2016 Lent/Holy Week Devotional

2016

LENT HOLY WEEK

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LENT

Ash Wednesday (February 10) Luke 4:1-13 First Sunday of Lent (February 14) Luke 2:1-21 Second Sunday of Lent (February 21) Luke 5:12-16 Third Sunday of Lent (February 28) Luke 8:26-39 Fourth Sunday of Lent (March 6) Luke 7:36-50 Fifth Sunday of Lent (March 13) Luke 18:35-43

HOLY WEEK

Palm/Passion Sunday (March 20) Monday (March 21) Tuesday (March 22) Wednesday (March 23) Maundy Thursday (March 24) Good Friday (March 25) Holy Saturday (March 26) Easter Sunday (March 27)

Luke 23:32-47 Luke 16:19-31 Luke 17:20-37 Luke 18:15-30 Luke 24:25-32 John 18:1-19, 42 Luke 24:50-53 Luke 24:1-12

SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER Sunday (April 3)

Jason Edwards..............5 Steve Smith...................6 Luda Teterina................7 Jeff Langford................8 Kim Halfhill....................9 Neita Geilker...............10

Jim Tanner..................11 John Howell................12 Debbie Blanton...........13 Connie McNeill...........14 Linda Cain..................15 Becky Gossett.............16 Karen Rogers..............17 Laura Rodgers............18

Luke 24:36-40; 46-49

Elliott Yoakum....19

Schedule of Services/Events............................20

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GOSPEL OF LUKE READING SCHEDULE

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Feb. 10 Feb. 11 Feb. 12 Feb. 13 Feb. 14

Luke 4:1-13 Luke 1:26-35 Luke 1:36-45 Luke 1:46-56 Luke 2:1-21

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Feb. 15 Feb. 16 Feb. 17 Feb. 18 Feb. 19 Feb. 20 Feb. 21

Luke 3:15-23 Luke 4:14-28 Luke 5:1-11 Luke 6:12-26 Luke 6:27-38 Luke 6:43-49 Luke 5:12-16

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Feb. 22 Feb. 23 Feb. 24 Feb. 25 Feb. 26 Feb. 27 Feb. 28

Luke 8:4-15 Luke 8:22-25 Luke 9:18-27 Luke 14:15-35 Luke 10:38-42 Luke 11:1-13 Luke 8:26-39

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Feb. 29 March 1 March 2 March 3 March 4 March 5 March 6

Luke 12:22-31 Luke 15:1-2; 11-26 Luke 18:1-8 Luke 22:14-23 Luke 22:39-46 Luke 22:54-62 Luke 7:1-17

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March 7 March 8 March 9 March 10 March 11 March 12

Luke 7:18-35 Luke 23:44-56 Luke 19:28-44 Luke 20:9-19 Luke 2:22-40 Luke 3:1-6

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March 13 March 14 March 15 March 16 March 17 March 18 March 19

Luke 18:35-43 Luke 21:25-38 Luke 7:36-50 Luke 11:37-44 Luke 12:1-12 Luke 13:10-17 Luke 13:22-30

HOLY WEEK  March 20 Luke 23:32-47 Palm Sunday  March 21 Luke 16:19-31  March 22 Luke 17:20-37  March 23 Luke 18:15-30  March 24 Luke 24:25-32 Maundy Thursday  March 25 John 18:1-19, 42 Good Friday  March 26 Luke 24:50-53 Holy Saturday  March 27 Luke 24:1-12 Easter Sunday

PREFACE

In Great Britain, it’s said doctors write “LOBNH” in the charts of patients they deem, “Lights on but Nobody Home.” My first reaction upon learning this was to be critical of such diagnostic shorthand. It seemed far too glib to me. Then, musing further, I’ve realized I, too, put people in acronymic boxes. Of course, it’s not only me. Throughout history, we’ve loved labeling people different from ourselves. Not just as LOBNH, either, but worse—as LOBNC: “Lights On But Nobody Cares.” LOBNC and their plight burn bright as flares in the dark, but even the best of us resist noticing them beyond the time it takes to assign a “coin.” When, by chance, their needs require more serious pause, we frequently shrug in pious resignation.

