DEVOTIONAL: In reflecting upon the Easter story as recounted in the Gospel of Mark, it sometimes feels like I’ve been taken back to my childhood and offered a ‘choose your own adventure’ novel! Which ending would you like? According to the footnotes of the New Revised Standard Version, some of the most ancient authorities have the resurrection account of Mark ending at verse 8 and so that will be the ending I’ll work with for this devotional.

Mark 16:8 leaves us with a somewhat astonishing finish — “and they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid.” I typically think of the Lenten season as a journey to the cross, but perhaps it would be just as appropriately identified as a journey to resurrection. In some ways, it is easier to face the cross than the resurrection. We see evidence of the realities of the cross throughout our world. It is harder sometimes to see evidence of the resurrection. And when we do see the evidence, the empty tombs and life restored, it might require something of us for which we are unprepared.

Last month, Goshen College had the pleasure of hosting Shane Claiborne and Chris Lahr from the Simple Way Community in Philadelphia. Shane spoke one evening on ‘resurrecting church’ and challenged us to live into the Kingdom of God; to be the church we long for. Perhaps God’s invitation to us this Easter is not just to believe in the resurrection, but to live into new life. What might it mean to live into a world where death no longer reigns? May God grant us eyes to see grace, hope and love at work in our world, and the courage, creativity and strength to respond in kind.

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Thank you for joining the students, faculty and staff of Goshen College during Lent for these devotions. We pray they have met a spiritual need for you each day as you have walked through the wilderness and to the cross with Jesus as we have all reflected together on our lives are in God’s hands. We have been blessed to be part of your journey. Join us again when the season of Advent begins (unless you unsubscribe, they will automatically come to you when they start again in late November).

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SCRIPTURE: Mark 16:1-8 (NRSV)

When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?’ When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, ‘Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.’ So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

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DEVOTIONAL: In this passage, the writer of Acts shares a radical new insight — that Christ’s message breaks through borders of nation and creed, not with military might, but with the power of love. In our own era, we are charged with spreading the message of a loving God not only across borders, but through time, enacting Christ’s love afresh in the context of our own world and in our daily lives. I offer the following poem as a meditation on Christ’s resurrection in our own time.

Resurrection

A young man walks
at the edge of the Arabian Sea
son of a deposed governor
homeless refugee

all day he listens
to the stories of other refugees
he knows Somali Arabic English
translates for the UN

he himself has survived
the crossing to Yemen
on a pirate ship
for what?

Barely a man himself
he decides the fates of families
who is worthy of work of protection
whose children get to eat

He opens his weary heart to the light
spilling across the water
feels a presence at his side
no longer alone

he tells his story
to a young woman working for peace
The light moves through her
her family offers to help

soon he is crossing a continent another ocean
to learn another system
find a way to bring healing home
carrying a light

that shines through his face
into the lives of others

———-

SCRIPTURE: Acts 10:34-43 (NRSV)

Then Peter began to speak to them: ‘I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ — he is Lord of all. That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.’

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DEVOTIONAL: This year I am reading the crucifixion story through the lens of an unknown photographer’s camera. One of my responsibilities as a member of the Lenten planning committee at Berkey Avenue Mennonite Church, has been to choose visual images to project during the scripture readings. For me, these kinds of juxtapositions are a form of Bible study that can break open the text in new ways.

One of the most widely disseminated photographs from Abu Ghraib, the Iraqi prison where U.S. military personnel tortured and shamed prisoners in 2004. The man in this image is balancing on a box with wires attach to his extended palms and has reportedly been told he will be electrocuted if he falls off the box.

This image is from the Wikimedia Commons, a freely licensed media file repository.

With the pastor’s sermons in hand, I searched for images to pair with Jesus’ arrest, trial and crucifixion. Certainly there were many traditional paintings to choose from. One particularly jarring representation is Matthais Grunwald’s Crucifixion, which shows Christ with lacerated skin and lips already blue from asphyxiation.

However, I found myself drawn to a more recent time and place: Abu Ghraib, the Iraqi prison where U.S. military personnel tortured and shamed prisoners in 2004. One of the most widely disseminated photographs from this ghastly chapter of the Iraq War is a fuzzy snapshot of a man with a pointed black hood, balancing on a box in a black cape. Wires attach to his extended palms and he has reportedly been told he will be electrocuted if he falls off the box.

Could this man’s experience teach me something about the story at the center of my faith? Does Jesus’ crucifixion speak to what happened at Abu Ghraib? I reread the sermon I was working from. “Polite upperclass Romans would not talk about crucifixions; they were just too awful to speak about,” the sermon said. That checked out. This was the only photograph from Abu Ghraib I would even consider sharing publicly.

