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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Lent 2010 #17

Romans 2:1-11 (NRSV)
Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things. You say,* 'We know that God's judgement on those who do such things is in accordance with truth.' Do you imagine, whoever you are, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will
escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God's righteous
judgment will be revealed. For he will repay according to each one's deeds: to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honour and immortality, he will give eternal life; while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but wickedness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be anguish and distress for everyone who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honour and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.


THOUGHTS:
You might have seen the article in last week's Washington Post about the juror who failed to show up for his second day of jury duty. (Check it out at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/05/AR2010030504193.html?sub=AR) Apparently the man was summoned for jury duty, seated on a jury and then participated in the first day of the trial. On the second day of the trial, however, he failed to show up. By day three the roles had been reversed. The juror suddenly found himself in the courtroom standing before the judge as a defendant who was charged with contempt of court. The one who had been called to judge was now being judged himself.

In many ways, this was kind of role reversal is what the apostle Paul was writing about to the Romans in our text for today. Paul makes clear that "God shows no partiality". Everyone, including the Gentiles, was subject not only to God's judgment, but also to God's "glory and honor and peace". This was quite a reversal in roles. The Jews were experiencing things from the eyes of the Gentiles and the Gentiles from the eyes of the Jews.

Paul suggests that God sees both groups equally. Ancestry alone was not going to give anyone a place of honor before God. All people would be judged accordingly. All people would be in equal need of God's grace and, through Christ's death and resurrection on the cross, all people would receive that gift. Thanks be to God for God's gift of grace to all!

PRAYER:
Loving God, we give you thanks that we all come before you equally as your children. We are in need of your grace and ask that you would freely bestow it upon us. Amen.

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Thoughts by Rev. Meredith Keseley, pastor of the 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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Lent 2010 #7

Luke 21:34--22:6 (NRSV)

"Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man." Every day he was teaching in the temple, and at night he would go out and spend the night on the Mount of Olives, as it was called. And all the people would get up early in the morning to listen to him in the temple.

Now the festival of Unleavened Bread, which is called the Passover, was near. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to put Jesus to death, for they were afraid of the people. Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was one of the twelve; he went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers of the temple police about how he might betray him to them. They were greatly pleased and agreed to give him money. So he consented and began to look for an opportunity to betray him to them when no crowd was present.

THOUGHTS:

"Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was one of the twelve…" (verse 22:3)  

This line from Luke's gospel has always left me a bit confused.  How exactly did Satan enter into Judas?  What did it feel like?  Was Judas aware of what was happening in that moment?  If Satan entered into Judas, can Satan enter into me, too?  

To really understand what is happening here, though, we have to go back to the beginning of Luke's gospel.  At the beginning of chapter 4 the devil (otherwise known as Satan) tempts Jesus, trying to get Jesus to worship him instead of God.  Scripture says, "When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time."  Here, in today's passage is that opportune time!  

Satan's opportune time was Judas' moment of weakness.  It was the moment when he took his eyes off of Jesus.  It was the moment that he lost his way and got off track.  And, unfortunately, Judas isn't the only one who has such moments.  We all do.  We all have those moments when our lives seem to get off track and we are tempted.    

Hence, we need the season of Lent.  The Lenten journey is about getting ourselves and our lives back on track.  It is about refocusing our eyes on Jesus and the cross.  Lent is God's opportune time to enter into us and to fill us with God's Spirit.  God's Spirit within us is then able to protect us from evil forces and guide us in our journey.    

PRAYER: 

Gracious God, we pray that you would enter into us, protecting us from all evil and guiding our ways.  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