Lent Day 23: April 4

This morning we welcome guest blogger Dan Affeldt who helps us to see how reconciliation and forgiveness are possible when we are focused on Christ.

Lenten Reflection for Day 23

Date: Monday April 4, 2011

Author: Dan Affeldt

Bible Passage:

1 Peter 3:8–9 (NRSV)

⁸ Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind. ⁹ Do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse; but, on the contrary, repay with a blessing. It is for this that you were called—that you might inherit a blessing.

Reflection:

This passage from Peter captures for me the essence of how we are offered the opportunity to experience the profound joy that comes from God’s love made manifest in the sacrifice of Jesus. Forgiveness that is ours from Christ is also ours to share with others if we keep our hearts focused on Christ and our actions guided by that focus. Anger, hurt, resentment, alienation, fear, spitefulness, envy, and greed inevitably bring pain, separation, loneliness and even despair. And this befalls us if we are the target of or we are the source of the evil or abuse.

But surely joy can be ours if we, through Christ, but offer forgiveness, seek forgiveness, and are reconciled both with God and those who harm us or we have harmed in any way that might separate us from the other, from our own faith, and thus from God.

They will know we are Christians by our love.

Prayer:

Dear, dear Lord, help me this day and every day stay close to you in all that I do and say. Let the Grace you paid so dearly for, but offer us so freely, if we but accept it be my strength and continuing blessing. Keep fresh in my being how the criminal crucified next to you had only turn to you and asked to be remembered in your Kingdom for your Grace to bring him peace and even joy in the midst of such fear. Amen

Lent Day 21 Forgive us our Sins

Week 4 Lenten Devotions

Lent Day 21: Friday March 12

Theme for the Week: The Lord’s Prayer as a Way to Ask for Help

Passage for the Day: Matthew 6:12-14

¹² And forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

¹³ And do not bring us to the time of trial,

but rescue us from the evil one.

¹⁴ For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; ¹⁵ but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Reflection:

This particular part of Matthew’s version of the Lord’s prayer has a triple emphasis on our being able to forgive others. Why does Matthew place so much more importance on this very difficult topic? Matthew’s Gospel has a big emphasis on righteousness, and it is hard to be right with God when I am holding onto all sorts of grudges and anger toward people around me. Let’s face it, forgiving others is not particularly easy. It is not even easy to forgive little things—slights such as a friend forgetting your birthday, or not inviting you to a party, or neglecting to return a phone call. Sometimes it seems easier just to get mad and stay mad. If it is not easy to forgive little things, forgiving the big things seems to take super-human or divine help. How do you forgive someone who has truly wounded you? How do you forgive someone who has physically abused you or ruined your reputation by spreading false stories about you? The world of social networking provides many positive possibilities to connect with friends, but it also provides many temptations to spread hurt and shame. How do you forgive someone when you have been totally hurt? I think it takes a lot of prayer and help from God to forgive some big stuff. I have to ask God to soften my heart and help me realize that carrying around the burden of grudges, anger or hatred is not helping me. Forgiving someone really benefits me, because it releases me from all the ugliness. It may also lead the way to reconciliation, but that may not always happen. The forgiveness part only involves me resolving to put away all the negativity. The reconciliation involves both me and the person whom I think has harmed me.

Prayer Themes: Thank God for those who are willing to forgive me for the things that I have done wrong. Lord, help me today to put away my anger and ill will toward someone whom I think has wronged me. Lord release me from the burden of holding a grudge. Lord, help me attempts at reconciliation with someone from whom I am alienated. Pray for those who have difficulty forgiving.

Reflections on God's Gift of Law--Lent Day 9 (Week 2)

Lent Day 9: Friday February 26

Theme for the Week: God’s Gift of the Ten Commandments

Passage for the Day:

Nehemiah 8:8-9

⁸ So they read from the book, from the law of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. ⁹ And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law.

Reflection: The book of Nehemiah chronicles the experience of God’s people after they returned to Jerusalem after having been exiled to Babylon for nearly 75 years. Several generations of God’s people were born and raised outside of their homeland. The children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren the original exiles have now returned to a destroyed city to try to rebuild their lives. During the years in Babylon, the people have fallen away from their religious traditions, and their faith in the God, who chose them, has been weakened. Their governor and their priest pull them all together into the town square to teach them about God and God’s Word for them. These people, most of whom could not read, have been so out of touch with their religious traditions that many of them are unfamiliar with the gift of the Ten Commandments. The priests read to them from the sacred Scriptures and re-acquaint them with God’s gift of the Law or Ten Commandments. When the people hear God’s Word, they are overcome with a variety of emotions. The Word brings a kind of collective remembrance and a recognition of the ways in which they have fallen away from God. They cry tears that are a combination of mourning for what has been lost, joy that they can again hear God’s Word, and sorrow for all the things they have been doing wrong. The priests tell them not to cry, because the day is holy and because God is delighted that they have returned.

