Lent 2011 Devotional

8/7/2019 Lent 2011 Devotional

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First Christian Church

Minneapolis, MN

A People on

The Move: LentA 2011 Lenten Devotional


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1955 2011

2011 ???


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A People on

The Move

Introduction

The year 2011 may well be a year oflasts at First Christian, Minneapolis.

In January of this year, the congrega-

tion voted to join the ongoing ecu-menical partnership between Salem

English Lutheran Church and Lyndale

United Church of Christ. If all goes asplanned, sometime in the next 12

months or so, we will leave this build-ing at 2201 First Avenue South and

move to the Ministry Center at 28 th St.

and Garfield Avenue in Minneapolis.

That means the next few months will

be filled with preparation for the moveand for our new home. Some of you

are already part of committees dealing

with design, worship and ChristianEducation. In the coming months, oth-

ers will join in planning this massive

move.

It also means we will deal with a lot of

lasts; the last Maundy Thursdayservice at 2201, the last Easter service

at 2201, the last time the choir sings at

2201 and so on. Im half expecting the

last worship service here will concludewith the hymn, We Are Marching in

the Light of God as people wipe away

the tears and remember the memoriesthat took place in this building. We

will march out of this building as this

part of our journey as a faith commu-nity concludes.

Lent is usually envisioned as a journey

to the cross, so its fitting we start this

40-week devotional called A Peopleon the Move. As we busy ourselves

with the upcoming move, may this

series of devotionals guide us duringthis time. God is moving within and

around us during this chaotic time;

may God give us eyes to see and earsto hear.

Godspeed during this last Lent.

Dennis SandersAssociate Pastor

Ash Wednesday 2011

A People on the Move: Lent

A People on the Move :Eastertide

A People on the Move: Pentecost 1

A People on the Move: Pentecost 2


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March 13, 2011Forget the former things;

do not dwell on the past.

See, I am doing a new thing!

Now it springs up; do you not per-ceive it?

I am making a way in the desertand streams in the wasteland.

Isaiah 43: 1819

I remember thinking as a little boy in

Sunday school class that Iwould never be one of

those silly Israelites wander-

ing in the wilderness. Iwanted adventure! I would

gladly rush to follow where God would

lead me. Then life happened.

The summer after I graduated from

high school my Mom was diagnosedwith cancer. It was terminal. Sharing

the journey with her was brutal. I

longed for the time when Mom tookcare of us.

When Mom passed away our familysplintered. Everyone retreated to their

own corner to lick their wounds and

heal. My father quickly remarried. Ilonged for the time when I had a fam-

ily.

After my divorce I ached for the days

when, at the end of the day, I was able

to tuck in my children, say prayers &

kiss their foreheads. I longed for the

normal, daily routine of being a dad.

So now I know I would have been oneof those Israelites craning back for just

one more glimpse of the miserable life

from which I had been delivered! Iwould have longed for the known, the

comfortableeven though it was not

comfortable! (This does not mean wehave to obliterate our past memories.

We have wonderful memories thatbring a smile. We just cannot get tied

down by themor try to go back.

In the reading of that wilderness story,we are given the big picture and see

the lessons and blessings to come.

When we are living our story we can-not see beyond the next curve of the

roador sand dune! We dont know

how the story will turn out and we areafraid.

That fear has us looking back. Theopposite of fear is love. In fact, 1 John

4: 18 says, perfect love drives out

fear. God, with perfect love, has saidthat we will never be given tests that

are beyond our capability. There iscomfort in that. Hasnt God prepared

us for the next step?

I have also learned that God is always

faithful. I can rest in the knowledge

that I will have what I need when I

Moving OnBy James Baumgartner


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March 13, 2011need it. My mind wants to fret and worry and argue with that knowledge;however, I have to remind myself of Gods grace, let go and rest in that fact.

(My fear does NOT want to let go!)

As we look down the stretch of road before usbe it the relocation of First

Christian, an illness, job loss or agingask what can I do to surrender my fear

to Gods perfect love in this situation? Think back to the Isaiah passage: it saysGod is making a way. Lets look for Gods way with excitement! The passage

also says that God is making streams in the wasteland. These streams will nour-ish us on the journey and give us the strength to do what we are called to do.

Dont be afraid to keepmoving on,For what was before, nowhas gone,God wants to accomplishso much more,But we need to move for-ward in the Lord.- M. S. Lowndes

Questions

1. What are you afraid of in life? How has that fear held you back?

2. Think of a past event. Does it bring happiness of sadness? What reasons

would people have to hold on to a memory?3. How do you see God working in your past? How do you see God working

in your future?


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March 20, 2011John 3: 1-17

As I first read this passage, mythoughts were on our traditions of

baptism. How great it is that we are

able to make a conscious choice to bebaptized, and not just have someone

sprinkle us with water as a baby. But asI read, I realize that Jesus is saying we

cant know the spirit unless were bap-

tized. I think about my cousin, whosepremature baby was baptized in the

hospital just in case. Personally, I

believe that God is giving us the op-portunity to make that choice, to be

born again in the spirit. If we were to

die before having that chance, God

would know which choice we wouldhave made. As the passage points out

in verse 17, Jesus didnt come to judge,

he came to save us.