After all, the LOBNC is, by condition, status, and caste, a person of no importance to you and me; he or she is a zero; a lightweight; a no-hoper; a loser. A “nobody” with no authority, no influence, no power. That’s Webster’s definition of a “nobody” and plenty enough reason for us to set them aside, despite the fact that we ourselves may have suffered similar categorizations. Think about it. Haven’t you also felt dumb or rejected on occasion? Experienced that proverbial cockroach in the punchbowl at a lawn party sensation?

To inspire us beyond our hurtful and unproductive responses to others’ foibles and the insecurities forever lurking in our deepest inner selves, Second’s Lenten Season and Holy Week—as well as the devotionals contained in this booklet—focus this year on The Gospel of the Nobodies. From Ash Wednesday through the second Sunday of Easter, we’ll read the book of Luke and be reminded how Jesus, by His example, turned the way we treat one another—especially the undervalued—and our own personal feelings of unworthiness upside down.

Thank you, Nicole Swanson, my co-editor, for giving the words in this booklet organization, design, and life. In addition, our joint thanks to Neita Geilker and Maggie Henderson for sharing their grammatical expertise. Most of all, we thank each writer who took time from his or her busy schedule to pen these pages and bring the Easter message home again.

Sue Wright

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February 10 Ash Wednesday All-church service | 6:30 Luke 4: 1-13 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil (Luke 4:1-2a).

This is the quintessential Lenten story. Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to see what He was made of.

And who was supposed to see? His Father? Us? Jesus Himself? All of the above? Maybe. It’s hard to say for sure, but by the end of this 40-day season of fasting, prayer, and testing, all of us should have a better sense of Jesus’ nature, character and capacity. By the end of these 40 days, all of us should see Jesus a bit more clearly than before.

Likewise, by the end of these 40 days, we should see ourselves more clearly as well. Lent calls us to step into that desert with Jesus. Lent calls us to engage in a season of fasting with Jesus.

Lent calls us to choose some form of sacrifice that will test our mettle and open us up to personal spiritual review so that when the day of the Lord comes (read Easter), we will be better prepared.

This year, as we move through the 40 days of Lent, we will journey with Jesus beyond the desert as he lives His mission to proclaim good news to the poor, freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, freedom for the oppressed—a time of God’s great Jubilee (Luke 4:14-21). And as we accompany Him, we’ll see that He does just that. All of that.

By the end of this Lenten season, we will hopefully find ourselves learning to see this life—and every soul we encounter within it—through the eyes of the one who came to proclaim God’s Good News to everyone in this world, especially those who feel invisible, worthless, helpless. Hopefully, by the end of these 40 days, we will all have become better equipped ambassadors for the Gospel of the Nobodies.

What might that mean for you?

Jason Edwards

5

Reflections

SunDAY February 14 Luke 2:1-21 THE NIGHT SHIFT WORKERS

Reflections

In my 20-plus years at Liberty Hospital, I was on call almost all the time; this included being on call overnight to respond when something bad was happening in the lives of other people. I am a night person and being called at 02:00 was no big deal for me. I enjoyed the quietness of the hospital during those early morning hours. I soon learned that there was a different “breed” of people who worked the night shift. They, too, enjoyed the quietness and did not miss all the hubbub that came with the daylight hours and the multitude of people who populated the other departments.

I am wondering if the same was true of the shepherds who were taking turns in shifts, watching over the sheep in the same fields where David must have watched his sheep. Tradition has these shepherds as poor humble folks; however, research shows a different picture of these shepherds. Rabbinic literature depicts shepherds as the lowest of the low in their society. They could not be trusted to even serve as a witness, according to some rabbinic traditions. Some non-Biblical literature equates the shepherds with politicians and unscrupulous leaders. So my idyllic picture of these shepherds was shattered as I read the background.

Then, too, this not-so-pretty picture of shepherds fits in with the type of population to which Jesus ministered—the “publicans and sinners.” It was not the wealthy and high-born to whom the angels first appeared. It was these ruffians! The coming of Jesus was to everyone, not a particular class of people—even me!

