Week 3 of Lent

As we move into the second half of Lent, have you discovered practices, prayers or disciplines that have opened your eyes to seeing God in the world around you? Have you changed how you approach God yourself? What have you been learning?

I have discovered that while I use a rich vocabulary of words in much of what I do, sometimes I live in a visual desert, or at least, its distinctiveness is blurred in its familiarity. I wonder how my reflections would change if I lived in  more urban setting, or if I was in more varied spaces every day instead of following my routine of home, desk, sanctuary, highway and home again. And then I find myself convicted: Living in the midst of the familiar (and the comfortable), how much more important is it then that I stop and pay attention to the world around me, to notice where I see God active and vibrant?

Hear

The organ resonates, the trumpets call, the choral voices are raised singing, "Hosanna!"

Earthly
"If God so clothes..." all kinds of "earthly" things, will God not also clothe us? (Mt. 6:30)

Prophet
Who are our "prophets" today? Martin Luther King, Jr. certainly has been named. Mother Theresa probably, too. Theologian Walter Brueggemann writes about prophetic imagination and how we preachers can speak prophetically when we bring the Word to our congregations. I wrestled with an image for this word because I resisted using the image of someone renowned, and kept wondering, "Who are the prophets in my life?" and "What does it mean to be a prophet today?" What are the hard truths we need to hear?

Leave
The story of Jesus delivering a boy from a demon in Luke 9:35-43 is the Scripture the folks at Rethink Church chose for this word. The disciples and Jesus had just left a mountaintop experience, and confronted by the world waiting for them, Jesus drove out the evil. What do we leave when we go out of our sanctuaries? Are we able, on the strength of our witness, to drive out, or expel, evil from our communities? Is that the power of communion, community bound together by Christ?

Thirst
Is our "thirst" for God felt more keenly than our craving for the next cup of dark roast?

Bless
"Bless, O Lord, this food to our use and us to Thy loving service." That was my childhood table grace, and it's one of one hundred graces in this volume, which a seminary friend shared with me several years ago.

Night
Remembering that even in the darkness, God is here with me, with us.