Lent - Week Five (Accountable)

Week five – Accountable

What have you taken for granted today?  We don’t even pay much attention to all the many things that make up our lives.  Until we are unable to catch our breath, we don’t sit and count how many breaths we take or how many beats our hearts make. 

A number of years ago, I broke my pinkie finger.  It is not a finger that you think has much importance in the overall ability of your hand – that is until you cannot use it.  The strength of your grip is because of the muscle that is on the side of your hand by your pinkie (go ahead and try to grasp something with it and without its use).

I wonder sometimes if I take my faith and relationship with God for granted. Growing up in the church, as a pastor’s kid and now as a pastor, church and faith has always been a part of my everyday life.  I know the Bible, church history and even bits of Hebrew and Greek – but just as Paul writes to the Corinthians, I can “understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” (I Corin. 13:2).  We need the foundation of our faith that is found in the love of God revealed in Christ Jesus.

The prophet Joel talks about the “day of the Lord” – more than the judgment of being right or wrong, it is a day of accountability and even reckoning.  If we are still turned away from God and have not repented/turned around – will we or do we even see God?

Frederick Buechner writes this about judgement, “The New Testament proclaims that at some unforeseeable time in the future, God will ring down the final curtain on history and there will come a Day on which all our days and all the judgments upon us and all the judgments upon each other will themselves be judged.  The judge will be Christ.  In other words, the one who judges us most finally will be the one who loves us most fully.”

Have you ever had the experience of walking with another person and you think that they are right behind you until you turn and look and they’re either not there or far behind.  In a sense, we take them for granted.

It is not that God will go missing or falls behind, but rather that we get so caught up in our own daily lives that we forget to see God in our midst, to remember God’s presence in our lives.    We take God and faith for granted – until we need God.  But, really, is there ever a time when we don’t need God?!

I’m not always very good at keeping myself accountable.  I need reminders or nudges to get my attention at times.  A community of faith helps each other as we seek to live into our faith.  We need each other’s support and encouragement.  We come to know God’s love and grace through these relationships.  We can help each other be accountable and deliberate in our faith journey and trust in God.

What are ways that you use to keep yourself accountable?  How might you use them in your relationship with God?

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 2:28-3:16

2)   Read Matthew 25:31-46

3)   Song: “Deeper Well” by Christopher Williams (link: https://open.spotify.com/track/2FXFzM6X3AQmPykY8vi3Rn)

Lyrics:

What do I do when I do what I want to?

What do I want when I want what I want?

Help me see that the way that I’m living

Don’t just hurt me, I’m hurting you too

Where do I turn when my heart gets lonely?

And am I afraid no one’s coming for me?

Ain’t got no friends cause I sold them for silver

I keep blaming everybody but me, everybody but me

Refrain: Rain your mercy; I am thirsty

            Rain your mercy; I need to drink from a deeper well

In those days when you’re fixing that’s broken

And when you gather your people to you

Oh will I stand with my sisters and brothers

Or go it alone, the way that I do, the way that I do (refrain)

Flowing from the highest mountain to the valley floor below

May your judgement and your mercy lead me where I need to go

Like this valley flow into me let every dry place in me grow

May my life Lord be a blessing, fill me up, to overflow (refrain)

Written by Christopher Williams & Justin McRoberts © 2018 Big ReD VaN music

Weekly reflections written and developed by Pastor Jennifer E.  Boyd

Additional Resources used:

“Beyond Words: daily readings in the ABCs of faith” by Frederick Buechner

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)