Lent devotional

Crossing the Finish Line

Posted on by Betsy

One of the blessings of observing Lent for six weeks is the focused anticipation of Easter. Some of us anticipate it with the breathless excitement of a child waiting for her Easter basket full of jelly beans. Some of us anticipate it like a child attending an Easter egg hunt….we know there are hidden treats there somewhere, but we are still looking through the high grass. Most of us just want the six weeks of self-deprivation to end.

Whatever your perspective is as we begin this last week of Lent, Easter is coming. The hour approaches. The finish line is in sight! The culmination of this season of disciplined waiting is about to end.

How are you doing?

Have you kept up with the commitments you made on Ash Wednesday to be more diligent in your fasting, prayer, scripture reading, meditation, repentance, worship, and serving?

Yeah, me neither.

You might be like me. I have been satisfactory in one area. I picked up two Cokesbury contracts this Lent, so I am writing and studying Scripture for hours on end. But I totally bombed in another. I committed to not snacking in the evening and that has been a big fail. My definition of “evening” keeps getting pushed back…all the way to midnight.

Today’s Scripture is a glimpse of how Jesus spent his last hours before the crucifixion. Notice his complete and total commitment to what was about to happen.

John 12 (English Standard Version)


20 Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. 21 So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23 And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

The hour has come. This must be finished. A grain of wheat must die in the ground to produce seed for the fruit. You must die to your life to produce seed for eternal life. Jesus invites us to follow him in this last hour.

27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” 30 Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

Jesus didn’t waver at the end. Neither should we. Let us push on with our Lent practices and finish strong. Remember that the whole point of Lent is to bring us closer and deeper into God’s Holy presence. It’s not so much about “giving up” as it is “focusing in” on who God is and whose we are. That focus allows God to be glorified in our lives and the crowd of people around us will know we are Christ-followers by our example.

The finish line is in sight! No turning back.

Almost There

When Little is Better

Posted on by Betsy

Have you ever locked yourself out of your house or is it just me? We were returning from a family outing and found that sure enough, all the doors to the house were locked and we couldn’t get in. All of a sudden our five-year-old grandson yelled, “Hey! I think I can go through the dog door!” At first all the adults tried to go through but each one of us got stuck. Finally we instructed him on how to open the front door and not stop to play on the way. Sure enough, his tiny little frame crawled perfectly though the flaps and we were in like flint. Sometimes little is better.

This is the underlying message for today’s passage. In ways, it reads like a recruitment poster for righteousness. Writing from the long-life experience of a man who was after God’s own heart, David assures readers that even though the righteous have little compared to the “overabundant wealth”(verse 16) of the evil, things will right themselves in the end.

Psalm 37 (Common English Bible)

Better is the little that the righteous have
    than the overabundant wealth of the wicked.
17 The arms of the wicked will be broken,
    but the Lord supports the righteous.
18 The Lord is intimately acquainted
    with the lives of the blameless;
    their heritage will last forever.

David sets up his argument in a series of opposites. The blameless receive an inheritance that lasts forever: The wicked die. The righteous are generous: The wicked borrow and don’t pay back. The blessed will possess the land: The cursed will be cut off.

19 They won’t be ashamed in troubling times,
    and in a period of famine they will eat their fill.
20 But the wicked will die,
    the Lord’s enemies will disappear—
    disappear like the beauty of a meadow—in smoke.
21 The wicked borrow and don’t pay it back, but the righteous are generous and giving.
22 Those blessed by God will possess the land,
    but those cursed by God will be cut off.

If that wasn’t enough to make you want to join the righteous, David offers a beautiful word picture in verse 24: “Though they trip up, they won’t be thrown down, because the Lord holds their hand”. Who among us doesn’t resonate with an image of a loving father holding the hand of a small child?

23 A person’s steps are made secure by the Lord
    when they delight in his way.
24 Though they trip up, they won’t be thrown down,
    because the Lord holds their hand.