In the Greek, the angel “stood by them.” (Again, my tradition of hovering was shattered.) After the initial message was given, there was a “flash mob” of other angelic beings saying: In heaven, God’s glory, and on earth, God’s peace. The shepherds then hurried (not in pace, but in their enthusiasm) to find the child— as some Bible scholars believe—in the very stable where the shepherds had kept their sheep.

But, most importantly, the shepherds returned to work and told others what they had seen and experienced!

LENT Steve Smith

6

sunday February 21

Reflections

Luke 5:12-16 Jesus put out his hand, touched him, and said, “… Be clean” (Luke 5:13,The Message).

Jesus touched him ... Jesus is a healer. In chapters 4 and 5, Luke —a skilled healer himself—tells us story after story about Jesus healing the disabled, crippled, and sick. It wasn’t simple heartburn or a muscle sprain that Jesus helped. In fact, some of the conditions that Jesus healed were extremely challenging even by today’s modern medical scientific standards: schizophrenia, quadriplegia, unexplained fever. Leprosy.

Jesus touched him with His bare hands. The body ravaged with the disease, wounds seeping with infection. Touched him? A man with leprosy? Like Luke, I, too, have been called to a healing profession and have spent most of my life as a professional nurse helping heal the disabled and sick. There is power in a nurse’s hands. There is mighty power in a healing touch. But to touch a man with a highly contagious disease with my bare hands? I don’t think so! I’d take gloves, a mask, and a gown, please. I have never taken care of people with Hansen’s disease, commonly known as leprosy, but I have been trained to protect myself and others in similar situations. In Jesus’ days, they simply shunned the afflicted from the community – a primitive infection control technique.

Jesus touched him. Just as He once touched me, because I, too, needed His healing touch. I, too, was infected with sin that was contagious and spreading. And, if I am completely honest with myself, I need His healing touch every single day, because I am still infected with anger, envy, pride, and selfishness. My prayer for each of us this Lenten season is that the greatest Healer of all may touch us and cleanse us from whatever “infection” might be poisoning our hearts and our lives today.

Luda Teterina

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LENT

SunDAY February 28 Luke 8:26-39 The people went out to see what had happened; and they came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting down at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind; and they became frightened (Luke 8:35).

Reflections

I’ll always remember my mom’s prayer: “God, protect him from the demons.”

I was 18 and about to undergo surgery to have my wisdom teeth removed. My mom—prompted by something Hal Lindsey had written in Satan is Alive and Well on Planet Earth—believed that satanic forces might take over my mind while under general anesthesia.

While my view of demon possession certainly differs from my mom’s, stories like the one in Luke 8 make it difficult to brush aside worldviews that include demons. Bible stories like these seem to take for granted the existence of supernatural forces that are dark, powerful, and destructive.

The passage describes a man whose mind and body are out of control, abandoned to the wild. His life is governed by a will not his own. He is as dead as someone alive can be: naked, alone, in the tombs.

While many movies put a horrific spin on demon possession, I suspect we all know someone with demons. Someone pushed to the edge of polite society by their problems. Or someone living in a self-destructive way. Perhaps drug addiction, violence and crippling credit card debt are America’s modern forms of demon possession.

What I find most compelling about this story is the fearful reaction of the townspeople, the people like you and me. They seem to have come to terms with the destruction of the demons.

But what they couldn’t get their minds around—what really scared them—was the authority and healing of Jesus. When Jesus healed this man, he disrupted their theology, their community, and their economy. Jesus scared them.

LENT

To be honest, Christ’s grace scares me a little bit, too. And it prompts my own prayer: “God, protect me from myself.”

Jeff Langford

8

sunday march 6

Reflections

Luke 7:36-50 And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace” (Luke 7:50).

When I was a junior, my university choir was asked to perform at an exclusive event for a couple hundred university VIPs. Following the concert, we joined them for a formal dinner. For this girl from a working class family, the prospect of “fancy” food and a place setting with more than one fork (in the company of strangers, no less) was overwhelming. I vividly remember the rising panic that overtook me as we entered the room. Just when I was hoping the ground would open up and swallow me, I heard a bright, familiar voice. A university employee who had become a mentor and friend was calling my name. She had saved me a seat. I was quickly shuttled off to her table and introduced to the other dinner guests like I was the VIP. As you might have guessed, I don’t like feeling out of place. In Luke 7, we meet a woman who had likely spent much of her life feeling like an outcast. As she edged her way to the table to encounter Jesus, her actions were anything but proper for the time in which she lived. It’s not hard to imagine how the Pharisees might have reacted to this unwelcome visitor. Jesus’s reaction, however, creates a stark contrast. Rather than pushing her aside, ignoring her, or even mocking her, Jesus greeted the woman with warmth and compassion.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a story like this play out in the Gospels. I don’t know about you, but I am beginning to get the feeling that Jesus has a thing for these unsavory characters.

