40th Day of Lent

And Jesus said, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.
Matthew 8:20

What’s “home?” During a recent family trip to Ecuador, “home” was often on my mind. There was anxiety about being away from home (house, friends, country). There was re-realization that family IS home. There was gratefulness for all my “homes” each time we saw a shantytown or begging children.

In today’s scripture, Jesus’ ministry is at the height of its popularity. People from all walks of life are jumping on the bandwagon. But Jesus cautions that following his teachings can not only be hard, it can (and almost certainly will at some point) leave you “homeless.”

As Christians, we aren’t at home on our home planet. Creation, in its broken form, tends to work in a selfish manner looking out for itself. Christians are compelled to act in a selfless manner. Recall “if you have two coats” (Luke 3:11) and “whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine” (Matthew 25:40). In a world that craves without ceasing, we give without ceasing. Absurd! (And necessary.)

Lent prepares us for Christ’s sacrifice that buys our Easter – our permanent home. As part of our Lenten observance, many of us give up a luxury. May I suggest GIVING for Lent, too?

Our ELCA and Southeastern Synod have well-regarded programs for helping “the least of these” in ways no individual can. Want to help victims of Hurricane Sandy who have no home? There’s Lutheran Disaster Response. Feed starving people worldwide? Lutheran World Relief. Help eradicate malaria? Lutheran Malaria Initiative.

It’s Lent and the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head so he’s chosen to stay with you. While the door to your home is open, how about extending it a little further to comfort those in need?

Gracious Father, you gave your Son who gave his life for us. Holy Spirit, remind us to share the blessings you have given us not just this Lent, but every day of every year. Amen.

by John Thomas

39th Day of Lent

Even if you are exiled to the ends of the world, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there he will bring you back.
Deuteronomy 30:4

I was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. We lived there until I was nine years old. I can still remember the day my dad got the phone call. He had gotten a promotion and we were moving to Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh, really?

I had friends in New Orleans; my family was all in Mississippi. Why would we move to Pittsburgh? But we did. We moved up there and it never felt right. From day one, kids at school were making fun of me for doing what I had been taught, like saying, “yes sir” and “yes ma’am.” Kids wanted to beat me up when I said things like that to the teachers. I soon realized I needed to hang out with the tough kids if I didn’t want to get beat up every day. I went from playing with Hot Wheels in New Orleans, to smoking cigarettes and drinking beer in Pittsburgh almost overnight. Not the proper life for a nine year old boy.

Things never really got any better. I stayed in trouble most of my years in Pittsburgh. It never felt like home. I resented ever having moved. I hated the Steelers. I hated that all my friends there thought Pittsburgh was so cool. I just wanted to go home.

Since then, I have been stationed on Marine Corps bases in South Carolina, Tennessee, and Hawaii; I have lived in Atlanta, GA; Topeka, KS; and Maryville, Tn. Funny thing is, for the longest time, when people asked me where I was from, I always said New Orleans. I never said Atlanta or Pittsburgh, always New Orleans; but that all changed while living in Topeka. It was there that I started going to church again.

My relationship with First Lutheran Church didn’t just make me feel like I belonged to the church, it made me feel like I belonged in Topeka. The girl that recommended First Lutheran to me, well she ended up becoming my wife. I became an assisting minister at the church, I started reading the Bible, and for the first time since I was a kid, I was attending church every Sunday. It has been that connection with the church that has given me a connection with the community. The church brought me home. I no longer felt like I had to go back to New Orleans to be home, I was home.

Dear Lord, Thank you for bringing us home and for the gift of family and friends.

by Tim Nichols

38th Day of Lent

Anyone who comes to me but refuses to let go of father, mother, spouse, children, brothers, sisters—yes, even one’s own self!—can’t be my disciple.
Luke 14:26

The NRSV translates this verse as “hates” rather than “let go of.” Growing up, I can remember always being stuck on this Bible verse. Why would Jesus want me to hate my family? How could this verse be reconciled with the fifth commandment - “Honor thy mother and father”?

In recent years this verse has become less confusing and more comforting. I grew up in a Lutheran church, where my family was quite active. We moved when I was a senior in high school and were never able to find a congregation to call home.

As I moved away and began my own life, I began to create my own identity, one separate from my family. I found a church community to call home. My faith grew. My family remained distant from church. My faith became the lens through which I made decisions. I increasingly felt distant from what I once considered “home.”

Time went on. Life changed. And through it all, “home” never really felt like “home.” Every step of the way, my family seemed to grow closer to one another; yet I seemed to be more and more on the outside.

Over and over again, this verse from Luke would pop into my head. Following Jesus can sometimes be a lonely path. If your family doesn’t follow Jesus the way you follow Jesus, it can make you the black sheep of the family. The outcast. The weirdo.

I’ve learned that “home” is not the place we come from. It’s not the place we lay our head at night. It’s not the church we attend regularly. It’s not even the place we share our family meal.

Home is community. A place where we are free to be the person God created us to be. A place that reaches out to us before we can arrive.

God, give us strength and courage to follow you, even when it means letting go of our families. Amen.

by Crystal Rowe

37th Day of Lent

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to build up in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
Colossians 2:6-7

Which came first the chicken or the egg? Did my relationship with God shape my understanding of home or did my experience at home shape my relationship with God? I have no idea. I believe my parents did it right and my goal is to emulate this same experience with my children and home.

