[re]imagine Lent: 3/27/2023
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 dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.”
It has been a difficult few weeks for me, particularly as I watch the civil rights of my LGBTQ siblings stripped away. It has been difficult to assure my children that it will be ok when they saw the news report of Russia’s downing of a US drone when I have no power to give that assurance. Or to again think of the thousands living in the aftermath of earthquakes and war, to hear stories of Afghani women and girls still banned from education and work.
In naming each one of these, it is as if the bindings around my heart cinch tighter, cutting off circulation of the stream of hope, draining the life from me. How are we supposed to live eternal life, here and now, with all that is happening? Can we really live unbound?
And yet – Jesus does not leave me to fend for myself. As he commanded others to unbind Lazarus, he provides others who likewise unbind me. A text chat with a friend reminded me of the hope we have in Jesus. Pictures on Facebook of dear ones gathered together in joy (a good use of that platform for once!). My daughter’s choir concert where harmonies soared and life was made.
As you consider what holds you bound, how has Jesus provided others to unbind you? Imagine the ways that God has equipped you, and the church, to unbind and remind: to speak the truth that death does not get the final say, that the oppressed will be set free, that God’s grace, love, and justice have conquered. To unbind those living in darkness and death, that all may live in eternal, resurrection life.
Prayer
Holy One who has given me the breath of life, grant that my breath be used today:
to speak life
to power faithful and loving action
to unbind those you put in my life
to take risk for the sake of my neighbor
to love
to laugh
to praise.
Amen.
Journal Prompt
What does it mean to live? What does it mean for the church to have life? To speak life into the world? This week as we reimagine the resurrection life of Christ, I invite you to answer these questions, and then to begin to imagine: what do you want for your life? For the life of your congregation? For the life of the world? And how has God equipped you to bring that vision to life?
Week Five Devotions by Rev. Erika Uthe, uthe@seiasynod.org