Lenten Journey: Fifth Sunday - Mercy

Scripture Readings for the Day

Isaiah 43:16-21

Psalm 126

Philippians 3:8-14

John 8:1-11

For Reflection...

We're down to our final week of Lent.  We stand with the woman caught in adultery before the judgment seat.  In a week we will watch from the crowd as Jesus before Pilate stands in our place.

Our judge is not Pilate nor any of the world's Pilates, but Jesus.  With the woman caught in adultery, we appear before him knowing that we have sinned in ways we cannot deny.  We deserve judgment.  Do we believe we can receive mercy instead?

Can we, with the Lord, forget the past and see that the God is doing something new in us (Isaiah 43:18-19)?  Can we, with Paul, forget our worldly pretensions, leave them behind as rubbish, and strain toward what lies ahead (Philippians 3)?  Are we ready to make this final turn toward Jerusalem?

For Entering In...

- As you become present to God, notice how you are feeling about God, about yourself.  We will have times when we feel close and connected, times when God feels far or our own hearts feel inaccessible.  Welcome whatever comes today.

- Reflect on these questions:

• During this final week of Lent, reflect again on your experience of fasting, if you have chosen to fast.  Is this a practice that you might continue into the future?  How might fasting be supporting your intention to draw closer to God?  If you have not fasted thus far, consider picking a day and fasting from something on just that day.  What do you notice about your experience?

• Have you been giving alms, money or other aid, as a Lenten practice?  Spend some time this week noticing who around you is in need.  In your prayer time, ask God what God might be calling you to do in service.  No one of us can do everything.  To what are you called?  To give some money?  To offer a listening ear?  Or something else?

• When, where, and how have you been praying?  Where do you feel you stand in relationship to God today?  Where does God stand in relationship to you?

• Have you been using a prayer word to keep you connected to God as you go about your daily activities?  That word is only a reminder that God is ever present, loving you, calling you to awareness of that love.

• How has your Lenten journey been so far?  From where have you come?  Where are you going?  Where is God calling you?  Where do you wish to be?

- Spend several minutes allowing your body and mind to be at rest.  If thoughts come, let them go by.  What if the only thing that mattered was your being, not your thinking or feeling or doing?

Lenten Journey: The Older Son

Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

For Reflection...

"A man had two sons..."  That's how the parable begins.  The next part, the part we know the best, is about the younger son who takes his share of the estate, skips town, parties 'til he's broke, then comes crying home.

The older son doesn't come in until near the end.  That figures, says the older son in me.

It is the older son with whom I most often identify.  He's the one who stays at home.  He's the one working away in the fields.  He does the right thing.  He helps his father.  He doesn't cause any trouble.  He doesn't ask for anything, not so much as a goat.

I'll bet he's a good Jew.  Always says his prayers.  Follows God's Law to the letter.  Except for the part where we're called to "taste and see that the Lord is good" (Psalm 34:9).  I know, because the Father practically begs this older son to come in to the party, and the son won't come.  "Taste and see that the Lord is good," the Father seems to say, but his older son cannot.

Neither can I sometimes.  Like the older son, I get tired, sick and tired.  The party started while I was still out in the field (v. 25).  As a matter of fact, my Father's other son (no brother of mine) has been partying all his life while I've been shoveling the manure.  I'm in no mood to celebrate and rejoice (v. 32).

But the party will go on, with or without the older son, with our without me.  The parable ends with the question implied:  Will he go in, or won't he?


For Entering In...

- Take a deep breath.  Close your eyes and feel the surface you're sitting on, notice your body in space.  Think about where you believe your soul resides and breathe into that space, knowing God dwells there too.

- Reflect on these questions:

• In what ways have you, like the older son, tried to do the right thing with your inheritance?  When have you chosen to remain at home in spite of the lure of the distant country?  What are the fields you've labored in?

• The older son is resentful because he believes that his sacrifice has gone unrecognized (v. 29), not unlike the lament of Cain in Genesis (4:5ff).  Consider sacrifices you feel you've made.  Is there something you've expect in return?  Accolades?  Thanks?  Acknowledgement?  Be honest.  How does has it felt to you if those expectations have not been met?