You see, the overabundance of the wicked in this world is a fleeting, temporary illusion. Whatever they have now will not last. The “little” that comes from doing good is eternal and enough to sustain us though times of famine and strife. In the end, the righteous will live in the land forever.

25 I was young and now I’m old,
    but I have never seen the righteous left all alone,
    have never seen their children begging for bread.
26 They are always gracious and generous.
    Their children are a blessing.

David ends his recruitment speech with a clear directive: “Turn away from evil! Do good!”.

27 Turn away from evil! Do good!
    Then you will live in the land forever.
28 The Lord loves justice.
    He will never leave his faithful all alone.
    They are guarded forever,
        but the children of the wicked are eliminated.
29 The righteous will possess the land;
    they will live on it forever.

Friends, we are living in times when it seems like the wicked among us are living in luxury and power. It is easy to get discouraged to see them prosper while the poor and disenfranchised suffer. David speaks directly to us today. The Lord loves justice! Vengeance will be God’s. God will never leave the faithful alone. Of that we can be sure.

Would you rather have it all in this life or the next? How can we encourage one another to do good in the world? These are good things to ponder as we enter Holy Week.

Little is Better


Farming Faithfulness

Posted on by Betsy

Did you read Hamlet in high school? Many of us were exposed to this monumental Shakespearian “revenge tragedy” in our youth. Hamlet is a story of revenge gone wrong. Instructed by his father’s ghost to avenge his death, young Hamlet devises a way to kill his uncle for the murder. So Hamlet fakes madness, rejects his intended love interest Ophelia (who later drowns), stabs loyal attendant Polonius by accident behind a tapestry, and watches his mother die from poisoned wine intended for him. It ends with duel that kills both Laertes and Hamlet. The lesson of Hamlet is that revenge is a dish best not served. 

David’s Psalm 37 teaches the same thing. This wisdom psalm is reminiscent of Proverbs and follows a rough acrostic pattern where the first words of each line flow alphabetically from Alpha to Zed.

Psalm 37 (Common English Bible)

Don’t get upset over evildoers;
    don’t be jealous of those who do wrong,
2     because they will fade fast, like grass;
    they will wither like green vegetables.

David tells us not to fret. We all recognize that fretting is harmful and unproductive, and yet when evildoers prevail, it is hard not to fume. David teaches us instead to “farm faithfulness” by waiting on God to avenge us. God will eliminate the evil doers who fade fast like grass on a hot summer day. We don’t need to take action, for God will avenge us.

3 Trust the Lord and do good;
    live in the land, and farm faithfulness.
4 Enjoy the Lord,
    and he will give what your heart asks.
5 Commit your way to the Lord!
    Trust him! He will act
6     and will make your righteousness shine like the dawn,
    your justice like high noon.
7 Be still before the Lord,
    and wait[b] for him.
Don’t get upset when someone gets ahead—
    someone who invents evil schemes.

Verses 3 through 7 are a list of directives that will help us from being distracted by our desire for revenge and enable us to farm that faithfulness that David encouraged. Look at the first words in each verse. We are instructed to enjoy the Lord, commit our way to God, trust God, be still, and don’t get upset. The invitation to delight in God reminds us that even in prison, Paul and Sirus sang as they awaited justice. God intends to give us the desires of our heart if we commit our ways to him. 

8 Let go of anger and leave rage behind!
    Don’t get upset—it will only lead to evil.
9 Because evildoers will be eliminated,
    but those who hope in the Lord—
    they will possess the land.
10 In just a little while the wicked won’t exist!
    If you go looking around their place,
    they won’t be there.
11 But the weak will inherit the land;
    they will enjoy a surplus of peace.
12 The wicked plot against the righteous,
    grinding their teeth at them.
13 But my Lord just laughs at them
    because he knows that their day is coming.
14 The wicked draw their swords and bend their bows
    to bring down the weak and the needy,
    to slaughter those whose way is right.
15 But the sword of the wicked will enter their own hearts!
    Their bows will be broken!