Although each encounter is a little different, the message from Jesus is the same. I love you. You belong to me.

College has come and gone, but sometimes I still find myself feeling like I don’t quite belong. When I do, it’s as if I can hear a reassuring voice whisper, “You have a place at MY table. Go in peace.” So, if you’re feeling out of place, like a total outcast, or even a little unsavory, remember: Jesus is saving a seat for you.

Go in peace.

Kim Halfhill

9

LENT

SunDAY march 13 Luke 18:35–43 Lord, let me see again (Luke 18:41b).

Reflections

Several years ago, Don and I were effectively blind for several hours when an entire neighborhood in Tucson lost electricity during the night. Nothing in our hotel worked, and we were desperate to get packed and make our early flight. Our reliable little flashlight cut the dark a bit, but in my haste, I became disoriented and slammed my head into a sharp corner of the wall. It was very distressing, and it is horrifying to imagine living that way the rest of my life.

The beggar in Luke who cried out for Jesus to restore his sight had been blind much of his life. It was no doubt why he was a beggar, sitting along the roadside when Jesus paused to heal him.

What a fortunate individual! In the ancient world, there was no cure for blindness.

Today, many suffer the tragedy of blindness. And of the 39 million blind, 1.4 million are children. Without intervention, they face a lifetime of suffering. According to “Vision 2020—the Right to Sight,” each year 500,000 children become blind, and in developing countries, over 60 percent die within a year of becoming blind. SightSavers asserts that for 81 percent—the needlessly blind—their blindness could have been prevented or could be cured.

Jesus healed the beggar’s physical blindness, doubtless followed by healing his spiritual blindness. He can also heal our spiritual blindness—causing us to see the many needs in the world and to be among those who, when the least of these are hungry, give them food; when they are thirsty, give them clean water; when they need clothing, provide it; and, by extension, support the many organizations dedicated to preventing and treating blindness.

Neita Geilker

LENT

10

Palm /Passion sunday march 20 Luke 23:32-47 Jesus, remember me when you come to your throne (Luke 23:42, Revised English Bible).

Reflections

Luke’s account of Jesus’ crucifixion is a very spare one: “they crucified him there, and the criminals with him” (v.33). There is none of the brutal detail, for example, of the movie The Passion of the Christ from a few years back. Yet the passage is full of striking implications. Jesus speaks three times, twice in a spirit of forgiveness, “Father, forgive them” (v. 34) and “today you will be with me in Paradise” (v. 43), and finally in the full certainty that He has fulfilled His commission from God, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (v. 45).

He offers no response at all to the hateful, bullying, self-indulgent jeer of the first criminal who, dying on a Roman cross, is taunting Jesus along with the crowd and the soldiers. Even in his own agony, he continues his criminal career of asserting himself at the expense of another. It is the kind of egotistical selfishness which, by implication, offers a striking contrast with the attitude of the other criminal and, of course, with the loving, forgiving selflessness of Jesus.

The second criminal seems to have examined himself, accepted personal responsibility for his own actions, and come to terms with his own need for reconciliation with a God whose laws he has flouted: “Have you no fear of God ... this man has done nothing wrong” (vs. 40-41). At this point, in this spirit, he turns to Jesus, “Jesus, remember me ...” It is, in the end, the plea that each of us must offer: “I am guilty, Lord. Remember me.”

Jim Tanner

holy week

11

MonDAY march 21 Luke 16:19-31 But Abraham replied, “Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony” (Luke 16:25).

