Lent - Week Four (Receive)

Week four – Receive

God’s word is living in that it can live in and through us.  While God’s word of love and grace does not change, we begin to hear it differently as we travel along our life’s journey.  We do not read a story or a passage with the same kind of understanding as when we were children.

Think of those places in your life that you have more thorough knowledge now than you did when you were younger.  When you were a child, driving a car just looked like moving the steering wheel back and forth.  With time and experience, you learned not just the rules of the road, but practices that lead to safer and more efficient driving.

We can say the same is true in our lives of faith.  In our discovering of God’s presence, we open ourselves and our hearts to receive that which God has to offer us.  Through this “old, old story”, we hear anew God’s grace. In the book of Lamentations, the author writes: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (3:22-23 - a good verse to remind ourselves about each and every day.

When we hear the story of creation, we find more than a story about our origins, it is about the One who created us in his image.  We see all of God’s creation from the perspective of God’s creative and evolving imagination.  We see ourselves as caretakers of that which God has entrusted to us.  As we look at the world around us and into the faces of others, we see God’s handiwork; we find God in our midst.

It is not just in the knowing about God, but it is in the receiving of what God has to offer each of us – our abundant life. 

In Diana Butler Bass’ most recent book (Gratitude: The Transformative power of Giving Thanks), she reflects on a presentation from Elie Wiesel, “When people lack gratitude, “something is missing in their humanity.”  People can “almost be defined by their attitude toward gratitude”. Weisel is not speaking of material goods. He means that our ability to experience life as a gift, to treasure that gift, and to feel its power, even in the most violent and demeaning of circumstances, is the very essence of human existence.  Life is the gift.  Not what we have, but that we are.”

In discovery the gift of life given us by God, we receive it with thankfulness and gratitude. We see the ways that God is already working in our lives and in our world.  We see the glass as not half full or half empty but overflowing with the love and grace of Christ that is poured out for all.

What have you received from God for which you are mindful?  What do you want to offer to God as a prayer of thanks? 

Pieces for reflection: each week, different passages, poems, songs, etc. will be suggested to use for your own reflections on the week’s theme.  Use whichever ones are most helpful for you.  As you do so, use the following questions to guide you in your reflections:

1)   What about this speaks to my own life?

2)   What might God be saying to me through this?

3)   How will I approach my life in a new way?

Suggested resources:

1)   Read Joel 2:18-27

2)   Read Matthew 25:1-30

3)   Prayer by Walter Brueggemann “The God who yearns and waits for us”

We are strange conundrums of faithfulness and fickleness,

We cleave to you in all the ways that we are able.

We count on you and intend our lives to be lived for you,

          And then we find ourselves among your people

          Who are always seeking elsewhere and otherwise.

So we give thanks that you are the God

   Who yearns and waits for us,

          And that our connection to you is always from your side,

          And that is because of your goodness

          That neither life nor death

                   Nor angels nor principalities

                   Nor height nor depths

                   Not anything in creation

                             Can separate us from you.

We give you thanks for your faithfulness,

          So much more durable than ours.  Amen.

Weekly reflections written and developed by Pastor Jennifer E.  Boyd

Additional Resources used:

“Gratitude: The Transformative power of Giving thanks” by Diana Butler Bass

“Awed to Heaven, Rooted to Earth” Prayers by Walter Brueggemann

The Millennial Narrative by Jaco Hamman (weekly themes gleaned from this book)

 “We will Remember” CD, songs and music by Christopher Williams

All Biblical citations are from the New Revised Standard version (unless otherwise noted)