hear you saying is, "if we were able to spend more time together, you  
                            would feel happy.

Pastor:                That's great! You've been practicing! How did it feel?

Person A:            Completely unnatural.

Person B:            Like a robot.

Person A:            Does anyone ever actually talk like this?

Pastor:                Not very often; but, that's the point.  The way we naturally talk to our spouse 
                           when we're angry is no good.  We get mean.  We get contemptuous.  And, 
                           contempt ... 

Person B:           ...is a marriage-killer.  We've been paying attention.

Pastor:                Good.  Keep practicing the "I" statements and reflecting back what the other 
                           person says.  It might feel more natural with time.  Or not.  The point is, your
                           spouse is worth the effort.  It's not always easy to be loving to the people we love.

Prayer:

In all relationships, God, may we reflect your love and fidelity.  Work through our communities of faith to support and strengthen loving relationships.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.

Lenten Devotion - March 5

March 5, 2017

(excerpted from free indeed: devotions for Lent 2017, Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis)

The Fifth Commandment:

You shall not murder.

What is this? or What does this mean?

We are to fear and love God, so that we neither endanger nor harm the lives of our neighbours, but instead help and support them in all of life's needs.

To ponder:

A family operates differently when in the midst of a crisis. It may be hard to act lovingly and have good communication when a child is engaging in a behaviour that irritates, worries, frightens, or harms other family members.  However, even in the midst of living with special needs, healthy relationships can flourish when intention is present to foster those relationships.
        - Lorna Bradley, Special Needs Parenting

Help and support:

"I love Luther's explanation of the fifth commandment.  It's so broad!  It's great."

"What's so great about it?"

"Well, everyone thinks it's the easy one, right?  'No murder.' Check!
But, Luther expands it to include anything we might do that would endanger or harm someone's life.  No one gets through life without doing that."

I was about to go on and explain that even this law exists to remind us of our need for God's grace - when I remembered that I was talking to a combat veteran, a man who struggled with his role and actions as a soldier, a person who never once thought of the fifth commandment was easy.

"In fact," I said, "I think I may have broken the fifth commandment just now."

He shook his head.  "No harm done," he said.

Prayer:

God, we give thanks for your grace in a world where harm is real, and where sometimes we are the ones who harm others.  Fill us with your love so that our relationships with others and with you might be healthy and loving.  Amen.

Lenten Devotion - Day 4

March 4, 2017

(excerpted from free indeed: devotions for Lent 2017, Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis)

The Fourth Commandment:

Honour your father and your mother.

What is this? or What does this mean?

We are to fear and love God, so that we neither despise nor anger our parents and others in authority, but instead honour, serve, obey, love and respect them.

To Ponder:

Stony the road we trod, bitter the chast'ning rod,
felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet
come to the place for which our parents sighed?
      - James Weldon Johnson, "Lift Every Voice and Sing"

Listen:

On Twitter, a beautiful sight: 
"You might be Lutheran if ... you serve champurrado and pozole at your posada."
Yes! This is a way many Lutherans honour the traditions of father and mother, grandmother and grandfather.  I can appreciate this and honour my father and mother - one who has fond memories of Christmas Eve midnight mass in Latin, and one who grew up eating lutefisk for Thanksgiving dinner. If all of our parents sat around a huge table and shared childhood stories ... it would take a long time.
But, we would listen, both to honour our elders and to be amazed by the diversity at the table and the unexpected ways God weaves our family stories together.

Listen!  Lutheran voices are singing, "Lift Every Voice and Sing."  It honours the experiences of their African American parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents.  I want to listen to that song.  By listening well, I can honour my father and mother, and your father and mother too.

Prayer:
God our parent, teach us to be good listeners.  As you lovingly listen to us, may we listen to each other.  Bless us with wise elders, leaders, and mentors in faith.  In Jesus' name we pray.  Amen.

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.

Daily Lenten Devotions: March 2

Daily Lenten Devotions throughout Lent 2017.  

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

March 2 

The First Commandment:You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God.

What is this? or What does this mean?

We are to fear and love God, so that we do not curse, swear, practice magic, lie, or deceive using God's name, but instead use that very name in every time of need to call on, pray to, praise, and give thanks to God.

To ponder:

The collapse of the World Trade Centre brought me to my knees.  I prayed, like so many Muslims ... that one of us wasn't responsible for that heart-stopping catastrophe.  Twenty misguided men became fused with more than a billion others in the heat of a single conflagration, and we were left to eat the soot of their sins.  That's the problem with tasking any one of us to represent all of us.

- Beenish Ahmed, Learning - and Unlearning - to Be an Ambassador for Islam

In God's name:

A group of clergy sat around a table debating whether it was necessary for Muslim leaders to apologize for or denounce a recent terrorist attack.  One pastor said, "I'm not expected to defend Christianity every time a Christian does something terrible or violent in the name of God."  "Aren't you?" said another.  "I get asked to do that more and more."  The pastors wondered if mainstream voices of love would get more air time than voices of extremism, fear-mongering, and hate.

Eventually, a rabbi, who had been listening quietly, cleared his throat.  "I might have something to add to this," he said, "being a religious minority in America; and, part of a group that has some experience with anti-defamation work."

The consequences when God's name is used wrongfully are real.  For religious groups who are the targets of that violence, it is a matter of life and death.

Prayer:Gracious God, we call on your name in love, in hope, in thanksgiving, in supplication.  When your name is used to promote hatred, use us to enact love.  Amen.

Daily Lenten Devotions - Ash Wednesday

Daily Lenten Devotions throughout Lent 2017.  

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

March 1 - Ash Wednesday

The First Commandment:
"You shall have no other gods.

What is this? or What does this mean?We are to fear, love, and trust God above all things.

To ponder:"O God - please give him back! I shall keep asking You."
-John Irving, A Prayer for Owen Meany

God is God:
John's best friend, Owen, dies and over the course of many years John's prayer stays the same: give him back! 
There are people I love as much as John loves Owen Meany: people I pray could come back from death; and, people I desperately do not want to die.

A pastor once told a group I was in to write down the thing we most feared losing. We did. "That's your god," he said. I looked down at the name of my idol and felt helpless. I knew I would continue to be afraid. But, I also knew: no human being can or should bear the burden of being a god. It's not fair. No one can carry that weight. Furthermore, Jesus already has.

I'm still like John, praying for Owen Meany to come back. I'm still afraid of losing the people I love. I'm still sad when loved ones die and I wish they could still be with me, here. I'm also grateful that God is God, and I am not. That God is God, and my husband and children are not. We can keep praying, we can keep asking, as John does, because God is God, and God is love.

Prayer:
God, you alone are God. You are love, and you are trustworthy. Thank you for being able to carry the weight of all of creation's hopes, dreams, fears, sorrows, and most heartfelt prayers. Be with us when we are afraid of losing what we love. Make all of our relationships as healthy as they can be. We will keep praying; we will keep asking you. In Jesus' name. Amen.