Reflections

The central figure in Jesus’ parable of Lazarus and the rich man is Lazarus. He was homeless, crippled, covered with sores and hungry to the point of eating bread thrown under the table when a sumptuous meal was served in the rich man’s house. Tradition declared that bread was used as a napkin during the meal and was thrown under the table after serving its purpose. Lazarus was obviously one of the nobodies in Jesus’ stories of people for whom nobody cares.

Now suppose we turn away from Lazarus to visit an elderly Lakota Indian grandmother in North Dakota. She is facing a typical winter while living in a shack with a leaking roof, walls blackened by soot from a malfunctioning coal stove and no family to protect her. She is one of the nobodies in that northern culture.

Suddenly members of a tribal repair group come to her shack with repair materials, money, and skills to change her living quarters.

Now she will be warm, dry, and clean for the winter, even in her one-room shack.

What happens to Lazarus? He and the rich man, who was given the name Dives, will die and go to Sheol, the Jewish place of the dead. But now circumstances are changed. Lazarus has entered the Paradise section of Sheol, while Dives is assigned to the punishment section. Why the difference?

Father Abraham explains, “Son, remember in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.” Throughout the times of Lazarus’ agony, Dives could have obeyed the instructions of the Torah, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18), but he ignored his neighbor’s need for care.

The difference between the Lakota grandmother and Lazarus is that someone cared for her while Dives did not care for Lazarus.

This is the challenge of Jesus’ story. Dives in Sheol may eventually express some concern for his brothers, but it comes too late to warn them. Abraham says if they have not obeyed the Torah, “they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”

The failure of many today to trust in the risen Christ proves that to be true.

holy week Dr. John C. Howell

12

Tuesday march 22

Luke 17:20-37

Reflections

Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it (Luke 17:33).

Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, ‘Lo, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”

The Pharisees saw themselves as religious experts and likely expected the Messiah to come from their “elite” group. Jesus’ humble ministry surely didn’t fit their expectations of an earthly kingdom. They refused to change their expectations and rejected Jesus as the Messiah.

Jesus warns His disciples that He must suffer and be rejected before the second coming. He compares His return to the days of Noah and Lot, when God brought swift judgment on those who refused to follow him. Were they so busy that they lost sight of God’s kingdom? Are we so pre-occupied with “life as usual” that sharing Christ is not a priority? Jesus warns in verse 33, “Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it.”

Last year our son and daughter-in-law decided to give up life as they knew it. They felt called to a new culture in a region of unrest to be obedient to God’s call to make disciples of all nations.

This is but one example of obedience to God. There are other ways we are called by God. As mentioned in verse 21, “The kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” Are we listening to God’s call for our lives? What are we doing to further God’s kingdom?

I pray that God will help each of us to be faithful in carrying out the tasks which He has given us in order to advance His kingdom.

Debbie Blanton

holy week

13

wednesday march 23 HOly week lunch | noon evensong service | 6:30

Luke 18:15-30

Reflections

We continue to move toward Easter Sunday. In fact, it comes this week, along with a text that reminds us that our relationship to God isn’t simply about what we don’t do, but also what we choose to do.

The rich man in Luke’s story was seemingly a person of high moral character who had kept the commandments. Evidently, he had tried to please God and “inherit eternal life.” No wonder, then, that Jesus’ response was not what he expected to hear. It was instead about something he would need to do rather than something he needed to cease doing. Making the choice to do what Jesus asked was not doing something normal for him. He had always held tightly to his wealth. It provided a level of security, safety, and comfort of which most around him could only dream.

He substituted all of it—all he had—for a relationship with Jesus that would have relied on God instead of on what he could do for himself. This is idolatry in its most personal, subtle, and real form.

As we think about the Gospel for the Nobodies, let’s not forget to pray for and care about those who have so much, they are in danger of losing the most important thing they could ever have— a relationship with God. Let’s pray for those who fastidiously work at not doing things and fail to do. Jesus tells us to hold on to those things He places in our hands and hearts and let go of those things we accumulate as substitutes for our being in relationship to God. Let us pray for all of us who struggle with various forms of idolatry and its many disguises—pray we let go of cheap substitutes for the precious treasure of a relationship with God through Christ. It may just be the thing we don’t have.

Connie McNeill

holy week 14

maundy thursday march 24

communion service | 7:30p

Luke 24:25-32

Reflections

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them.Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him . . . (Luke 24:30-31).