I turned to Mark 14 and 15. Previously, I’d read Jesus’ trial before the high priest (Mark 14:53-65) as an argument between annoying relatives engaged in doctrinal hairsplitting. This time their debate emerged as a sinister interrogation, manipulative and cruel. The randomness of Pilate’s justice chilled me; the blindfold in Mark 14:65 was a blow to the solar plexus, and Jesus’ lack of control over his clothing made my teeth chatter. The beatings, the slapping, the jeering were no longer contained in a tidy three-day package with a happy ending. They sprawled over 2000 years.

It seems that God is well acquainted with places like Abu Ghraib. This Holy Week, may the suffering that Christ endured while on trial as a “terrorist” fill us with compassion. Let us remember those who still suffer violence and torture. Let the rage we feel against hatred and cruelty be refined into acts of mercy and courageous defiance.

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SCRIPTURE: Mark 15:1-39 (NRSV)

As soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate. Pilate asked him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ He answered him, ‘You say so.’ Then the chief priests accused him of many things. Pilate asked him again, ‘Have you no answer? See how many charges they bring against you.’ But Jesus made no further reply, so that Pilate was amazed.

Now at the festival he used to release a prisoner for them, anyone for whom they asked. Now a man called Barabbas was in prison with the rebels who had committed murder during the insurrection. So the crowd came and began to ask Pilate to do for them according to his custom. Then he answered them, ‘Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?’ For he realized that it was out of jealousy that the chief priests had handed him over. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas for them instead. Pilate spoke to them again, ‘Then what do you wish me to do with the man you call the King of the Jews?’ They shouted back, ‘Crucify him!’ Pilate asked them, ‘Why, what evil has he done?’ But they shouted all the more, ‘Crucify him!’ So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas for them; and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified.

Then the soldiers led him into the courtyard of the palace (that is, the governor’s headquarters); and they called together the whole cohort. And they clothed him in a purple cloak; and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on him. And they began saluting him, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ They struck his head with a reed, spat upon him, and knelt down in homage to him. After mocking him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.

They compelled a passer-by, who was coming in from the country, to carry his cross; it was Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus. Then they brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means the place of a skull). And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh; but he did not take it. And they crucified him, and divided his clothes among them, casting lots to decide what each should take.

It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him. The inscription of the charge against him read, ‘The King of the Jews.’ And with him they crucified two bandits, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads and saying, ‘Aha! You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross!’ In the same way the chief priests, along with the scribes, were also mocking him among themselves and saying, ‘He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down from the cross now, so that we may see and believe.’ Those who were crucified with him also taunted him.

When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, ‘Listen, he is calling for Elijah.’ And someone ran, filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink, saying, ‘Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.’ Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. Now when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, ‘Truly this man was God’s Son!’

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DEVOTIONAL: Today is known as Maundy Thursday, the day Christians remember the very first communion when Jesus enacted the bread and wine ceremony that symbolized God’s love for fallen humankind.

Thus, it is fitting that today’s reading should be a statement of the bare bones Gospel message, the essential premise of salvation which is “of first importance”: a) God loves us so much that, in Christ, he even died in our place and b) God can not be defeated, not even by death.

Paul says this is “Good News”; what an understatement! But why is this old story such “Good News” for us, even today? It shows the absolute lengths God has gone to, and continues to go to, in order to save us, his dangerously confused and willfully dysfunctional children. God continues to reach out to us, all of us. There is hope for us — we are precious to our Maker and are not rejected. Furthermore, not even our most slovenly or hateful acts can ultimately defeat God’s good purpose for creation. If Christ was able to overcome death then what can defeat him?

Taken together, these twin pillars give us great confidence and strength for living into Christ’s way for us. Even if, as Paul says of himself, we recognize our personal “unfitness” as believers, we can realize that it is really God’s own mercy and power — God’s “grace” as shown by Christ’s death and resurrection — that make it possible for us to live healthy lives, and even to be lights and helping hands for others. The One who has the power to die for others and even to come back from the dead is the One who is working in us for the good of all.

This is joyous, empowering news!

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SCRIPTURE: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 (NRSV)

Now I should remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you — unless you have come to believe in vain.

For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to someone untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace towards me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them — though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.

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DEVOTIONAL: What do you think of when you hear or see the word “prayer”? I have to be honest, I often think of what “bad” things are going on in my life and how God needs to help me.

My pastor recently challenged the congregation with how we often pray. He suggested that we thank and praise God. I thought to myself that, yes, I do this, but not often enough. I know you probably have days, like I do, where rejoicing and thanking God is the last thing you want to do. Our mood is down, our situation is out of hand and our sorrow and guilt are overwhelming. We can relate to the writers of the psalms who often felt this way.

