We encourage you to sign up for the 40-40-40 Lenten Challenge, a challenge with our partner Southeastern Iowa Synod to participate in Lenten practices, including these daily devotions. Just signing up counts as participation! More info here.

Have you ever moved into a house in the middle of winter? I have had occasion to do this and the spring and summer seasons turn into one big anticipatory waiting and watching – what will sprout and grow in the yard? It becomes a fun guessing game – is this a weed? Should we let it grow and see what happens? All that first season I found myself looking, hunting, waiting to harvest the fruit of someone else’s work. (And I did get some beautiful flower arrangements out of the deal.)

This experience makes me wonder about the church and how or what it is that we look for when it comes to the harvest that Jesus talks about here in John. From what I’m hearing in these post-pandemic days, I wonder if the fruit we’re hoping to harvest is all those people who left and haven’t come back yet. Or if it’s those elusive ‘young families’ – and certainly we plant seeds to reap that harvest. We make phone calls to those we haven’t seen in some months. We budget and plan programs that will appeal to young families. And then we wait. ‘4 months more,’ we say – and yet Jesus is here telling us that there is actually a harvest now. One from which we benefit but did not labor.

Like those surprise plants that sprouted in my yard, my imagination is sparked by this – what then could that harvest be? How do we see the fruit from the seeds that others have planted when we don’t even know what it is? As Jesus took a risk and spoke to a woman – a Samaritan woman – an unmarried Samaritan woman – a gift of risk as the Spirit gives us eyes to see those who are shunned, who are different from us, who are beloved by God.

Prayer

Oh God, you meet me everywhere in my life. On the road, in my challenges, in my joys, and in all the places I come to worship you. Grant me the imagination to see the ways you are working in the world. Help me encounter those you place in my path, and be open to the Spirit’s leading me to share the saving love I have found in your son, Jesus Christ, who so loves the world that he gave his life to people like me, the woman at the well, and all of your beloved children. Amen.

Journal Prompt

As we reimagine worship and God’s presence in our world this week, reflect on the following:

• When have you felt closest to God?

• What story do you have of how God’s love or forgiveness has impacted your life? Have you ever shared that story with anyone?

• For what are you thankful? In your life? In your church? What do you still hope for? How can you bring all this with you to worship?