Lent 2009 #4

Matthew 9:9-13 

9 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, "Follow me." And he got up and followed him. 

10 And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples.11 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" 12 But when he heard this, he said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners."

THOUGHTS:

     As you were growing up, did anyone ever tell you that "you'll be judged by the company you keep"?  While I can't deny that people may judge you unjustly, Jesus clearly models sitting down to a meal with people that the "respectable" people (politicians, religious leaders, etc.) preferred to avoid.  More than that, Jesus calls sinners to serve as his disciples.  He befriends them and entrusts his ministry to them after his death and resurrection.  As I wrote yesterday, it isn't about being good enough.

     In Lutheran theology, we understand ourselves to be "simul jusus et peccator" -- simultaneously both saint and sinner.   In a letter to his friend Philip Melanchthon on August 1, 1521, Martin Luther wrote: "Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly...Pray boldly--you too are a mighty sinner."  In their concert last night, the band Lost and Found expressed how central these paradoxes are to their faith, that we are both good and bad, both captive and free, both sinner and saint, both lost and found -- all at the same time!

     In my relationship with God, I am a sinner because I have a self-centered failure to trust God -- a tendency to think I know best.  At the same time, I am a saint because God forgives my sins and remembers them no more -- and this is mysteriously accomplished in the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ.

     As we journey together this Lent, how can you be more open to God's calling in your life?  How can you make yourself more ready and willing to follow where God leads you?

PRAYER:

God, we are amazed at your merciful graciousness in forgiving our sins.  Thank you!  Help us to center our lives in trusting YOU.  Help us to live more fully in your presence and to be open to your calling in our lives.  In Jesus name, AMEN.

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PS:  If you want to discuss theology -- how God intersects our lives and world -- in a safe, open environment, then join us at Brion's Grille on Tues 3/3 at 5:15pm .  Contact lutheran@gmu.edu for details/rides. 

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These devotions are provided by Lutheran Campus Ministry at George Mason University.  Feel free to share them with your friends!  For more information on our ministry and events, see http://gmu.edu/org/lutheran  

You can subscribe to these devotions by RSS or email from http://lentendevotions.blogspot.com

Lent 2009 #3

Daniel 9:16-19 
16 O Lord, in view of all your righteous acts, let your anger and wrath, we pray, turn away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain; because of our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors, Jerusalem and your people have become a disgrace among all our neighbors. 17 Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his supplication, and for your own sake, Lord, let your face shine upon your desolated sanctuary. 18 Incline your ear, O my God, and hear. Open your eyes and look at our desolation and the city that bears your name. We do not present our supplication before you on the ground of our righteousness, but on the ground of your great mercies. 19 O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, listen and act and do not delay! For your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people bear your name!"

THOUGHTS:

     Daniel prays that God spare the people, but not because they deserve it.  As humans, we like systems of justice, where everyone gets what they deserve.  Yet, in reality, we all stumble and fall short.  We pass buy the man who is homeless sleeping on a park bench.  We ignore the man who is hungry and carrying a sign saying "will work for food".  By God's rules, we all miss the mark sometimes.  

     As Daniel knows, God's forgiveness is about what we've earned.  We aren't forgiven because we are good enough. (If we were "good enough", then we wouldn't need forgiveness.)  Daniel is essentially saying "God, I know that we aren't worth listening to based on what we do, so don't pay attention for our sake.  God, listen because your nature is to show mercy. Listen because that's who you are."  Daniel has faith that God hears us because God wants to listen.  Daniel knows that God forgives us because God wants us to be forgiven.  

    The reason we are worth God's attention is simply because God loves us.  To God, we are worth more than we could possibly imagine or describe, all because God loves us.  Our relationship with God is based on the foundation of God's love.  As you journey through Lent and life, don't let your view of things become a barrier between you and God.  Always remember that God loves you, no matter what.  Period. 

PRAYER:

God, we lift our hearts to you.  We thank you for loving us first, and we ask that you help us view ourselves through your eyes.  Enable is to grow closer to you, rather than creating divisions in this relationship.  We want to know you more.  All this we pray in the name of Christ Jesus.  AMEN.

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These devotions are provided by Lutheran Campus Ministry at George Mason University.  Feel free to share them with your friends!  

You can subscribe to these devotions by RSS or email from http://lentendevotions.blogspot.com

For more information on our ministry and events, see http://gmu.edu/org/lutheran

Lent 2009 #2

Thoughts:

Many people perform some type of "fast" during Lent.  This is people are doing when they give up chocolate, or don't eat meat on Fridays, etc.  In the passage below, Isaiah is asked to tell the people about the kind of fast God desires from them.  It isn't a fast about giving up something you may or may not miss.  It isn't a fast about personal suffering.  It's a fast of working for justice, feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, repairing fallen walls, and making this world we live in more habitable.  How can you use your time and abilities this season to make the world we live in a more hospitable, habitable, and hopeful place for others?  How can we use this type of fasting to strengthen our relationship with God?

Isaiah 58:1-12
1 Shout out, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins. 2 Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God.

3 "Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?" Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers. 4 Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high. 5 Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? 6 Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?

8 Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. 9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, 10 if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. 11 The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.12 Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.

13 If you refrain from trampling the sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs; 14 then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Prayer:

O Lord God, we thank you for our very lives.  Without your spirit, we would have remained dust forever.  Now, as we live, we wish to fast as you desire.  Call us to grow closer to you through service this Lent.  Give us a heart to carry out your Will in our world.  Help us to be your hands.  For the sake of your son Jesus the Christ.  AMEN.

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These devotions are provided by Lutheran Campus Ministry at George Mason University. Feel free to share them with your friends! For more information on our ministry and events, see http://gmu.edu/org/lutheran  
You can subscribe to these devotions by RSS or email from http://lentendevotions.blogspot.com

Lent 2009 #1: Ash Wednesday

Psalm 51:1-17 
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.
5 Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.
6 You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.
15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.
17 The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

NOTE:
It's once again Lent, and I've been asked to send out Lenten devotions as I did last year.  Feel free to share them with friends.  You can subscribe by email/RSS at http://lentendevotions.blogspot.com

Thoughts:

It's Ash Wednesday: the one day of the church year that we focus exclusively on our brokenness -- on our nothingness -- on our failure to live up to what God created us to be.  We allow ourselves to be smeared with ashes as a reminder that we started out as mere ashes, and will end up as nothing but ashes -- and we look inward to confess our sins, and realize that we don't deserve anything more than to be ashes.  Don't get depressed about this, there is good news to come -- but today we only long for it....  

Today, we break open our hearts and ask God to make them new and clean...

Today, we plead for God to stay with us in our brokenness...

Today, we hope only for God to fill us with righteousness and the strength to help others in our world.

In facing our sin honestly, we begin our journey into Lent with humility and openness to where God will lead us.

Prayer:

Lord, help us to examine ourselves and to put everything before you.  Wash out the old muck and fill us with your love, desires, and passion.  Use this season of Lent to change us, and draw us closer to you.  In Jesus name, AMEN.

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These devotions are courtesy of Lutheran Campus Ministry at George Mason University.  Join us for our on-campus Ash Wednesday services tonight in the Johnson Center BISTRO tonight at 7:47pm -- see http://GMU747.org for more information.