But no matter how low the psalmist felt, they were always honest with God. And as they talked to God their prayers ended in praise. When you don’t feel like rejoicing, tell God how you truly feel. You will find that God will give you reason to rejoice. God has given you this day to live and to serve him. Be glad!

My prayer today:

God, the breather of the stars, the Creator of the universe — you are so grand and mighty, my mind cannot grasp how wonderful and magnificent you are. Thank you for always being there for me. Thank you for being in the midst of all my struggles. You have created this day and I will rejoice and be glad in it. Amen.

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SCRIPTURE: Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24 (NRSV)

O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his steadfast love endures for ever!

Let Israel say,
‘His steadfast love endures for ever.’
The Lord is my strength and my might;
he has become my salvation.

There are glad songs of victory in the tents of the righteous:
‘The right hand of the Lord does valiantly;
the right hand of the Lord is exalted;
the right hand of the Lord does valiantly.’
I shall not die, but I shall live,
and recount the deeds of the Lord.
The Lord has punished me severely,
but he did not give me over to death.

Open to me the gates of righteousness,
that I may enter through them
and give thanks to the Lord.

This is the gate of the Lord;
the righteous shall enter through it.

I thank you that you have answered me
and have become my salvation.
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the chief cornerstone.
This is the Lord’s doing;
it is marvellous in our eyes.
This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.

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SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 25:6-9 (NRSV) Scroll down for complete Scripture.

DEVOTIONAL: Isaiah 25:6-9 is the ultimate picture of God’s goodness — people sitting together, sharing food, engaging in a community of God’s children. It is the picture that Jesus lived out during his time on earth, and what he calls all of us to do.

At first, I am tempted to see Isaiah 25:6-9 as a picture of just the future kingdom of God. In actuality, this is the reality Jesus brings to us, past, present and future. Jesus put into practice the things in verse six — he eats and drinks with all peoples and he destroys the idea that we should cast out the sinners, the idea that hung around the Jews like a veil.

We are also reminded this Lenten season that Jesus has “swallow[ed] up death forever.” I am reminded of what William C. Placher, professor of philosophy and religion at Wabash College, says about Jesus’ death. Along with God swallowing up death, Isaiah says that God will also wipe the tears off faces and, Placher says, “since Christ occupies the place of sin, the good news is that there is no place for sinners to go where they will be apart from God … for Christians the condemnation of sinners is no longer possible without condemning Christ.”

Therefore, as lovers of Jesus, who calls us to follow him, feast with all people of all backgrounds and be part of a community that walks apart from the deceptive cloud of exclusion, may we do likewise. May we look at the words spoken in Isaiah not only as a future truth but also one that is present in Jesus, in his life, death and resurrection.

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SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 25:6-9 (NRSV)

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-matured wines,
of rich food filled with marrow, of well-matured wines strained clear. 
And he will destroy on this mountain
the shroud that is cast over all peoples,
the sheet that is spread over all nations; 
he will swallow up death for ever.
Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces,
and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken. 
It will be said on that day,
Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us.
This is the Lord for whom we have waited;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

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THIS WEEK’S THEME: He has been raised

DEVOTIONAL: “He has risen, he has risen indeed!”

Ever since I can remember, my pastors have begun the Easter Sunday sermon with these words. Nonetheless, I remained relatively ignorant of the profound ramifications of Christ’s resurrection until last year. At the beginning of the summer of 2008, God met me at a conference in South Carolina. Amidst an overwhelming series of encounters, God showed me that Jesus’ resurrection was the restoration of a place of fellowship. Thus, we can now abide within and be inhabited by the intimacy of God’s presence.

As part of my involvement in Goshen’s traveling ministry group, Parables, I share of the way God touched me at the conference. I’ve notice an overwhelming amount of skeptical looks when I express that Jesus’ resurrection has made us holy. God is holy and to abide within God’s presence requires our faith in the power of God’s love for us.

I do acknowledge my shortcomings. They are the result of a misconception that says I — by my power — must work as hard as I can to model the life of Christ. Jesus died and rose so that by the power of God we might realize that in Christ we too have risen, we have risen indeed!

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DEVOTIONAL: As a child, I loved the unbounded joy of Palm Sunday — Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem to the cries of “Hosanna” and the waving of branches. Mass always ended with ushers handing out priest-blessed strips of palm. My brothers, sisters and I eagerly took them home, made them into crosses and pinned them to our bedroom walls. We kept them until they crumbled away — and then replaced them with fresh representations of the “Palm Sunday Christ.”

It was only as a young adult that I understood the deeper meaning of the Palm Sunday story from the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. As the Gospels tell us, Jesus has just raised Lazarus from the dead and was at the peak of his influence. Yet Jesus fulfilled prophecy by humbly and quietly riding a young donkey and carrying an olive branch of peace in his hands. Some people still cheered him as a miracle worker; others as the Messiah. But the praise soon ended and Jesus’ life was taken because people did not understand who he was and what he meant.