Imagine a situation where you have been away from home or perhaps away from the church for a prolonged period of time. You return to worship, perhaps in the church in which you were raised. You hear God’s Word and it stirs in you a cauldron of emotions. You remember hearing similar words standing by you grandmother’s side. You remember what it was like to share Holy Communion standing next to your parents. You realize how much you have missed being in church, and you realize how far you have strayed. If tears flow from your eyes, they are tears of remembrance, tears of joy that you have returned and tears that reflect your realization that you have made a lot of mistakes. Hearing God’s Word creates a kind of catharsis in you. God’s Word in the Law assumes the role of helping you realize where you have slipped and how much you have missed. God’s Law is no longer a noose around your neck, but a liberating agent.

Prayer Themes: Pray that I can hear God’s Word and realize how far I have strayed. Pray that I can hear God’s Word in the Law as a gift to me. Pray that God’s Word would call me both to remembrance and call me back into the community of faith.

Reflections on God's Gift of Law--Lent Day 8 (Week 2)

Lent Day 8: Thursday February 25

Theme for the Week: God’s Gift of the Ten Commandments

Passage for the Day:

Romans 3:19-20

¹⁹ Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. ²⁰ For “no human being will be justified in his sight” by deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

Reflection:

In this passage we hear of what Martin Luther would later refer to as the second use of the Law. As Saint Paul writes, “through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.” What this means is that God’s Law helps us to see and understand the ways in which we have abused our relationship with God, the ways in which we have hurt ourselves or others, and the ways in which we have failed to help other people. God’s Law is a such gift to us because is shows us the ways in which we have missed the mark. The Law helps us to recognize that we are sinners and that by ourselves we are unable to stop sinning. This recognition of our sinfulness is what drives us to need and want the Gospel--the Good News that Jesus died for us. Before we can really appreciate this Good News, we need the Law to hold a mirror to our faces and show us how we have done things we should not have done and failed to do things that we should have.

Prayer Themes: Pray that God would help me to realize that, on my own, I will never be able to be the person God wants me to be. Thank God for the gift of Jesus, who willing died to save me from my own failings. Thank God that Jesus died so that I can be reconciled to God in spite of all of the things that I have done wrong.

Christ releases you from burdens--Lent Day 4

Reflection for Lent Day 4 (Saturday February 20)

Theme for the Week: Confession, Forgiveness and Reconciliation

Passage for the Day:

1 John 1:8-10

⁸ If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰ If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Reflection:

If you worship in a church with a liturgical tradition, you may recognize these words, or words similar to these as being used in worship during the “Confession of Sins.” We use these words to admit to God that there are so many ways we have not done what God would want us to do. And we also admit that, by ourselves, we are simply unable to stop doing stuff that is wrong.

The writer of John’s first letter says that if we claim that we aren’t sinning, we just aren’t facing reality. Each and every day, somehow we manage to do something which either alienates us from God, from someone we love, or from someone who plays a role in our lives. Can you think of some way in which you have done something wrong in the past day?

The Good News for us is that God has promised us that if we believe in Jesus, Jesus’ death releases us from sin. Wrong doing no longer controls our lives. Instead, if we believe that Jesus saves us, each morning as we wake up God frees us from our past sins and gives us a new start. If we know that God gives us new starts, our wrong doings and mistakes cannot take control of our lives. Is there something in your life from which you want God to free you and grant you a fresh start?

If, on the other hand, we assume that it is all up to us and that we can manage to do everything right and never sin, then the entire burden is on us. As humans, we are simply unable to do everything right, and we drive ourselves crazy trying to do so. When we try to be perfect by ourselves, we set ourselves up to become ever more disenchanted with ourselves and our failures. Do you ever get angry at yourself because you can’t do everything right? Do you feel the burden of trying to be perfect?

Think about it, if we think we can achieve perfection by ourselves, why did Jesus have to die?

Prayer Themes for the Day:

Pray for faith to believe that Jesus frees you from sin. Pray for forgiveness for the things you have done wrong and the things you have neglected to do. Pray for release from the tyranny of perfectionism. Thank God for the gift of Jesus.

Reconciliation in Christ--Lent Day 2

Reflection for Lent Day 2 (Thursday February 18):

Theme for the Week: Confession, Forgiveness and Reconciliation

Passage for the Day: 2 Corinthians 5:20b-21

We entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. ²¹ For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Reflection:

In the church that I serve, we read from Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians as part of our Ash Wednesday worship service last evening. We heard these words about Christ’s work of reconciling us to God before we confessed our sins collectively. How good it was to be reminded, in advance of our confession, that Christ has taken on our wrongdoings and failures so that they don’t stand in the way of our relationship to God.

Knowing in advance that I will be forgiven because of what Christ has done for me makes it much easier for me to admit that there are lots of things that I have done wrong and things that I should have done—the things that I just either didn’t want to do or just didn’t get around to doing.

As I begin my Lenten journey, the knowledge that Christ has released me from the power of my sins and reconciles me to God frees me to concentrate on how I might do things differently. I get to pray about how God might help me to find ways to help my neighbor rather than worrying about whether or not I have been saved. God has assured me that in Christ, I am freed.

Prayer Themes for the Day:

Thank God for Christ’s work of reconciling you to God. Pray that God will find ways to use you as God’s hands in the world.