[re]imagine Lent: 3/23/2023
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.
“Then God said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” I prophesied as the Lord commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.”
Have you ever felt the satisfaction of bringing something to life? Maybe you had an idea that became reality maybe, or a seed (literal or figurative) planted and grown? I often marvel at the power we humans have to create life, and was struck this year as we have been reimagining different aspects of our faith, how Ezekiel plays a role in this story of the valley of dry bones.
We most often think of God as the one who creates, or Jesus as the one who heals and resurrects, yet here, Ezekiel, a single human is commanded to prophesy to the breath – the ruah, or what is translated as Spirit in the New Testament.
As baptized children of God, we have this very Spirit in us – the same one who breathed life into a valley of dry bones. How often do we take this seriously? This life-giving, creative, and powerful force of a God who has overcome death lives in you, and me, and in our communities.
Imagine the kind of world we could build if we trusted this power! We can build homes and families of love and grace. We become communities that breathe life into death – by feeding the hungry, advocating for the oppressed, tearing down walls, and building bigger tables. As God’s Spirit lives in us we become people who look at our dry bones and, joined together as the body of Christ, we breathe Spirit life. We create, with God, something that lives and serves all people.
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