• Can you think of a time when you've seen someone get something you don't believe they deserve?  Maybe an advancement at work?  Money or other material wealth?  Some other sort of success?  Or, like the younger son in the parable, excessive pardon for wrongs committed?  How has that made you feel?

• Jesus repeatedly uses images of celebration to describe what it's like to enter the Kingdom of God (see Matthew 22 and Luke 14).  Do you ever feel reluctant to enter into the party?  If so, what is that like for you?  What is keeping you out?

- Breathe deeply again and notice the air as it fills your body.  Every breath is a gift, a dimension of the Father's bounty that belongs to us (Luke 15:31).  Carry that awareness back into your day.

Lenten Journey: Fourth Sunday - Coming Home

Scripture Readings of the Day

Joshua  5:9a, 10-12

Psalm 34

2 Corinthians 5:17-21

Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

For Reflection...

In the book of Joshua, the Israelites finally come home to the Promised Land.  In the gospel, the younger son comes home to his prodigal father.  And in 2 Corinthians we -- and all the world with us -- come home to God through Christ.

We spend so much of our lives feeling like exiles wandering in a distant country.  We are desert dwellers, refugees from Egypt, surviving on manna and quail.  We have gone our own way, squandered our inheritance, and are reduced to slopping the pigs.

We live with the persistent sense that wherever we are, we are not at home.  And the moments when we feel as though we have finally arrived, in their passing, only serve to reinforce that we're not there yet.

Still, we continue to wander.  We can't build our cities in the desert.  We don't finally eat from the slop bucket, hungry though we are.  Our restless longing is for a place we know we know.  There is something inside of us that won't let us rest until we've made our return.

For Entering In...

- Have you come to feel comfortable in a space where you can spend time in the quiet?  What do you need to have that space, that time, to become present to yourself and to God?

- Reflect on these questions:

• Think about your experience of home.  What comes to mind?  A particular place?  A structure?  Furnishings?  People?  Close your eyes and know what it feels like in your body when you are at "home."

• What has been your experience of leaving home?  Maybe when you went to college.  Maybe when you got married.  Maybe when you went on a trip without your parents for the first time.  Maybe when you moved to a new city or state or country.  Maybe something else.  What is that feeling?  What does it feel like in your body when you reflect on leaving home?

• Have you ever been lost?  Have you ever been homesick?  Have you ever wanted to go home and somehow couldn't?  What happened?  Can you remember how that felt?

• Do you relate to the idea that we live with a sense of "restless longing"?  What do you long for?  Spend a few minutes with yourself taking inventory -- what are all the things that are standing between you and feeling at home in your life?  Notice each thing that comes up.  Don't think of these experiences as problems to be solved.  Just acknowledge them and let them be.

- As you wind down this time apart, consider the degree to which your interludes of focused prayer lead you to feel at home -- or in exile.

Lenten Journey: God's Judgment

Some people told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices.  Jesus said tho them in reply, "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans?  By no means!  But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!  Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them -- do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem?  By no means!  But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will perish as they did!"

- Luke 13:1-5 

God our Savior...desires everyone to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.

- 1 Timothy 2:3-4 

For Reflection...

We hear it in fiery evangelical messages, the warning of God's imminent judgment.  It is Biblical, from the Old Testament prophets through John the Baptist.  Repent! they say.  Follow God's law.  Turn away from idols.  Or, as I heard on Ash Wednesday, Turn away from sin and be faithful to the gospel.

Or else.

God has established his will, so the argument goes; humans have disobeyed.  God has established his law; humans have gone our own way.  There must be consequences.

Isn't that how it works?  I am not a god, but I am a parent, and there are similarities, if this argument holds.  I bring these children into the world and expect them to adhere to my will and follow the laws I set down or face the consequences.  It's true, and it works -- up to a point.

One of my challenges as a parent has always been that, when my children haven't followed my rules, set down in black and white, I see all the grey.  Is it that they won't, or is it that they can't?  As a friend recently said to me, "It sounds like you're more mercy than judgment."  Exactly.

If that is true of me in any sense, it must be more true of the God whose character is kind and merciful.  If I know of my children, of myself, that sometimes we cannot do the good we might will to do (cf. Romans 7), than God knows that all the more.