Psalm 37 offers pointers on how to live in and live as the Kingdom of God. We can see correlations between David’s writing and Jesus’ Beatitudes found in Matthew 5, particularly in the revelation that the meek shall inherit the land/earth in Psalm 37:11 and Matthew 5:5. All of the spiritual reversals in the Beatitudes are reflected in this psalm’s contrasts between the wicked and the righteous. Our Lord knew his Scriptures and certainly Psalm 37 served as a foundation to the words he spoke in the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are we when we trust God’s justice and wait patiently for God to act.

Do you trust God enough to be patient or do you need to get revenge? What would it take for you emulate meekness? Be still. God is on your side.

Still Water by Stacy Murphy

Richness in Faith

Posted on by Betsy

American shows today seem to center on our fascination of what it means to be truly rich. We just can’t get enough! From heavy duty productions like Game of Thrones to silly indulgences like Succession and Palm Royale, the story of the ruthless wealthy class exalting in their ultra-privileged lives while the poor characters scrabble and fight and long to break in to that class is told over and over again. It’s almost biblical! Actually, it is biblical.

Our passage in James today plays with similar themes of rich and poor and asks us to consider what it means to be truly rich. The book of James is considered to be the first letter written in the New Testament and he wrote in an age of great prejudice and hatred based on class, nationality, and religious distinctions. The people lived with permanent categories that divided and separated them into Gentiles or Jews, free or slave, rich or poor, and Greek or barbarian. 

James 2 (Common English Bible)

 My brothers and sisters, when you show favoritism you deny the faithfulness of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has been resurrected in glory. 2 Imagine two people coming into your meeting. One has a gold ring and fine clothes, while the other is poor, dressed in filthy rags. 3 Then suppose that you were to take special notice of the one wearing fine clothes, saying, “Here’s an excellent place. Sit here.” But to the poor person you say, “Stand over there”; or, “Here, sit at my feet.” 4 Wouldn’t you have shown favoritism among yourselves and become evil-minded judges?

5 My dear brothers and sisters, listen! Hasn’t God chosen those who are poor by worldly standards to be rich in terms of faith? Hasn’t God chosen the poor as heirs of the kingdom he has promised to those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor. Don’t the wealthy make life difficult for you? Aren’t they the ones who drag you into court? 7 Aren’t they the ones who insult the good name spoken over you at your baptism?

James’ letter attempts to break down these walls for the newly formed Christian community. His goal was to encourage them to see themselves as one race of believers under God. Paul echoed this sentiment in Ephesians 2:14-15 where he wrote that Jesus “made both Jews and Gentiles into one group”. 

But unity was a radical and shocking idea, much like the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s was in our time. James had to break down the notion that partiality should be shown to the rich and introduce the idea that richness in faith is the greater ideal. The poor were more likely to have this richness of faith because they had more opportunities to trust God and less obstacles to overcome than the rich. Indeed, the rich young ruler who questioned Jesus about how to get into heaven learned this the hard way (Matthew 19:16-22). 

Jesus came to be poor and lived his entire life in poverty. Putting too much stock in material wealth and “gold rings” is antithetical to a faith system that values the heart over appearance (1 Samuel 16:7). God isn’t partial to the rich. Neither should we be.

As we continue along in our Lent contemplations this week, it is good to pause and ask ourselves questions.How do you define richness? Are you pursuing richness in faith?

Richness in faith comes through trust in God and adherence to God’s Word. May we linger on that today.

“A bird, a turtle, and an alligator walk onto a bar …”

Not Fair-You-See

Posted on by Betsy

This morning we return to the story of a blind man who was healed by Jesus by mixing dirt and spit together and putting it on the man’s eyes. Our focus today is on the blindness of the Pharisees. You will quickly see that they live up to their name and are not fair-you-see. (Google “I Just Wanna Be a Sheep” for further explanation.)

