[re]imagine Lent: 3/28/2023
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.
“I wait for you, O Lord; my soul waits; in your word is my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than those who keep watch for the morning, more than those who keep watch for the morning.”
Someone said to me just the other day, “The church mayyyyy be broken.”
I can’t say I totally disagree, as there is so much about our church that simply doesn’t work anymore, or that sorta, kinda works, but desperately needs transformation.
As I hear this Psalm, I wonder about keeping watch for the morning. Is this the kind of watching where we wait, passively hoping that God will come and fix it already, or that the Spirit would just change them so that they would quit ruining it? Or, is this an active waiting and watching, dreaming and imagining what the morning looks like and what our part will be?
The lyrics of a song from the movie, “The Greatest Showman[1]” say it best:
When the world becomes a fantasy
And you're more than you could ever be
'Cause you're dreaming with your eyes wide open
And you know you can't go back again
To the world that you were living in
'Cause you're dreaming with your eyes wide open
So, come alive
As a baptized child of God, made alive in the resurrection of Christ and called to breathe Spirit life into the world, what do you dream of? What kind of church do you wait for? What do you imagine and look forward to in the dawn of a new way of being, thinking, and doing church together? Our hope is in the God who overcame death, brought a valley of dry bones back to life, and called Lazarus from the tomb and unbound him.
Let’s dream with our eyes wide, open, shall we? Expectantly waiting for the life God promised to bring into this world, and then be ready to be those who work toward this transformation, our eyes and our hope in the Lord.
[1] To see a full lyric video, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywMeInRS8_w
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