So what does Jesus -- Jesus! -- mean when he says that if we don't repent, we will perish in bloody conflict, buried under the rubble of fallen towers?  Is he saying that God will smite us into hell?  I don't think so.

In 1 Timothy, we're told that God "desires everyone to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth."  Everyone.  That is God's will -- that we be saved and not come to destruction.  It is not God's will that threatens my salvation; it is my will.  What I know as a parent is that the rules I make for my children are for their good.  I am trying to keep them safe physically, emotionally, spiritually.  Don't run in the street.  Don't hold a grudge.  Don't forget to say your prayers.  I'm trying to guide them in building lives that will lead them to the knowledge of truth.

Jesus knows the same thing about the God's will for us.  Following the will of God is the way for us to be safe.  It doesn't guarantee a carefree life.  This we know.  Tyrants will still attack.  Towers will still fall.  But our real life, the life that matters, the life that carries on into eternity, will endure.

For Entering In...

- Spend a few moments in silence becoming present to yourself and to God. What does it feel like to be alert and aware in God's present?

- Reflect on these questions:

• What have you believed about God's judgment?  What were you taught as a child, if anything?  What have you heard or thought about it as an adult?

• Have you been in a position to set limits and enforce consequences on someone you love?  As a parent?  Teacher?  Pet owner?  What has your experience been?  How have you held the space between judgment and mercy?

• Psalm 111:10 says, "The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom."  Spend a few minutes silently reflecting on this verse.  What do you understand it to mean?  What does God have to say to you in prayer about "the fear of God"?

• Have you had a specific experience where you had a strong sense of God's will for you?  How did you know?  What did you do?  Did you say yes or no?  What were the consequences?

- Again today, remember the word that you have fastened to your heart.  Continue to use your word, day and night, to recall you to the truth that God is with you always. 

Lenten Journey: The Lord Is Kind and Merciful

Psalm 103 

For Reflection...

"The Lord is kind and merciful."  That was the refrain we sang on Sunday as the cantor intoned the words of Psalm 103.  As we wonder together about God's will, it will be our refrain as well.

Yesterday we came face to face with the pain and suffering that are all around us.  Despite the platitudinous words we may hear -- It's all for the best.  It was God's will. -- we stand firm in the conviction that God does not will evil and suffering.  As Franciscan Father Richard Rohr says, "God is never less loving than the most loving person you know."

In order to discern God's will, we must reflect on God's character.  And how do we discern character?  Think of someone you know -- a friend, a parent, a sibling, a spouse.  Or think of someone famous, a historical figure about whom you know something and about whom you have some opinion.  What do you know about him or her?  Is he trustworthy?  Is she loyal?  How do you know?

We may judge one another's character by the experiences that we share together and remember.  We listen to what the other says, and observe how she interacts with others.  We hear what other people say about him.  We revere George Washington, because history tells us he was shrewd and courageous in battle and humbly refused to be made a king.  We look up to Mother Teresa because of the way she lived her life among the poorest of the poor.  These details and many others reflect the character of this woman, this man.

So it is with God.  What do we know about God?  What have we heard God say?  What has God done?  What do others say about God, including the authors of scripture?  What does our own, intimate experience of God tell us about who God is?

Finally, if we believe that God's most complete self-revelation is in the person of Jesus, what does that tell us about God's character?

For Entering In...

- Spend a few moments in silence becoming present to yourself and to God.  Are you getting to know this God?  What does it feel like to be alert and aware in God's present?

- Reflect on these questions:

• Who is "the most loving person you know"?  How would you describe him or her?  How would you describe God if God were "at least as loving" as that person?

• If you spend any time at all reading the Bible, you will discover a challenging variety of data about who God is.  Read what Richard Rohr has to say about clearly unloving words and actions attributed to God.  How does this perspective strike you?  Is it consistent with what you've been taught?  With what you yourself have experienced of God?

• The great hymn in Philippians 2 is thought to be, perhaps, the oldest text in the New Testament.  Read it and spend some time reflecting on or writing about what this passage says about the character of God.