John 9 (The Message)

13-15 They marched the man to the Pharisees. This day when Jesus made the paste and healed his blindness was the Sabbath. The Pharisees grilled him again on how he had come to see. He said, “He put a clay paste on my eyes, and I washed, and now I see.”

16 Some of the Pharisees said, “Obviously, this man can’t be from God. He doesn’t keep the Sabbath.” Others countered, “How can a bad man do miraculous, God-revealing things like this?” There was a split in their ranks.

17 They came back at the blind man, “You’re the expert. He opened your eyes. What do you say about him?” He said, “He is a prophet.”

24 They called the man back a second time—the man who had been blind—and told him, “Give credit to God. We know this man is an impostor.”

25 He replied, “I know nothing about that one way or the other. But I know one thing for sure: I was blind . . . I now see.” 26 They said, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”

27 “I’ve told you over and over and you haven’t listened. Why do you want to hear it again? Are you so eager to become his disciples?”

28-29 With that they jumped all over him. “You might be a disciple of that man, but we’re disciples of Moses. We know for sure that God spoke to Moses, but we have no idea where this man even comes from.” 

30-33 The man replied, “This is amazing! You claim to know nothing about him, but the fact is, he opened my eyes! It’s well known that God isn’t at the beck and call of sinners but listens carefully to anyone who lives in reverence and does his will. That someone opened the eyes of a man born blind has never been heard of—ever. If this man didn’t come from God, he wouldn’t be able to do anything.”

34 They said, “You’re nothing but dirt! How dare you take that tone with us!” Then they threw him out in the street.

So immediately the crowd started to buzz about the miracle and begin to deny what was evident right before their very eyes. “Wasn’t this the blind man?” “No, it couldn’t be the blind man. It just looks like him!” So even though he gave a clear account of what Jesus had done, they couldn’t see it for what it was and dragged the man before the Pharisees.

The Pharisees, you recall, suffered with their own kind of blindness. It was a spiritual blindness to the needs of the community due to their laser point focus on the Law. The word Pharisee comes from the Hebrew word “perushim” meaning separated. They separated themselves from everyone else by living in strict accord of the sacred writings and the oral traditions that laid down very exact rules for living. They hoped to keep their religion pure and wanted to ward off any influence of pagan and gentile thought and culture.

But it isn’t an overstatement to suggest that sometimes they carried this too far and their rigidity blinded them to the acts of God that were happening all around them. Because of this blindness, they were highly offended that Jesus healed on the Sabbath, which broke the Law, even going so far as to proclaim that this alone disqualified Jesus from being a “man of God,” for surely someone truly sent by God would have let the blind man remain blind in order to honor the Sabbath. In their self-righteousness, they were totally blind to compassion, humanity, and God’s priorities for his people.

The story ends with Jesus finding the man again after his argument with the Pharisees has landed him out on the street. Now we need to remember that the last time they were together, the man walked away to the pool with mud pies on his eyes, so he had not seen Jesus until that very moment. When he put the voice to the face, he recognized that he was seeing Jesus for the first time, he cried out “I believe!” Seeing is believing, but also believing is seeing.

Friends, Lent is all about seeing God more clearly. Lent is a good time to do an “I” exam. Lent teaches us to look for God in ordinary places and things like mud and spit and water. Lent adjusts and sharpens the lens of God’s healing power and what we must do to help ourselves get better, physically, spiritually, relationally, and nationally. Lent invites us into a pool of purification so that we might be cleansed and sent. Do you see what I’m talking about?

What are you being blind to? What situation in your family, your workplace, your neighborhood, or your nation are you deliberately not seeing that is crying out for your help? Where do you need corrective lenses so that you can see what God sees?

Today is a good to open your eyes. May God bring clarity and direction to our sight.

Do You See What I See?

