Lenten Daily Devotionals for March 2 - March 5
Ash Wednesday, March 2
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.
So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Thursday, March 3
“Watching the Olympics” by Marty Dasler
Acts 17:28. “In him we live and move and have our being.”
This February we watched the sad heartbreak of Mikaela Shiffrin. It reminded me of a new word I learned last year. That word was also linked with an enormous disappointment after huge expectations. Simone Biles was suddenly dropped out of the Olympics because she had developed the twisties. Twisties? Such an innocent sounding word. I wondered what on earth would cause the world’s greatest gymnast to be unable to compete?
The newscasts explained the Twisties.
“It happens when a gymnast or acrobat loses their sense of place in the air, where the ground is, and when and how they land.” It is not just disorienting; it can be very dangerous.
No one knows how long the twisties can last. But most gymnasts recover from it to do their amazing acrobatic skills again.
Did you ever get the Twisties? There can be many reasons that we lose our perspective and sense of where we are, and where the ground is that once so firmly held us. Often the cause of emotional twisties is loss. Loss of a job, loss of a relationship or loss of a loved one, or the end of a hope or expectation. When our son Josh called us one night from PLU to tell us he was gay, Claire and I both got the emotional Twisties. What about grandkids? What about safety and prejudice?
It can be joyful or heartbreaking. The New Testament reminds us that we are rooted and grounded in Christ no matter where or when we are twisting, turning, or losing perspective and sight of those things that ground us.
Eventually we land and regain our perspective. Maybe not on the same ground we started from, but joyful and solid in a new place.
Again we affirm with Paul, “There is nothing in life or death, in height or depth that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Not even the Twisties.
Friday, March 5
“O God, Who Gives Us Life” (v. 1 & 2) Text by Carl P Daw, Jr. b. 1944
O God, who gives us life and breath, who shapes un in the womb, who guards our lives from birth to death, then leads us from the tomb: deliver us from fears that kill the life we have from you. Help us to know your Spirit still is making all things new.
O God, who calls your people out to venture and to dare, to plumb the bleak abyss of doubt and find you even there: when we despair in wandering through wastes of empty lies, refresh us with the living spring of hope that never dies.
Saturday, March 5
“The Losses of War” by Pastor Paul
As I sit watching the television as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has seemingly begun, the losses of war begin to mount:
- innocent lives
- destruction of property and infrastructure
- attention of the world to other pressing concerns
- economic stability
- a sense of peace as the absence of war
- freedom as people are huddled in shelters
The images on the screen conjure up in my mind the unsettling images of past conflicts. Tanks, fires, bumper to bumper car traffic, the anticipation of violence...
The season of Lent seems one that leans toward violence, exposing the folly of human avarice and ego, culminating in the betrayal, arrest, trial, denial, beating, and crucifixion that invaded Jesus. We prepare for these losses and name them in the reading of the passion narrative. But there is more to the story; the losses, while painful, do not get the final word, but somehow the resurrection, the raising from the dead the Prince of Peace. “On our journey, let us pray for the things that make for peace.” (Romans 14:19)