Lenten Devotion for March 31

Triumphal Entry
by Steve Garnaas-Holmes

His “triumphal entry,” they call it,
riding into the city on a donkey.
Listen, you can tell where this is going
just by looking at him.
Dust of the roads on his feet,
speckled by sinners’ tears.
The smell of fish and baking bread,
incense and lepers on his clothes,
blood on the hem of his garment,
the frame of a man who walks a lot.
Rough knees and kind hands.
Eyes that sparkle with sadness,
everyone’s sadness, taking it all in,
and a smile that weeps with you,
that knows a world’s sorrow
without telling, and a world’s joy.
See how he notices the burdened ones,
the weepers and limpers,
the crutched and shunned ones,
old ones who hover in doorways,
a ragman collecting shame and shadows,
and those who live in them,
how it seems as if he’s gathering names?
Feel that wind? This praise is a spring snow:
it will soon vanish into what we really mean.
These are his royal subjects,
the cast-off and mangled,
possessed and dispossessed.
He draws these tatters and disasters into a kingdom,
rides his patient donkey down the road,
down into the crowd where it opens like a wound,
resolutely down into the tragedy and our longing
where we feed on him and he is with us.
No threats can stop him,
no force, no cross deter him from this,
(and not some aftermath) his hope, his throne,
his triumph.

Lenten Devotion for March 30

Lament…Weary

by Reb Fleming

Weary is to tired what poverty is to broke.
You can joke about being broke:
“Hey man, I don’t have a penny in my pocket.”
Or decline an invitation without regret:
“Sorry, I can’t go to lunch,
I gave the last of my money to my kids.”
You can do it because you know and I know its temporary,
There’s a paycheck coming and all you have to do is bide your time.
But poverty wears the same dress every day because nothing else is
hanging in the closet
Her face has grown thin and her voice shrill and she screams at her kids
even though she loves them
If she knew what to do about the situation she might
but then again she might not
because hunger stole her hope long ago
Tired means I put in a hard day’s work and my muscles ache
Tired means I fried my brain on a stressful project and even in sleep
I can’t get it to turn off
Tired means working overtime and not getting paid
but it doesn’t matter because you can see the light at the end of the tunnel
and you know that you’re ‘almost there’
But weary has walked through exhaustion and come out with bleached bones
Weary has spent all of its options, played all of its face-cards
performed all of its tricks up front, early-on
without getting so much as a chuckle or a smattering of applause
Weary is dried-up-desperate
who sits for hours in the same chair, staring
Weary walks from one room to another not remembering
nor truly caring what she was looking for
Weary dips one final time into rage and sends the money-changers tables
upside down with a strength and a fury no one knew he possessed
Weary enters the great city like a husband his own bedroom
only to find his wife in the arms of another man
And gasps
not out of anger
but hurt
and stares, unable to take his eyes from the scene
Slowly his body rocks
back and forth
and in a whisper only she can understand because she knows the sound of his voice
asks
Why?
Why, Jerusalem?
Why have you forsaken me?

Lenten Devotion for March 29

The Last Shall Be First  

by Ann Weems

Along the way the pilgrims heard
   that a group of people
had set out for Jerusalem
   without a map.
Since each of us owned
   our own map
and read it daily
   and even then
had difficulty knowing
   which way to turn,
we were amazed
   that they would set out
on their own...
   amazed and alarmed.
Many a day we had
   prayed and consulted
over choices
   in the road.
This news presented
   a greater dilemma:
Which of us would go
   in the rescue party?
Whoever went would
   most certainly
not get to Jerusalem
   on time.
Distraught,
   we prayed.
Then it was we realized
   that the ones who went
in search of the lost
   would be the first
to arrive in Jerusalem.

Looking Toward Sunday

April 1, 2012 - Palm Sunday

“Into God's Future”

We continue our Lenten worship and sermon series, "Ready for a Change".  (If you've missed any of the sermons, you can listen to the podcast here.)  Our first scripture reading for the day will be Mark 1:14-15 - Jesus begins his ministry with the announcement: "Now is the time!  Here comes God's kingdom! Change your hearts and lives, and trust this good news!"   Our second reading is the story of Jesus' palm-paved entry into Jerusalem (read it here).

Jesus calls each of us to work toward change – change in ourselves and change in the world.  He calls us to help transform God’s future into a present day reality.  That’s not an easy mission!  Sometimes we’ll face resistance – even conflict.  But just as Jesus rode into opposition with the parade of palms, so we must dare to continue our journey of change, trusting in the Good News, even and especially in the face of challenges.  Are you ready to be God's change-agent for love, justice and peace in the world?

See you on Sunday!

Lenten Devotion for March 28

A Lenten Prayer

by Terri Pilarski 

God of all new things, God of
Spring, and fragrant flowers, and
unexpected snow. God of hope
and new life,
Bless us, we pray,
this day.

God of all things passing away, God
of old and yesterday, the One who is
with us in our despair and fear.
God who sighs and weeps, God
who wipes away
our tears.

Hear us when we pray. Incline
your ear to our words, silent
shouting cries, mournful whispers.

Be gentle with our hard
hearts. Be gentle. Be
gentle.

Anoint us with your touch
the softness of your love
breaks into our hardness
and opens us anew. A
new thing. A new life.
New sight.

Anoint us, Holy One and fill
us with you loving touch.
Fill us that we can touch
in your love and fill
others. Fill us gently.
Fill us.

In your name we pray. Amen.

Lenten Devotion for March 27

my hour 

by Thom M. Shuman

i wish to see
         Jesus
  in the panhandler
  on the street:
            but
   the stained, tattered clothes,
      the unkempt hair,
         the acridness clustered
         around him
  cloud my eyes;

i wish to hear
         Jesus
   in the politicians
      whose decisions i cannot
            support,
  in the evangelist
    mouthing platitudes to the
           pain-full,
  in the talk-show callers
      spewing hateful bile,
                 but all these words
  clog my ears;

i wish to meet
         Jesus
   in the tattoed skateboarder
            riding the rails
            down at the school,
   in the hip-hopper
           jamming at the
           bus stop,
   in the goths
            hanging outside the
arcade,
      but too quickly
   i cross the street
   searching for my
         twins.

   Jesus,
 why would you wish
           to see
              to hear
           to meet
me?

Lenten Devotion for March 26

Lenten Prayer

by Melodee Kistner

It begins with ashes
and a fiery promise
to walk these forty days
with you, O Christ, as my companion.

As your journey of self discovery
began with Satan in the desert
so too am I tormented during this Lenten season
by my personal demons.

Help me to see why even you, O Christ,
had to face Satan’s temptations of
Power, Wealth, and Fame.

Did Luke leave out some of the details
of your struggles with Satan?
Were you really able to resist so easily, or is that why
Lent is a forty-day journey?

Worldliness beckons each day of my life
with fantasies that steal my vitality
leaving no energy for seeing the
Image of God within me.

As I wait for stone to be turned into bread
the world goes hungry
As I wait to be the one in power
evil prevails because I do nothing
As I wait to be rescued by angels
the miracles in the ordinary go unnoticed.

How patient you are Jesus
as I stumble along my journey
hesitating, instead of walking boldly on The Way.

O Christ,
may I learn to walk without fear
facing my own darkness.
Let my journey lead me
at last
to Easter.