• We may still find ourselves questioning whether, in fact, "the Lord is kind and merciful," especially when bad things happen.  In prayer, can you hold in tension the suffering that touches your heart and the claim that the Lord is kind and merciful?  Don't try to reconcile the difficulty.  Sit with it and see what you discover.

•  Is there any attribute of God's character that has particularly spoken to you in this time of reflection?  Continue to reflect on that quality throughout your day.  What is it that resonates for you?  What does it mean to you or say about you?

- As you finish this quiet time, remember the word that you have fastened to your heart.  Does this word continue to resonate for you?  If not, perhaps there is another word that you are being called to.  Continue to use your word, day and night, to recall you to the truth that God is with you always. 

Lenten Journey: Third Sunday - God's Will

Scripture Readings of the Day

Exodus 3:1-8a, 13-15

Psalm 103

1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12

Luke 13:1-9

For Reflection...

During this third week in Lent, we will arrive at the half-way point of the forty day journey from Ash Wednesday to the Passion of the Lord and Holy Week.  It's time to notice where we have come to along the Lenten road.

We began with the three great themes of Lent, fasting, almsgiving, and prayer.  Lent is a dessert season, and its practices of self-denial are all meant to call us into deeper relationship with the God who, in Jesus, we can meet face to face.

Once we have encountered this God, what then?  Encounter is not synonymous with going to church or following the rules.  It is a living relationship.  God takes the initiative in our very creation.  We respond by doing what we're doing now, turning our faces toward God.

But if our relationship is to grow, we must wonder what is next for us.  God wants us to do more than show up.  We are invited to participate in the work of redemption, that is, in the transformation of the world-broken-by-sin into the Kingdom of God.

If we have come to believe that we have met the real God, we might well wonder what our Creator desires of us. What is God's will?  How do we recognize it?  How do we begin to respond?


For Entering In...

- Spend a few moments in silence becoming present to yourself and to the God who dwells within you.

- Reflect on these questions:

• Have you chosen something from which to fast this Lent?  If so, how has that been for you?  Rather than thinking about yourself as having been "good" or "bad," notice whether and when it has been easy or difficult.  What have you been aware of as you fast?  What have you learned?  If you have not been fasting, consider what you might be called to abstain from and why you may be resisting.

• Have you given alms, that is, acted in mercy for someone in need?  Have you been vulnerable enough to receive help in your own need?  Remember that when we act in charity, whether as one who gives or one who humbly receives, we see the face of Christ in another -- and she sees the face of Christ in us.

• How is your prayer life?  Have you adopted or renewed a daily practice of time set apart to be present to God?  Do you still feel concerned about what or where or when or how you pray?  What if every time you became conscious of the presence of God, that was your prayer?  Could you use that as a place from which to grow?

• Have you yet chosen a word to "fasten to your heart."  Continue to carry your word with you, letting it speak in your heart.

• Think back to where you felt you were in relationship to God on Ash Wednesday.  Notice where you are now.  Has anything changed?  Write about what comes up for you.

- As you finish this quiet time, rejoice in the presence of the God who made you just as you are and who longs to have you draw near.

Lenten Journey: Exodus

And behold, two men were conversing with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem. 

- Luke 9:30-31

For Reflection...

We talked last week about Jesus as the Jewish Messiah.  That identity could hardly be more evident than it is here, on the Mount of Transfiguration.  Who should be conversing with Jesus, but Moses, the lawgiver, and Elijah, prophet among prophets?  In Matthew 7:15, Jesus asserts that he has come not to abolish, but to fulfill the Law and the prophets.  He is the completion of the story that Moses and Elijah both represent and embody.

All three appear in glory.  They shine forth with the light of God in their faithful witness to God's purpose -- which is exodus and Jerusalem.

I am grateful that this translation (New American Bible, rev.) uses the word exodus, where others translate departure or death.  No.  Exodus is critical, because we are meant to be recalled to the exodus from Egypt, the foundational story of Israel and, thus, of Israel's Messiah.

The exodus from Egypt is the saving event in Israel's story of God's saving work.  Israel escapes slavery only through the Passover, the sparing of the firstborn of Israel amidst the death of the firstborn of Egypt.  The Israelites are kept safe by being marked with the blood of the sacrificial lamb (Exodus 12).  They will be saved through the waters of the parted sea (Exodus 14).  They will wander in the desert for forty years.  They will inherit the land God has promised.

