Sunday, April 13

Passion/ Palm Sunday

Worship: 8 & 10:45 am

Mt. 21:1-11; Is. 50:4-9a; Ps. 31:9-16;Phil. 2:5-11;

Mt. 26:14—27:66

Hosanna to the Son of David;

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

King of Israel:

Hosanna in the highest.        (Palm Sunday antiphon)

Saturday, April 12

Reading: Philippians 2:5-11

Have this mind among your selves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who…emptied himself, taking the form of a servant." Phil. 2:5,7

Out of the womb of wondrous love

came the person Jesus

wondrous love from

wondrous love.

All that came to him

that was hurt,

all that was shame,

all that was cruelty

all that was spite, -

all that came to him

he took into himself.

All the energy

of scorn, of fright

of worthlessness, of envy

all the energy of hate

that came to him

he took into himself

and did not lash out

to return it.

All that came to him

that was unlovely

he took into himself

and transformed it,

transformed

by the wonder of God's love.

Wondrous love from

wondrous love.

So is our beginning.

So is our ending.

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• Place a candle at the grave of someone you love. (Lazarus Saturday)

Friday, April 11

Reading: Isaiah 50:4-9a

"The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I turned not backward."  Isaiah 50:5

Martin Luther described sin as a person's being "curved in on itself", incurvatus in se, concerned only with one's own needs, desires, one's own puny little world. As Jesus approaches Jerusalem, where reaction to his world-upturning teachings and life is building to a deathly confrontation, we see clearly how absolutely faithful he is to his identity as the Compassionate One, open and vulnerable to the world. He set his face "like a flint" (Is. 50:7) and turned not backward. How simple it would have been to disappear into the wilderness ravines east of the city. How difficult, to ignore the deep human instinct toward self-preservation and to continue on the road, in spite of risk, in spite of threat.

Merciful God, may we never turn backward from our calling as people of your heart. Amen

·       Eat no meat or oil today.

Thursday, April 10

Reading: Matthew 21:1-11

"Most of the crowd spread their garments on the road."

 Matthew 21:8

The worn, rutted footpaths and roads in Israel were rocky and treacherous, and it was customary for townspeople to "prepare the way" when someone important was approaching, making the ruts level and removing rocks. It was also customary to lay down one's cloak, the outer garment, before a king, as the servants of Ahab did before Jehu in 2 Kings 9:13. What kind of king were the people expecting? What kind of ruler were they hoping for? One who would "smite the world perfect", as Dorothy Sayers wrote? Since we cannot know the thoughts and motivations of the 1st c. Judaeans along the road to Jerusalem, perhaps we should at least return to our own 21st century lives and ask, how do we prepare the way for the coming of Christ into the Jerusalem of our hearts?

            Then cleansed be every life from sin,

            Make straight the way for God within,

            And let us all our hearts prepare

            For Christ to come and enter there. Amen

                                    (Charles Coffin, "On Jordan's Banks")

• Make a drawing, painting, or poem in your journal.

Wednesday, April 9

Commemoration: Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Reading:  Psalm 130

"My soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning." Ps. 130:6

On this day in 1945, German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed by hanging at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin - just two months short of D-Day - for being associated with the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. An ardent pacifist, Bonhoeffer struggled greatly with the quandary of how to continue in non-violence against such an oppressive and violent evil as the Nazi machine. (Who knows? Perhaps the Sicarii faced the same quandary in the face of the Roman war machine…) At the previous Christmas, Dietrich had sent his mother a poem from prison - a poem of trust in God for each day, each year. In translation by the great British hymnist F. Pratt Green, the first stanza reads:

            By gracious pow'rs so wonderfully sheltered,

            And confidently waiting come what may,

            We know that God is with us night and morning,

            And never fails to greet us each new day.  (ELW #626)

Loving God, may we always place our hope in you. Amen

• Speak to someone at church you’ve never spoken to before.

Tuesday, April 8

Reading:  John 11:1-45

"Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?"  John 11:37

Like the people mourning with Mary, sister of Lazarus, we often have very specific ways we want to see God at work in the world. Why doesn't God just intervene and stop war? We pray and pray and a friend dies of cancer anyway. Why didn't God just heal her and let her live? A poem by Dorothy Sayers, friend and colleague of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis:

            "…Hard it is, very hard,

            To travel up the slow and stony road

            To Calvary, to redeem mankind; far better

            To make but one sceptered miracle,

            Lean through the cloud, lift the right hand of power

            And with a sudden lightning smite the world perfect.

            Yet this was not God's way, who had the power,

            But set it by, choosing the cross, the thorn,

            The sorrowful wounds. Something there is, perhaps,

            That power destroys in passing, something supreme,

            To whose great value in the eyes of God

            That cross, that thorn, and those five wounds bear witness."

                                                (The Devil To Pay)

Most loving God, your ways are not our ways; calm our hearts and soothe our questing minds with your wisdom, Amen

• Memorize a scripture verse.

Monday, April 7

Reading: Romans 8:6-11

"To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace."  Romans 8:6

Today let Martin Luther speak, from his "Preface to the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans":

"Flesh and spirit you must not understand as though flesh is only that which has to do with unchastity and spirit is only that which has to do with what is inwardly in the heart. Rather, like Christ in John 3:6, Paul calls everything 'flesh' that is born of the flesh - the whole person, with body and soul, mind and senses - because everything about [that person] longs for the flesh…From the 'works of the flesh' in Galatians 5[:19-21], you can learn that Paul calls heresy and hatred 'works of the flesh'.

On the contrary, you should call [the person] 'spiritual' who is occupied with the most external kind of works as Christ was when he washed the disciples' feet… Thus 'the flesh' is [one] who lives and works, inwardly and outwardly, in the service of the flesh's gain and of this temporal life. 'The spirit' is the [one] who lives and works, inwardly and outwardly, in the service of the Spirit and of the future life."

Put your Spirit in us, O God, to unite all that we are with your will. Amen

• Do something today to nourish your spiritual body and your bodily spirit.