Fourth Sunday in Lent

It is Sunday and we once again celebrate the resurrection of the Christ. Sundays aren't part of Lent -- they are days when we recognize that the tomb is empty and we shout for joy! For more info on this, track back through past Sundays at http://lentendevotions.blogspot.com/
Some thoughts for the journey:

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To put away judgmentalism is to practice grace. It's the recognition that if you experienced your neighbor's situation as they experience it, that you, too, might sin as they sin. In terms of your religious practice, grace doesn't change the terms of sin. It does change, however, your response to sin. And isn't that what love is supposed to be about?
-- From http://treereach.blogspot.com/2008/02/judgmental.html

"Too often I looked at being relevant, popular, and powerful as ingredients of an effective ministry. The truth, however, is that these are not vocations but temptations. Jesus asks, "Do you love me?" Jesus sends us out to be shephers, and Jesus promises a life in which we increasingly have to stretch out our hands and be led to places where we would rather not go. He asks us to move from a concern for relevance to a life of prayer, from worries about popularity to communal and mutual ministry, and from a leadership built on power to a leadership in which we critically discern where God is leading us and our people."
-- Henri Nouwen "In the Name of Jesus", From http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/2008/01/too-often-i-looked-at.html

A quote from the film "A Time for Burning":
"the gospel is not about an air-conditioned building and stained-glass, it is a place where men reach for justice, love, and understanding." - bill youngdahl, the white pastor who lost his job over this simple request.
-- From http://kathyescobar.com/2008/02/26/a-time-for-burning/


"To live, we must daily break the bread and shed the blood of creation. ... When we do this knowingly, lovingly, skillfully, reverently, it is a sacrament. When we do it ignorantly, greedily, clumsily, destructively, it is a desecration. ... In such desecration, we condemn ourselves to spiritual and moral loneliness and others to want." How can your life be a living sacrament to the wonders of creation?
-- Wendell Berry, "The Gift of Good Land", From the ELCA's "Living Earth: A 40-Day Reflection on
Our Relationship With God's Creation"