Jesus prophetically enacts every move -- passing through the waters in his baptism (at the Jordan, the river across which the Israelites under Joshua finally enter the Promised Land; see Joshua 3), spending forty days in the desert.  He is leading us on a new exodus from slavery -- to sin -- into a new land of promise, the Kingdom of God.

And the road goes through Jerusalem.

Even from the mountaintop, we must set our faces toward Jerusalem (Luke 9:51).  Beyond Egypt, beyond the desert, Jerusalem is ground zero for the story of salvation.  Jerusalem is the capital, the Holy City, the place of sacrifice.  It is our final destination, the only destination.  God's glory shines forth from this city on this hill.  If we are going to be light-bearers, God-image-bearers, we too will have to continue on from the mountaintop toward Jerusalem.

For Entering In...

- Spend a few moments becoming present to yourself.  If your mind is preoccupied, allow the thoughts to come and to go.  Notice what you feel in your body, in your heart.

- Invite God to be present with you.

- Reflect on these questions:

• The law can be seen as a way of maintaining a sound boundary.  It keeps us safe.  It can also keep others out, and it can oppress those who are "in."  How do you understand the role of the law in your spiritual life?  How does it relate to your sense of freedom?  Of responsibility?

• Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible, is a hymn in praise of God's law.  Spend the next few days reading some or all of it.  Write or reflect about what you discover about the law.  Does Psalm 119 change your view?  Reinforce it?

• Who have been the lawgivers and keepers in your life?  What are the laws you have been expected to live by, either by others or by yourself?  Which, if any, would you like to have seen abolished?  Which laws, if any, have been flouted that you wanted to defend?

• Jesus says that he has come not to abolish -- and not to defend -- but to fulfill the law.  Spend some time reflecting on this saying.  What might it mean to you, in your life today?

• From what in your life are you looking to experience an "exodus" of freedom and deliverance?  Can you ask God to lead you out of your enslavement, your Egypt?

- As you finish this quiet time, take a moment to connect with your soul and with the God who made you and is sustaining you this day, in this moment.  Notice your breathing.  Remember that it is a gift.

Lenten Journey: Second Sunday - The Mountaintop

Scripture Readings for the Day

Genesis 15: 5-12, 17-18

Psalm 27

Philippians 3:17-4:1

Luke 9:28b-36

For Reflection...

"Jesus took Peter, John, and James and went up the mountain to pray."

The desert is real -- all too real-- but it hardly encompasses our whole experience of our human condition.  There is also the mountaintop.

At times we get a glimpse of Something More.  We know that, while our feet are grounded in the earth, there is a part of us that is made for Heaven.  Maybe it is only a pinprick of light in an otherwise dark country.  Maybe it is as blindingly bright as the sun.  It may last a long time, or it may pass in an instant, but either way, it is a window on eternity.

And something in our souls recognizes it.

There is something about me that resonates with something I cannot finally name.  I might call it Joy or Love or Grace or Glory, and all those things will be true even as they somehow fall short.  I cannot describe what I see or capture what I feel.  Doubt might creep in from the valley.

But from my view from the mountaintop, I know it's absolutely true.

For Entering In...

- Spend a few moments becoming present to yourself.  Notice how it feels to be in your body, here, now.

- Invite God to be present with you.

- Reflect on these questions:

• Take some time to read the readings of the day.  Read them all and then choose one -- or just choose one.  

• Whatever you have chosen, read it again, slowly.  Notice what speaks to you in this passage.  Is it a phrase?  A word?  Jot it down.

• Hold that word or phrase lightly.  What we are aiming for is for you to take that word or phrase into your heart.  Rather than thinking about what it means, even what it means to you, allow your soul to engage in a kind of free-association.  What comes up for you as you hold the word or phrase?  Just let it come.

• What might God want you to take from this word into your life this week?  Today?  Ask God and quietly listen.  Again, what does your heart say?  Don't let your head tell you it doesn't make sense.  It's okay if it seems like it doesn't.  Just let it be.

• Spend a few minutes in silence with God.  Thank God for whatever you heard during this time of prayer.