[re]imagine Lent: 3/29/2023
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.
Image is a pair of AK47s crossing, covered with the words Hosanna layered, and Save us at the Top and Prince of Peace, Flip the Tables, Policy and Change on the Bottom. Created by Katy Stenta katyandtheword.com
In anticipation of Palm Sunday, and in the aftermath of yet another shooting, today’s devotion is a poem written b Pr. Katy Stenta. Hosanna, a dangerous prayer indeed.
Hosanna, a Dangerous Prayer
“Hosanna” God we cry
When did we make this
an easy prayer to pray
We hand it to our children
And make it a parade
–Filling their hands with palms
to dance around the room
Hosanna, the children Scream
“SAVE US”
As the rooms fill with gunfire
As their gender identities are destroyed
as they are ripped away from their parents at the border
As they cry for hunger when we cut their SNAP benefits
And Jesus takes a child
puts them on his lap and says
unless you understand the children
you will not see the Kingdom of Heaven
“How do we tell the children about school shootings?”
They know
They have been practicing for them, like maths or piano
And they know the grownups are not preventing them
Hosanna, they cry
My youngest came home from kindergarten
And said to me we are practicing being quiet for when bad guys come to school.
Shhhh!
Hosanna!
My middle child has autism
He will never be able to be quiet
If a bad guy comes to school
Hosanna!
Hosanna, God, Grace alone
But Still we know we have to participate
in our own salvation
Thoughts and prayer won’t do it
Policy and Change
will our chant of Hosanna
Jesus paraded into the City
And then Flipped the Tables
It is not enough to cry out and pray
Action and Accountability must follow
Hosanna, we pray–what a Dangerous Prayer
on our Lips
Maybe only the Children truly know what it means
Hosanna God, Hosanna Christ!
May we Hosanna this together we pray
Amen
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