Lent 2010 #38

Exodus 12:1-14 (NRSV)

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of the Lord. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.

THOUGHTS:

As Christians, we believe that is was not a mere coincidence that Jesus was crucified on the day before the Passover (see John 19:14,31), the same day that the Passover lambs were being slaughtered.  The blood of Jesus smeared on the cross on that hillside outside Jerusalem is effectively smeared on the doorposts of the universe.  Jesus is the sacrificial lamb, without blemish.  The blood of Jesus is the sign on our world that we are all God's people, God's beloved children.

PRAYER:

Dear Lord, thank you for your mercy.  Today, and everyday, we remember your grace.  Help us to live out your grace and mercy, sharing your love with all those we meet.  In the holy name of Jesus the Christ we pray, AMEN.

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Thoughts by Ben Buss, Lutheran Campus Minister at George Mason University

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These devotions for young adults are provided by:

Lutheran Campus Ministry at George Mason University http://www.gmu.edu/org/lutheran

Lutheran Student Association at the University of Maryland http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~lutheran/lsa/

DC Young Adults http://www.dcyoungadults.org/

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Lent 2010 #28

Exodus 12:21-27 (NRSV)

Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, "Go, select lambs for your families, and slaughter the passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood in the basin. None of you shall go outside the door of your house until morning. For the Lord will pass through to strike down the Egyptians; when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over that door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you down.You shall observe this rite as a perpetual ordinance for you and your children. When you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this observance. And when your children ask you, 'What do you mean by this observance?' you shall say, 'It is the passover sacrifice to the Lord, for he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, when he struck down the Egyptians but spared our houses.'" And the people bowed down and worshiped.

THOUGHTS:  

There was a time I thought that my family had no family traditions.  I was in middle school at the time.  It was almost winter break and several friends and I were talking over lunch about what we were going to do for the holidays.  Everyone else, it seemed, had these elaborate traditions in which they would take part.    

I went home that afternoon and announced to my parents in a disgusted teenage voice that I could not believe that we had no traditions.  My mother tried to explain that we did, but I refused to believe her.  I was adamant that we had no traditions; that there was nothing special that set our family apart.    

A few days later my mother casually mentioned that she was thinking about not making sticky buns for Christmas breakfast.  She thought that maybe it was time to try something different.  My sister and I pitched a fit.  "It won't be Christmas without sticky buns," we exclaimed.    

It turns out that we did have a few family traditions; plenty of traditions, in fact.  They just didn't feel like a tradition.  They felt…well…just like what we always did.  There wasn't anything necessarily special about them.  

When the first Passover was instituted, Moses declared to the people of Israel, "You shall observe this rite as a perpetual ordinance for you and your children."  The Passover was to become for the people of Israel a family tradition.  It was to be passed down through the generations as something special that set them apart.  It was to be a way to remind the generations of Israelites what God had done for them.  So that even in those times that being God's people felt just like what they always did, that they would recall that there was something special about that relationship.  

As we continue our Lenten journey towards the cross, we are reminded that the Passover meal would take on a new significance when Jesus celebrated it with his disciples in the upper room.  It would be his blood that would be shed, placed on the cross so that sin and death will pass over us.  In the midst of our normal, everyday lives we need these kinds of remembrances.  We need the traditions of our faith that remind us who and whose we are. 

PRAYER:

Gracious God, we give thanks for the love that you have shown to your people throughout the generations.  Help us to always remember that love wherever we go and whatever we do.  Amen.       

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Thoughts by Rev. Meredith Lovell Keseley, Lutheran Church of the Abiding Presence 

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These devotions for young adults are provided by:

Lutheran Campus Ministry at George Mason University http://www.gmu.edu/org/lutheran

Lutheran Student Association at the University of Maryland http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~lutheran/lsa/

DC Young Adults http://www.dcyoungadults.org/

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Feel free to share them with your friends!

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

Also available on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7958874287

Lent 2009 #14

1 Peter 2:4-10 

4 Come to [Christ], a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God's sight, and 5 like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in scripture: "See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame." 

7 To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner," 8 and "A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. 

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

THOUGHTS:

One of the things that strikes me here is community.  Followers of Christ are to be as "living stones" that are "built into a spiritual house".  We're to allow Christ to knit us into community, regardless of where we have come from or how dissimilar we may be.  Symbolically, since we stones continue to live, we must work together to hold the community together.

Verse 9 using the language echoing back to Exodus 19:6 and Hosea 2:23 -- yet the audience is Gentile Christians living in what is now Turkey.  The "chosen race" and "holy nation" therefore aren't representing a specific ethnicity, but rather are used in naming all Christians as "a royal priesthood" and "God's own people".  Then verse 10 tells us that although we weren't a community before, we are now God's people and we have received mercy.

These verses are the foundation for the "priesthood of all believers", which states that we are all priests, each able to directly connect to the divine and each able to minister to others, doing God's work on earth.  It is more than that too: we aren't in this alone!  We are all part of a priesthood: a community of priests who work together and support one another!  

As God's community of priests, how do we "offer spiritual sacrifices" (verse 5)?  

How do you minister to those around you? 

Spend some time today thinking about your role as a minister in a royal priesthood.  How are you offering spiritual sacrifices?  

How are you serving as the hands and feet of Christ today?

 

PRAYER:

Lord God, thank you for entrusting us duties we can scarcely comprehend.  Please be patient with us when we struggle, and help lead us and guide us as we do our part in your community.  We pray this 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!  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