Blame Game

Posted on by Betsy

For the brave among us, turning on any of the “news” programs is like watching an extended version of the blame game. It is never anybody’s fault anymore. Actions and words that are on film and on the record are denied the minute the tide changes and what was said or done no longer fits the current agenda. It boggles the mind how callous and deceitful people can be. Rather than stand up for what they said or did, the finger immediately comes out and they point to their enemy with emphatic “It wasn’t me. I didn’t do it. They are the ones that did wrong.” Like two young brothers trying to avoid punishment for hitting each other, they deflect responsibility and falsely accuse the other of the crime. And it’s just as childish.

In our Scripture today, we witness the miracle of Jesus’ healing a blind man with the simple elements of dirt and spit. One would think that this incredible, mind blowing thing would have people on their knees in awe and wonder. But other things take precedence, like trying to figure out who to blame for his blindness.

John 9: 1-41 (The Message)

 1-2 Walking down the street, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked, “Rabbi, who sinned: this man or his parents, causing him to be born blind?”

3-5 Jesus said, “You’re asking the wrong question. You’re looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do. We need to be energetically at work for the One who sent me here, working while the sun shines. When night falls, the workday is over. For as long as I am in the world, there is plenty of light. I am the world’s Light.”

We need to remember that in those times, disabilities like blindness were thought to be the result of sin. The Jewish understanding of the Levitical blessings and curses detailed in Leviticus 26 led them to believe that disobedience to God’s Word resulted in physical impairments. But even with that background, it is very disappointing to read that the disciples’ first reaction was to try to assess blame rather than to see how they might be able to help the man. They imply that the sin that led to the man’s blindness might even be the result of his parent’s sin, since he was blind from birth. 

I love Jesus’ immediate reaction. His sharp response left no room for interpretation. “You’re asking the wrong question.” They tried to impose their faulty theology on the situation when what the situation actually called for compassion and action.

I’m sure all of us are guilty of asking the wrong question from time to time. I remembered a scene from the old Pink Panther movie that illustrates this and still makes me laugh. Inspector Jacques Clouseau is checking into a hotel and there is a dog at the registration desk. 

Clouseau asks, “Does your dog bite?” The Hotel Clerk responds “No.” Clouseau bows down to pet the dog. “Nice doggie.” And immediately the dog barks and bites Clouseau’s hand.

Clouseau says,  “I thought you said your dog did not bite!” The Hotel Clerk responds, “That is not my dog.” Poor Clouseau! He asked the wrong question.

When we come upon someone who needs our help, maybe it is better and more Christ-like to ask, “How can I help” rather than, “How did you end up in this situation?” What we see can be severely clouded by our assumptions. We hear that someone has lung cancer, and we assume they are a heavy smoker. We see a teenager get arrested and we assume it is a result of bad parenting. We hear that someone got fired, and we speculate about what they did something to deserve it. We read a bad review of a doctor on Facebook, and we assume they are at fault.

Blame-casting and making assumptions have very little value when they replace just looking at situations with unbiased eyes and trying to see what God sees.

The challenge for us today is to be better than the disciples in this story and start asking the right questions. Next time you see someone in need, ask God to show you what he sees, and ask him to show you how you can help. Lent asks us this question: Can you see what God sees? Or do you need God to heal you of your blindness?

I See the Moon and the Moon Sees Me by Michelle Robertson

Becoming God’s Dwelling

Posted on by Betsy

Many years ago I went on a pilgrimage to Israel with a group of people who wanted to experience God’s presence first hand in the land where Jesus walked. The highlight of the trip was a visit to the Temple in Jerusalem where we were able to place our hands on the remaining Western, or “Wailing” Wall to pray. The facade of the wall was filled with cracks and crevices between the large stones, and we were invited to stick rolled up pieces of paper with prayer requests there that we had carried with us from our families and our churches back home. There were people all around us praying out loud in their native languages: Hebrew, French, German, English …pilgrims from every corner of the globe had come to that sacred spot to pray. The minute my palms touched the ancient stones, something happened to me. Suddenly all the surrounding noise dulled in my ear and became a singular harmonic hum. I could feel a spiritual current of energy travel from my fingertips to my forehead and toes. The yip yip yips of the nearby women celebrating a teenager’s bat mitzvah faded into the background and all I could hear was a vibrating resonance that was other-worldly. There is an ethereal sense of God’s spirit in those stones, and I could envision the angels themselves descending to sing along with us. It was a moment of feeling connected to God that I will never forget. God dwelt among us that day.