While walking to Emmaus, two men were discussing the recent death of Jesus and the mysterious disappearance of His body from the tomb. Unrecognized, Jesus joined them and entered into their conversations. After chiding them for their hesitation to believe, Jesus reviewed what the prophets and Scripture had to say about Himself. Confused and grieving, the men had lost hope that Jesus had been the promised One who would redeem Israel.

They certainly did not expect to see Jesus that day!

When they reached the village of Emmaus, the men invited Jesus to stay with them. During the meal, Jesus gave thanks, broke the bread with nail-scarred hands and gave it to them. Through these simple and reciprocal acts of selfless service, the light was revealed, and the men recognized Jesus at last!

As Easter people, we have the light of the resurrected Christ within us. This light reflects God’s love, grace and forgiveness to those who are living without hope and do not expect to see God’s intervention in their lives. More often than not, those persons who need God’s love most are the ones most hesitant to believe they deserve it. Simple acts of selfless service have the power to turn on the light and reveal God’s love to hurting people.

My prayer today is that those persons, walking in the hopelessness of Maundy Thursday, experience a vision of the resurrected Christ reflected through simple acts of selfless service performed in our faith community and beyond—especially beyond.

Linda Cain

holy week

15

Good Friday march 25

service of the cross | 7:30p

John 18:1-19, 42

Reflections

I’m hooked on the posts in social media that make up Humans of New York (HONY). The site began a few years ago when a man named Brandon, who had recently lost his job, set about the city of New York with a camera, taking barely-posed pictures of people on the streets— rich, poor, young, old, happy, sad, clean, dirty— whomever. The people were photographed, then asked to say something about themselves or their lives; usually these comments are honest and express vulnerability.

Millions of people follow this incredibly simple but compassionate work. Even more amazingly, thousands comment on the pictures, usually with supporting words or affirmations for the pictured person. To be clear: these pictures of ordinary, typical people are posted with only a sentence or two, to which thousands of strangers respond, usually kindly toward the picture and situation. Compassion, acceptance, affection, and forgiveness is expressed in these brief comments. In some cases, people set up ways to provide financial support for those whose stories are of hardship. I seek out HONY when I need a fix of goodness and compassion myself!

Now, here’s what I wonder: if someone had been able to walk around Jerusalem during Jesus’ last days with His disciples using today’s technology to photograph Judas, or Peter, or a soldier in the garden, what honest sentence or two would those people have given about their life or situation? What comments would be made by those who see their pictures when posted on social media? Would it be hateful criticism or loving acceptance? Or both?

There probably would be a variety of responses. Then I wonder: what if Jesus responded with a comment? Unfortunately, we don’t have Jesus’ comments on social media (or do we?), but ...

Our Jesus, whose example we claim to follow, forgave them.

Becky Gossett

holy week 16

holy saturday march 26

Luke 24:50-53

Reflections

While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven (Luke 24:51 NIV).

I have a number of bad habits. One of them is that I frequently anticipate what someone is going to say next and, even while he or she is still speaking, I begin considering what I think of his or her message and how I might respond. Among the closest of friends, it sometimes works out okay because we are frequently able to finish each other’s thoughts with some accuracy. Most of the time, however, my rushing into response mode does a disservice to the speaker. I risk missing the fullness of what I should be hearing and may even miss the mark completely, preparing to respond to something that was not communicated.

I wonder how I would have responded had I been present at the ascension of Jesus. “While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven” (Luke 24:51 NIV). Would I have allowed my mind to stray from hearing the full measure of Jesus’s blessing as I began to wonder what was happening in that moment? Would I have shifted my attention to how the miracle of his ascension could be happening or the reactions of the disciples near me? Very likely so.

My prayer for this Holy Saturday is that I will have the patience to linger in the quietude of this day. That my mind will abide in consideration of the sacrificial love demonstrated on that first Good Friday and that my heart will be listening for Jesus’s voice—for the instructions, admonitions and blessings that have already been spoken and for those that are yet to come.

Karen Rogers

holy week

17

Easter Sunday march 27 Services at 8:30 and 11:00

Luke 24:1-12

Reflections

Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them (Luke 24:10).