FCC is going through a rebirth, similar

to our own individual baptisms. Wevebeen given the chance to say I trust in

God. As we move forward into a newspace and new ways of worship we

have to have faith that God

will guide us, and that wellcome through the process a

better group, as well as better

individuals.

Lord, as we move into new church experiences,help me to recall the newness in life I experi-

enced through my own baptism. Amen.

RebirthBy Becki Whitaker

Questions

1. How is baptism related to trust in God? How hard is it for you to trust

God? How can a community like First Christian trust in God at this pointin our communal history?

2. How were you baptized? Was it as a baby or at an older age? What does

baptism mean to you?

3. What does it mean to be born again? How is First Christian being bornagain?


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Movement

March 20, 2011ScribblesUse this space to write and/or draw your thoughts and inspirations:

Movement

When our bones which God will raise

at the last daygleam clean and streaklike a fork on chalkboard,

we will move,

with the movement of the earthsnails

squirrels

and thousands of bugs.

When our names are but dust,fragments of pagestransmitted to an uncertain future

by uncertain means

through uncertain people

we will move,

whether we will it or not.

Now is the time to want.

Blood moves desire

desire moves emotion

not a token slice of life, but

the whole loaf lightsthe path that will take flight.

Just enough light, just enough

breath for the next set of lungs,hearts, hands, and sweat,

the desires of those who brought us

to this point,through disappointment,

on one eternal movementthrough nameless

fearless

generations forward

and back home to Mother God.

--Chris Wogaman

Ash Wednesday, 2011


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March 27, 2011John 4:1-42

Jesus and the Woman at the Well is

one my favorite stories in the Bible. Inmy office at church, I have a weaving

of Chinese artist He Qi's interpretation

of this story. I've always been fasci-nated by the fact that Jesus was on a

journey, by the fact that he was sowilling to cross the various social barri-

ers of that time (religion, gender, eth-

nicity) and by the unnamed woman.

One of the interesting things

about this story is where thetext says Jesus "had to go

through Samaria." It's fasci-

nating because most Jewstook the long way around to

avoid Samaria. Jews and Samaritans

didn't really get along, so most peoplewho were traveling took the long way

around so as to not meet any Samari-

tans on the way.

But Jesus went through Samaria and

decided to stop at Jacob's Well...theone place where he was going to meet

someone, quite possibly a Samaritan.

Jesus could have taken the bypass, but

instead he chose to go through Samariaand ended up making a big difference.

I've always loved traveling on freeways.

There's always been something about

the efficiency of the Interstate Highway

System and the ease that you are able

to get from one city to the other.That said, there's something to be said

about getting off the main highway

and taking the side roads. As a kid,my Dad would sometimes not take

Interstate 75, the main highway con-

necting my hometown of Flint, Michi-gan, with Detroit. Instead, he would

take Woodward Avenue, the main ave-nue in the Motor City which, if you

traveled far enough, would go all the

way to Flint. On the way, I would seeinteresting buildings, the Michigan

State Fairgrounds and the Detroit Zoo.

Yes, there were traffic lights to con-tend with and all the things you have

to deal with when on city streets, but

there's a lot of things I would havemissed had we not taken Woodward.

As First Christian starts this new jour-ney with Salem Lutheran and Lyndale

United Church of Christ, we are going

down our own Woodward Avenue intoour Samaria. Taking this route is not

easy; it will surprise us and at timesfrustrate us. It can be an uncomfort-

able road, but God will also show us

things we might have missed had we

not taken this road.

Jesus "had to go through Samaria" be-

Woodward AvenueBy Dennis Sanders


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March 27, 2011cause he was empowered by the Spirit to do so. The Spirit was leading Jesus toan unfamiliar place to share water with a stranger and an enemy. That unfamil-

iar journey led a woman and her community to wholeness and healing.

May we as community make this our prayer as we travel down our side roads,

as we prepare to leave this building and start down this new adventure. Thanksbe to God.

Questions

1. Think of a time you met someone of a different race, ethnicity or religion from

your own for the first time. How did you feel? What did you learn from the

experience?

2. Jesus and the woman talked about faith. How easy is it for you to discuss your

faith?

3. How is First Christian going through its own Samaria? How do we feel empow-

ered by the Spirit?

ScribblesUse this space to write and/or draw your thoughts and inspirations:


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April 3, 2011John 9:1-41

Almost everybody fails the man bornblind. His family is not there for him.

The religious authorities fail to reach

out. The community fails him. And

along came Jesus. Then everythingchanged for this man. His testimony

becomes a witness to the saving gracehe experienced in Jesus Christ, not

only for his eyes, but even more, for

his soul:I once

was

blind,but now

I see.