As a parent of two young children, one of my greatest challenges is creating a strong ground on which to build faithful lives. I believe if I am able to accomplish this task, my girls will be able to face obstacles and challenges throughout life. The image of being rooted in Christ just as plants are rooted in and draw nourishment from soil is very powerful and provides the fortitude to avoid being fooled by others that claim to have answers or solutions to life’s problems. I know this is exactly what my parents were able to do for me. Growing up Lutheran in a small Texas town, I would describe our church life as “subtle” compared to the Southern Baptists that surrounded us. Did I grow up in a home reading the Bible everyday or going to church every single Sunday? No, but exposing me to a Godly, church-filled life from birth I knew the benefits of what this life would offer me wherever I ended up forever. No one is perfect and absent of sin, and I definitely do not expect my children to live this way; but I want them to know the graciousness of God’s love and, if they do stray down the wrong path, their lives were first rooted with God.

God help me as I build a strong foundation for these young children. Let them know with You in their lives they will be steadfast and there may be moments when they lose Your way, they are rooted in and have been nourished from You. Thank you God for our supportive Redeemer family in building this foundation. Amen.

by Jennifer Johnson

Holy Tuesday

Each year I have big ambitions for Lent. Sometimes I plan to fast a day a week, give up dessert or wine…or something that I think has become a necessity in my life. Like New Year’s resolutions, I plan to take a new step toward making things more significant. But in Lent I want to do something intentional, something that will really engage me with this profound story that changed my life. But often during these 40 days my life becomes cluttered. My days become noisier and I begin to lose focus. It’s hard some days to hear myself think, much less hear the voice of God.  Just like the followers in today’s lesson I begin to falter.

So, here we are in Holy Week. It’s Holy Tuesday. The celebration has ended, the crowd’s are gathering to see what will happen next. The questions have started an again, just like the Greeks in today’s lesson, I want to see Jesus. Wouldn’t it be great if we could see Jesus…if he would just walk in right now? We could ask our questions or maybe we could see just one more miracle...I vote for water into gasoline! We want to see Jesus. I want to see him in his glory…I know the end of the story and I’m tired of Lent. But, we know the answer that was given….Wait and watch …the questions will be answered, the miracle will occur, and we will see Jesus…in all his glory.

Prayer: Precious Lord, on this Holy Tuesday we long to see you. Let your spirit still our hearts and minds so we can hear your voice. You have called us to follow you. Grant that our love may not grow cold in your service, and that we may not fail or deny you in the time of trial, for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen

by Susan Cordell

36th Day of Lent

When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name. "Zacchaeus!" he said. "Quick, come down! I must be a guest in your home today”.
Luke 19:5

When we invite guests into our home for fellowship in eating, drinking and scintillating conversation, good times are had by all. The guests then go home to continue living their own lives. But, God should be a permanent guest in our home and never leave us. In reality He is not a guest, but family, we are His children. We should obey our Father’s teachings and lessons, listen to His words, learn to except His discipline.

God has a profound impact on my life. Home means a safe haven from the trials of everyday living. With God in your life and home you are able to overcome your doubts and fears; try to understand what your daily living means to you in your life and purpose of this life. With God in our lives and at home we will learn to understand the right ways to do all things we want to achieve outside of our home.

The home we have He has provided for us and all that we have belongs to Him. We need to thank Him each and every day for the air we breathe, the water we drink, for enabling us to have a home for ourselves and any family that we may have. We owe all things in this world to our God. I say thank you, thank you and thank you. We praise your name always.

Heaven is our real home and we all know who lives there.

Lord, in our quiet times we spend together, guide me and teach me your ways to help me to help others. More importantly, for me to listen to you when you speak to me. Amen.

by Joyce C. Smith

35th Day of Lent

As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
Colossians 3:12-14

Robert Frost’s poem “The Death of the Hired Man” tells of Silas, an old, worn-out field worker. He has been an unreliable, on-again, off-again laborer on Mary and Warren’s farm—often chasing after brighter prospects when he was most needed, but always returning in the winter when his chips were down. This time Silas has returned in a broken state. We learn that Silas has (but does not claim) an estranged brother, a bank director who by rights should care for him in the end. Instead, Silas returns “home” to Mary and Warren, those who have sheltered him in the past. He tries to “earn” his keep by offering to clear the pasture, but he’s in no condition to work. Warren vainly protests that he won’t have him back, but of course he doesn’t really have a choice. As Mary suggests, Silas has come home to die; he won’t be leaving again this time. Skeptically, Warren proposes that, "Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in." Mary counters, "I should have called it something you somehow haven't to deserve."

Although coming at it from different angles, they both seem to have gotten it about right. Home is where each are welcomed back, regardless of past faults and transgressions. God offers us his grace freely, and as such we’re called to love others graciously. Home serves as a “zone of grace” in which we can mirror (imperfectly) the grace we’ve received. As Paul reminded the Colossians, those who live together in faith must bear with one another, and forgive each other, while clothing themselves in love. We do this not because any of us have earned it or deserve it, but rather because God’s grace makes it possible for us to be gracious to each other with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience.

Heavenly Father, thank you for your grace, which is freely given. Just as this grace makes possible the promise of an eternal home, please help us maintain our earthly homes as reflections of your unconditional love. Amen.

by Jeff Guthrie