That narrative arc still saddens me. How could the people have been so fickle and so cruel? Yet I accept it as a divine mystery; something that had to happen. So on this Palm Sunday, I hope to collect new palm strips, fashion them into a cross, pray for all those suffering in flesh and spirit and imagine that amazing Sunday long ago in Jerusalem. “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord — the King of Israel!”

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SCRIPTURE: John 12:12-16 (NRSV)

The next day the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting,
‘Hosanna!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord — the King of Israel!’
Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it; as it is written:
‘Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion.
Look, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!’
His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him.

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DEVOTIONAL: This passage — although it was written well before his time on Earth — reminds me of the suffering and shame Jesus endured for me, so I wouldn’t need to. I am reminded of how Jesus never faltered in his faith and how, when the time was right, he faced Jerusalem and his certain fate. The instruction in this passage is the same instruction Jesus followed.

I, however, am not a perfect child of God. There exists in me doubt, free will and a selfishness that overpowers my good intentions. There also exists the will to be faithful, the desire to be led and the belief that I am not alone. Though there is the promise of persecution and ridicule in this passage, there is a more profound promise in verse 9: “It is the Lord God who helps me; who will declare me guilty?” It is the promise that I am not alone, that God will return for me and that the Holy Spirit has been left to guide, lead and guard me. It is that promise that keeps me pushing through the doubt, to hand over my will and draw me to a life that is faithful, obedient and abundant. The Spirit never leaves me or forsakes me. What an awesome promise! How could I not share this promise with others?

If we are to be faithful in waiting for our king to return, we need to seek God’s will and hearken God’s voice. His gift to us is that we receive wisdom and understanding of his will, as well as the words needed to pass on his message to those who do not know. We also must be willing to hear God and be obedient. Can we let our old selfish selves die, even just a little, for the sake of God or for the sake of others who are lost?

Finally, we need to assess our faith. Jesus was so faithful in giving his life to death. Can we be faithful even with the little things? If I believe God gave his son so I can be saved, can’t I believe that God will provide my next meal, my next car payment, my next house payment, my next tithe, my next … you fill in the blank.

If God is with me, who can be against me? The answer is no one! Praise God for his victory!

———-

SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 50:4-9a (NRSV)

The Lord God has given me
the tongue of a teacher,
that I may know how to sustain
the weary with a word.
Morning by morning he wakens –
wakens my ear
to listen as those who are taught.
The Lord God has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious,
I did not turn backwards.
I gave my back to those who struck me,
and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard;
I did not hide my face
from insult and spitting.

The Lord God helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame;
he who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
Let us stand up together.
Who are my adversaries?
Let them confront me.
It is the Lord God who helps me;
who will declare me guilty?
All of them will wear out like a garment;
the moth will eat them up.

The post APRIL 2 – THERE EXISTS IN ME appeared first on Devotions.

DEVOTIONAL: My reading of Philippians 2:5-11 was deepened by Johannes Baptist Metz’s book, Poverty of Spirit, which is a meditation on this passage. Metz illuminates how several major heresies about the nature of Jesus attempt to deny Jesus’ humanity; so too, Metz observes, we seek to evade, ignore and reject our own humanity.

I find Metz’s account to be a perceptive indictment. Rather than embrace my humanity I am often impatient with myself, critical of my intelligence (or lack thereof), embarrassed by my physical characteristics, annoyed by how much sleep I need and hurrying to finish tasks which I falsely assumed I could finish quicker. I desire to be superhuman and my attitude is far from Christ’s attitude, who, “though he was in the form of God, he did not deem equality with God something to be grasped at. Rather he emptied himself and took the form of a slave, being born of human estate.” Jesus’ example is beyond me; though he controls the universe he lets go. Meanwhile I find myself craving more certainty, more control, in short, more divinity and less humanity. Of course, I hit a wall, and despair sets in.

I find Lent to be the most valuable time of year, as it reminds me of who I am and where I come from. Beginning with Ash Wednesday, as I receive ashes, I am reminded that “I am from dust and to dust I shall return,” through Good Friday, when Jesus “became obedient to death, even death on a cross,” I am awestruck by Jesus’ embrace of my humanity.

Quoting poet Girard Manley Hopkins I occasionally catch a glimpse that:

“I am all at once what Christ is,
since he was what I am, and
This Jack, joke, poor potsherd,
patch, matchwood, immortal diamond,
Is immortal diamond.”

And despair and grasping melt away.

———-

SCRIPTURE: Philippians 2:5-11 (NRSV)

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death –
even death on a cross.

Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

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