If we look around, we see blind people,

people in the dark, dont we? Andwhat is our response? It is easy to be-

come anxious about a lack of resources

or people power, isnt it? Buildings andbudgets do not limit hearts inclined to

proactively embody the love of Jesus

to our neighbors in need. As we transi-tion, many of us wonder, what will

our ministries look like now? Whatwould Jesus have us do now? For light

on the matter, I say we look to Jesus.It is Jesus who heals and makes us

whole. It is Jesus who transforms us. Itis Jesus, in John 9 who reaches out to

the blind man in his isolation. And He

offers the same for you and me in

our blindness in our isolation.

Deborah J. Kapp writes in Feasting on theWord (Year A. Vol. 2, p. 120):Sometimes

when the sun is really bright, or when

an artificial lightis intense, we

need to squint or

shut our eyes.The brightness

seems dangerous

to us, and the

reflex is automatic. . . . [Yet] the Light

of the World is in our midst, and we

need not shut our eyes [to His light].In fact, counterintuitively, the best

thing to do is open our eyes, wide. We

will not be blinded by Jesus light. Wewill be saved.

Saved from our blindness and dim vi-sion of who we are and who we can

become.

BlindnessBy Jay Hillestad


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April 3, 2011

Questions1. Think about the future. What does it look like to you? Does it fill you

with joy or with dread?2. What are those moments in our lives when we need to keep our eyes open

in the Light from God?

3. How have you felt blinded? What has kept you from seeing Jesus light?

Drawing of Jesus by Kevin Berkey.


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April 10, 2011The hand of the

Lord was uponme, and he brought me out bythe Spirit of the Lord, and set me

down in the midst of the valley; itwas full of bones. And he led meround among them; and behold,

there were very many upon the val-

ley, and lo, they were very dry. Andhe said to me, Son of man, canthese bones live? And I answered,

O Lord, thou knowest.(Ezekiel 37: 13, Old RSV)

The life cycle of a human being, or asociety, or a church, is a cycle of living

and dying. Sometimes death is the

most natural thing that can occur;sometimes a resurrection can happen.

In the movement between life anddeath that is the community of First

Christian Church, weve been a com-

munity that sometimes over the yearshas had a lot of life in it, and some-

times a lot of death. The death that

can exist in a community comes whenwe stay the same as the rest of the

world moves past us.

The only way that a faith community

can move beyond its dying tendenciesand back into the world of the living is

to allow God to breathe new life into

it. Only God really knows if such issupposed to happen, but

only in letting Gods Spirit

breathe new life into us canwe truly come alive and

have that resurrection ex-

perience.

Will a move into ecumenical partner-

ship breathe new life into us? Or will

we continue to move in the old, dying

ways? Again, only God knows. But

WE can know by opening ourselves up

to that life-giving spirit.

CyclesBy Bob Brite

Gracious God,You have called your servants to ven-turesOf which we cannot see the ending,By paths yet untrodden,Through perils unknown.Give us faith to go out with good cour-

age,

Not knowing where we go,But only that your hand is leading usAnd your love supporting us.Through Jesus Christ,Amen.

This prayer is used at the close of

every meeting of the 3-church Ministry

Center Board.


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April 10, 2011

Questions

1. Where have you seen life within this faith community? Where is death tak-

ing place?2. How do we allow God to breathe new life into us? What ways do we not

allow that to happen?

3. Will the move breathe new life into our community? Why or why not?

ScribblesUse this space to write and/or draw your thoughts and inspirations:


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April 17, 2011Matthew 21:1-11

Jesus and the disciples enter Jerusalem

for Passover, commemorating the Exo-

dus of the Jewish people out of Israel.

Talk about people on a journey - forty

years in the wilderness before ever

reaching the Promised Land. Now

that's faith and endurance - not to

mention a heck of a lot of manna.

It's been suggested (and you may or

may not have heard this), that we at

FCC are starting our own wilderness

journey and it will take faith and en-

durance to move into the Ministry

Center with new partners. I'd like to

make a different suggestion for you to

consider.

We have already been on a wilderness

journey for quite awhile now - decreas-

ing membership, financial difficulties,

programs that just didn't work - and

being church shifted somewhere along

the way. I believe that entering into

new partnerships in the Ministry Cen-

ter is our version of reaching the Jor-

dan River. Crossing the river does not

mean that we have it all figured out as

to God's plan for FCC and the Minis-

try Center partners. It does mean that

there are more of God's children about

to roll up their sleeves and work to-

gether to make God's love and peace

known on earth here and now.

O God of infinite love and understanding,

We are getting closer and closer to leaving our

comfort zone and realize that we need You

more and more to lead us through the up-

coming changes in the life of the Body at First

Christian. Strengthen our faith and trust in

You, allowing us to move forward, not with

fear and trepidation but with anticipation and

joy at the prospect of serving You in new

ways. Instill in us the enthusiasm

of those people who so long ago

greeted Jesus as he entered Jeru-

salem. It is in his name that we

pray, Amen.

WildernessBy Deb Murphy


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Lent 2011 Devotional