Introduction
Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ who comforts us in our darkest nights!
A couple months ago I hatched this
brilliant idea to write a Lenten devotion, pulling together simple
reflections, prayers, and thoughts based on the lectionary texts of
the season. This has proved to be a challenge to me, not least of all
because of my habit of procrastination, but also because of trying to
mash a topic and a bunch of somewhat arbitrary lectionary texts. Not
long after Christmas, Pastor Kirk and I sat down to discuss themes
for Lent, and determined that a recurring theme for us as a church,
community, and nation was fear. We've been dealing with divisiveness
in politics, and tragedy in the world, and personal trauma and
injury. Fear is all around us. In fact, fear is so pervasive that
sometimes it's overwhelming and seems to blot out all sense and
reason. It's an infection of the imagination, and one that's
exceedingly difficult to overcome. How could I begin to address it?
One of my favorite authors wrote a
comment about “breeding dragons in map margins.” The idea is that
it's easy, when the road isn't clear and we don't know what's going
to happen (like, you know, happens in all of life), for our
imagination to get the best of us and start hatching all sorts of
evil and danger lurking just out of sight. Human imagination can be a
beautiful thing, but also very powerful, and even more powerful when
spurred on by the forces of evil. Fear is one such force. The author
of 1 John wrote that perfect love casts out fear, but unfortunately
the opposite is evident sometimes too. Fear can get in the way of
love by driving a wedge of anxiety and distrust between us and our
loved ones, and between us and God. Things that separate us from God
are essentially the definition of sin. Fear which preserves us can be
healthy, but fear which overwhelms and destroys us is nothing but
evil.
As I mentioned above, originally, I
planned to take the lectionary texts for each week and write a little
reflection about them with a prayer, a task which seemed relatively
straight forward and simple to execute. But after much prayer and
reflection on this matter, I have been led to structure this Lenten
devotion around six themes with appropriate verses which I hope will
help you to confront whatever anxieties or fears are working on you
right now. Lent is all about acknowledging our mortality (and
sinfulness) in order to fully embrace our resurrection, which is made
possible through Christ. As we journey toward the cross, we remember
that perfect love does indeed cast out fear, and that perfect love is
embodied in our savior Jesus, who died a prisoner's death to set us
free from the powers of sin and death, and all the terrors held
therein. I hope that, even if you are not a particularly anxious
person, you might find reassurance and strength in the reflections,
meditations, and readings provided in this study. It is in the
presence of God that fear seems to shrink away and lose its power.
Christ has dominion over all things, and victory over all that binds
us.
Here is a brief instruction for the
intended use of this study. For each week, I am providing three
readings. This is because often we do a study and forget about what
we read or thought about by the next day. My goal is that, in
revisiting each text with different exercises and prayers, you might
find new insights or may be able to give yourself license to listen
and discern as the Spirit works, knowing you will have another
opportunity to really think about the text the next day if you
choose. I also encourage you to read these texts out loud. Scripture
was originally passed as an oral tradition, and I believe that
reading scripture is an act of prayer in which we open ourselves to
the movement of the Holy Spirit, the very same Spirit which moved
through the authors of the Bible to give us the words we now study.
If you can, find a time to be alone, or if you prefer, read these
texts with your spouse, partner, or children, taking turns with
verses or reading them to one another twice. On the other hand, I
also acknowledge that everybody communes with God in different ways,
so to quote a song I like “however you call, don't forget to call.”
Do what feels natural and know that God is working! You can always
find me if you have any questions about the study itself or want to
talk about anything you've been working with as you move through it.
Let us journey together toward the cross.
In peace,
Intern Gwen
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