We remember that God designed humanity with the purpose of dwelling with us in the perfection and sweetness of the Garden of Eden. But when sin happened, that fellowship was broken and God has been searching for a dwelling place ever since. In the book of Exodus we read that God instructed that a movable tabernacle be built in the wilderness of Moses’ time. Instructions were given to construct an Ark in which God would reside. When the people finally settled down in the Promised Land, the glorious temple was built in Jerusalem in Solomon’s time, and the Ark was moved there permanently. But then came the destruction of the Temple when the people rebelled and rejected God. Israel was sent into exile by the Babylonian king. Many years later, Cyrus of Persia allowed the Israelites to return to Jerusalem and later still, King Herod the Great rebuilt the Temple in Jesus’ time, but the Ark was lost.

But by then, the Temple was unnecessary. Jesus was sent to be our temple, our priest, and our sacrifice. Jesus was God’s dwelling incarnate and became the new and forever temple. His sacrifice on the cross makes all the rituals of the former priesthood obsolete. As he told the woman at the well in John 4:23-24,

“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit and his worshipers must worship in Spirit and in truth.” (New International Version)

Paul continues this teaching in Ephesians, proclaiming that all in whom Jesus dwells are now being built into a holy temple in the Lord. God dwells in us!

Ephesians 2:21-22 (New International Version)

21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

How is your temple doing? Are your walls strong and able to withstand invading conquerors or is your faith weak and in need of some mortar and stone to shore up your foundation? Do people see the light of Christ shining through the stained glass windows of your actions and words? Are you pursuing holiness this Lent with your spiritual disciplines? Would God want to dwell in your temple?

Lent is a reminder that our temples are fragile and require daily upkeep. May God bless our building and re-building efforts as we move along toward Easter.

The Wailing Wall by Faye Gardner

Old School Lent

Posted on by Betsy

Over the last few Sundays I have worshipped at St. Luke United Methodist Church in Orlando, Florida. This magnificent church boasts a large and well-rehearsed choir and a full orchestra every Sunday at their traditional service. I find myself being drawn to tears by the music at least once every service. I hope and pray that if you are ever in that area, you will make a plan to go there. I am a music geek/nerd and music speaks to my soul in ways that words can’t. But be assured that every spoken word of prayer, liturgy, and sermon in that church Is spellbinding and as moving as the music.

I am such a nerd that if a hymnal is available, I reach for it. Yes, the words are displayed on two huge screens at the front of the chancel area, but this girl likes to do it old school. I can read music, so part of the attraction is to watch the notes and see where they go. Sometimes I sight-read the alto just to hone my rusty skills (apologies to those who sit near me!). Another advantage of using the hymnal is that you can see the theology build through the entire hymn. You can’t do that with screens. Songs like “Lord of the Dance,” which so beautifully tell the story of Jesus verse by verse, aren’t nearly as effective on the screens. Next time you’re in church, pick up a hymnal and see what I mean.

The selection for the first Sunday of Lent was “Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days” found on page 269 of the United Methodist Hymnal. This hymn is five verses of perfect teaching about the meaning and purpose of Lent. While we all know that Lent is the 40 day season of preparation (or, as the preacher put it, “rehearsal”) for Easter, we tend to forget the nuances of what Jesus did in his forty days in the wilderness. We focus on our own disciplines, and hopefully grow closer to God through our fasting, praying, repentance, and study, but it is easy for us to be me-centered instead of Jesus-centered in this season. While focusing on our spiritual growth is truly part of Lent’s goal, we miss out on the deeper and richer story that surrounds us.

“Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days” reminds us of the truth at the heart of Lent. Jesus fasted and prayed for us in his forty days. He calls us to mourn our sins and remain close to him. He contended with Satan in the wilderness and won that battle, enabling us to also withstand the temptation to sin. He was hungry and thirsty, setting an example for us to die to self as he did for our sake. He lived by the Word of God so that we might live by the Word. He abides with us through our penitence, our life, and our death. And thus when Lent has fulfilled its purpose, an Easter of unending joy will be ours.

Look, Easter is coming regardless of your participation. Easter is a force beyond anything our obedience or disobedience can control. Ignore it and it will still come. But will you experience unending joy? Or will that day just be filled with bunnies, eggs, and candy and then it’s all back to life as normal?

Lent is an invitation to rehearse and prepare for unending joy. But you have to be all in for it to work. I pray that today you resolve to finish these forty days as you started, with serious contemplation and dedicated time spent in repentance, fasting, praying, and immersion into God’s Word. And if you haven’t started any Lent practices, start now. When we do this, Easter will usher in the unending joy that Jesus died for.

Read it and weep

Hot Chicken Salad

Posted on by Betsy

Have you ever resisted someone’s help? Thinking that you had everything under control, did you ever reject the kind ministrations of friends and just plugged along in your misery? False pride, embarrassment, stubbornness, and a sense of not wanting to appear weak can turn our heads away from the compassionate offering that a friend is trying to make. When we do that, we miss out on so much.

Many years ago, my daughter had to come home from college when she was diagnosed with cancer. She lived with us for nine months while she underwent daily chemotherapy, surgeries, and procedures. We were overwhelmed with her care, and our loving and supportive church tried to help. I was serving as a pastor on that staff and really resisted any assistance. Cards and gifts for my daughter were welcome and appreciated, but any offering of help for her father and me as caregivers was rejected. “We’re okay, we’ve got this, we’re good” became my mantra when any kind soul offered support for us. How foolish I was! Talk about stupid and unnecessary pride. Finally I realized that my pride was preventing the church from being the church to us, so I began to accept meals. We’re Methodist, and casseroles are our love language! I was inadvertently stopping people from loving on us and doing the acts of ministry that God was calling them to do for our family.

The first delivery was something called “Hot Chicken Salad.” This casserole dish of pure heaven was not a salad as such, but a culinary adventure in beautiful white chicken chunks, crunchy slivered almonds, and a saucy sauce that made my eyes roll back in my head. And for that moment, I was uplifted by the gift of a friend and church member who was also uplifted to be able to do something tangible in our fight against cancer. I still make that recipe today.

In our passage today, we see Jesus offer an act of ministry to a man who was born blind.

John 9 (The Message)

 1-2 Walking down the street, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked, “Rabbi, who sinned: this man or his parents, causing him to be born blind?”

Right from the bat we see that the disciples asked the wrong question. They were focused on trying to figure out the theology behind the blindness, proving that they were blind to his need. Jesus focused on a compassionate response.

3-5 Jesus said, “You’re asking the wrong question. You’re looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do. We need to be energetically at work for the One who sent me here, working while the sun shines. When night falls, the workday is over. For as long as I am in the world, there is plenty of light. I am the world’s Light.”

We often hesitate to step into places of helping a stranger. We ask how the unhoused person ended up that way. We question if giving the person on the street some money might enable them to go off and get high. We question how the mother with a lot of kids in tow ended up on food stamps. We hesitate to support the veteran found sleeping in the freezing rain because we don’t trust the GoFundMe that a community member set up.

We ask the wrong question.

6-7 He said this and then spit in the dust, made a clay paste with the saliva, rubbed the paste on the blind man’s eyes, and said, “Go, wash at the Pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “Sent”). The man went and washed—and saw.