The Underestimated. Today we read about a group of women, three of whom are named and therefore assumed to be key figures in Jesus’ life, who made the biggest discovery in the Christian faith, arguably the biggest discovery in history. The discovery that the tomb was empty—that our Savior rose from the dead as predicted by scripture. The discovery that their friend, leader, family member, preacher and teacher—whom they had watched die on the cross—was alive!

They ran to tell the apostles, but they did not believe them. The passage says they thought their words to be an idle tale—but the apostles would later see for themselves that they were wrong.

Jesus even appeared first to the women, these lower class and diminished people of that culture and time. But the testimonies, the voices, the stories of women in Bible times were underestimated.

So who do we underestimate? Whose message are we missing because we give their voices less value in our culture or society?

Perhaps it is people who have less education than we do. Perhaps it is those who speak softly or choose their words carefully rather than being celebrated public speakers. Perhaps we miss the messages of the smallest around us—children. Maybe the underestimated include all those we have read about during the season of Lent in this devotional guide.

As we celebrate the risen Christ today, may we open our ears, our minds and hearts to truly listen to the underestimated voices around us. Imagine the wondrous truths we might learn.

Laura Rodgers

holy week 18

Second Sunday of Easter APril 3

Luke 25:36-40; 46-49

Reflections

As an outsider to the situation, it’s hard to understand the disbelief with which the disciples viewed the newly-risen Jesus.

Jesus had, on multiple occasions, spoken of a time when he would die and rise again, and there are many other instances of Jesus preparing his followers to be without him. Why then, are the disciples so disbelieving?

The effect of the disciples’ incredulity is two-fold. First, it serves to remind us that even Jesus’ closest followers were human— doubts and all. This uncertainty can be disconcerting, but with it comes the company of every believer, despite what some say to the contrary. The disciples’ suspicion of Jesus also serves to highlight the importance of the resurrection. Humanity’s understanding of life and death is too limited to grasp the gravity of the resurrection; that Jesus—a day before dead in the tomb— stood in a room with his disciples was unfathomable, and remains so. There’s a strange paradox: the resurrection, so widely discussed—commonplace in our faith—is often underrated. That someone actually came back to life is insane! Not to mention, it was done out of love for us. We don’t stop to take in the awesomeness of it as much as we should.

Starting in verse 46, Jesus issues a kind of commission. It is an urgent call for the disciples to start preaching about the call to repentance and the offer of forgiveness. The message, says Jesus, is to be proclaimed to ALL the nations. Jesus then tells His disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they are “clothed with power from on high”—an odd request given the urgency of the commission. William Barclay writes: “The quiet times on which we wait on God are never wasted; for it is in these times when we lay aside life’s tasks that we are strengthened for the very tasks we lay aside.”

Elliott Yoakum

holy week

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LENT2016 Schedule of services/events SUNDAYS DURING LENT (Services at 8:30 & 11am) Sunday, February 14| First Sunday in Lent The Night Shift Workers Sunday, February 21| Second Sunday in Lent The Disabled and Sick Sunday, February 28| Third Sunday in Lent The Demon Possessed Sunday, March 6| Fourth Sunday in Lent Prostitutes and Prodigals Sunday, March 13| Fifth Sunday in Lent The Homeless Beggars WEDNESDAYS DURING LENT Wednesday, Feb. 10 | All-Church Ash Wednesday service | 6:30-7:15pm Wednesdays, Feb. 17-March 16 | Evensong | 6:30-7:15pm

A Lenten service of worship, prayer and song.

Saturday, March 19 | Easter Egg Hunt HOLY WEEK Sunday, March 20 | 8:30 & 11am | Palm/Passion Sunday—The Thief on the Cross Wednesday, March 23 | Noon | Holy Week Lunch with speaker Dr. Doyle Sager,

Pastor, FBC Jefferson City, MO Thursday, March 24 | 7:30pm | Maundy Thursday—Communion Service Friday, March 25 | 7:30pm | Good Friday—Service of the Cross Sunday, March 27 | 8:30 & 11am | Easter Sunday—The Underestimated Sunday, April 3 | Second Sunday of Easter—The Discouraged and Disbelieving

2/9/16 | Run 1 (75)

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