[re]imagine Lent: 3/18/2023
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.
“The [formerly blind] man answered, “Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?” And they drove him out.”
Here is an astonishing thing
“But I want Jesus, too!” the little boy cried,
a blessing bestowed upon his brow,
his once-cupped hands now clinging to the communion rail
as he held on for dear life – a life which I daresay he more than understood
in a place he was told,
“you’re too little to understand.”
A feast prepared,
God’s children gathered, fed, nourished, warm,
shelter found and community created,
the broken parts searching for wholeness,
until the carpet got too worn, and the lights left on one too many times
in a place with a sign on the door that read,
“All are welcome.”
The signs were drawn,
voices loud, letters written, calls made, and emails sent –
cries for justice: Feed the hungry! Stand with the oppressed!
Join us! they cry out.
And then walked away
because those revolutionary calls sound “too political”
in a place that claims as its mission,
“Love your neighbor.”
Here is an astonishing thing!
the man born blind claims.
That God’s power is evident right here, standing in front of you,
yet though your eyes are open
you will not see.
Oh that God would give me courage.
To listen to the voices that proclaim:
God is working here, and there, and even in “them”
That I would not be among those
who question the unknowable movement of God,
who doubt the power of God’s Spirit doing the unimaginable,
who drive out those who do not match
my vision
my understanding
my sure righteousness
Here is an astonishing thing:
Even when I am.
Even when you are.
Even when church is –
In the blind wrong,
God still died so that we might see.
Prayer
God, help me to see with ready and willing eyes what it is that you see. Help my sight turn into belief, and turn my belief into action, that following your vision for a world of mercy, peace, and love, I might follow where you lead, through the messiness of death, to the everlasting light of your resurrection dawn. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Journal Prompt
We, humans, are constantly casting visions: how we want our life to look in 3, 5, or 20 years. How our companies can impact the world. How our congregation can best live into its mission. Yet how often do we allow God to shift or change that vision? Do we ever stop to wonder if God has something in store that we haven’t even imagined?
This week I invite you to think about your life, your work, or your congregation. How do you listen for God’s vision? How do you know if your current trajectory aligns with that vision? What has felt extra messy or difficult, and might that be God’s Spirit at work?
Week Four Devotions by Rev. Erika Uthe, uthe@seiasynod.org