Dust and clay played an important role in Genesis 2:7: 7 then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. (Common English Bible) Jesus’ use of dust in this healing miracle harkens back to the power of creation. Indeed, Jesus created sight in the blind man. What is he trying to create in you today? What are you blind to? Where is God hoping to open your eyes so that you might offer a compassionate response?

The last sentence reminds us that when we are offered healing, we need to participate. The man went and washed and he saw. I accepted a gift of a meal and ate of the bread of empathy that night, and it made me stronger. Is God calling you to participate in your own miracle?

Say yes to the Hot Chicken Salad. It will change your life.

Soon by Kathy Schumacher

On the Basis of Grace

Posted on by Betsy

I had a conversation with a young woman last week who was unsettled by a sermon she had recently heard. The preacher recounted his cancer journey and made several statements that led the listeners to believe that he was cured because he was a preacher, and that if you pray hard enough, God will heal you. Thus, if you weren’t healed, it is because you didn’t pray hard enough. This rankled the woman, also a cancer survivor, because she doesn’t think God works that way. She does not believe that God arbitrarily chooses to heal one and condemn another to die. She does not believe her healing came from any action on her part. Many prayers were offered during her treatment, but that is not why she was healed. She believes God healed her through grace and good medicine. She believes that things just happen as they happen.

What do you think?

Understanding the concept of grace is fundamental to understanding the concept of God. Many faith practices emphasize righteousness by following a long set of rules, complying with the Law, or performing enough good deeds to “get in.” But we know that it is only by grace that we are saved.

Let’s take a look at Paul’s thoughts on righteousness, following the law, earning things on your own, and grace. This passage does not answer the question of how healing happens but helps us understand the basic issue of grace.

Romans 4 (Common English Bible)


4 So what are we going to say? Are we going to find that Abraham is our ancestor on the basis of genealogy? 2 Because if Abraham was made righteous because of his actions, he would have had a reason to brag, but not in front of God. 3 What does the scripture say? Abraham had faith in God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.  4 Workers’ salaries aren’t credited to them on the basis of an employer’s grace but rather on the basis of what they deserve. 5 But faith is credited as righteousness to those who don’t work, because they have faith in God who makes the ungodly righteous.

Paul was clearly in the camp of those who believe that one can’t claim to be able to work for their righteousness. No, he contended, faith is the result of the righteousness credited to us by the gift of God. Read how Eugene Peterson described it in the Message:

Romans 4 (The Message)

4-5 If you’re a hard worker and do a good job, you deserve your pay; we don’t call your wages a gift. But if you see that the job is too big for you, that it’s something only God can do, and you trust him to do it—you could never do it for yourself no matter how hard and long you worked—well, that trusting-him-to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by God. Sheer gift.

“Sheer gift.” In other words, you can’t earn it, you can’t work hard for it, you can’t be entitled to it based on your status or profession, you just have to be willing to receive it as a sheer gift. No strings attached, nothing to do on your part, money back guarantee with no questions asked gift. Our salvation and our inheritance as children of God are grace-based offerings that are freely given to all.

Romans 4 (Common English Bible) continued

13 The promise to Abraham and to his descendants, that he would inherit the world, didn’t come through the Law but through the righteousness that comes from faith. 14 If they inherit because of the Law, then faith has no effect and the promise has been canceled. 15 The Law brings about wrath. But when there isn’t any law, there isn’t any violation of the law. 

16 That’s why the inheritance comes through faith, so that it will be on the basis of God’s grace. In that way, the promise is secure for all of Abraham’s descendants, not just for those who are related by Law but also for those who are related by the faith of Abraham, who is the father of all of us. 17 As it is written: I have appointed you to be the father of many nations. So Abraham is our father in the eyes of God in whom he had faith, the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that don’t exist into existence.

You see, the preacher was wrong. He was the blessed recipient of something he couldn’t earn and didn’t deserve just because he is faithful to his calling. He is a walking example of the sheer gift of God’s unmerited favor and love.

May we all embrace this wonderful gift.

Sunrise Gift by Dustin Daniels