A 7 Central Things Lenten Devotional

  Sarang, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons It is not good to attempt to spread the Gospel in ways that are manipulative or insincere, incurious, or closed off from those with whom you seek to share the Good News. A spirit of judgment is surely asking for failure and is unfaithful to the whole venture. It is not good to travel thousands of miles away to share the Gospel, without considering your own context. Separating the good news of Jesus Christ from your roles, relationships, and responsibilities is irresponsible.   It is good to be sent out to serve our neighbors near and far—siblings and strangers, and witness to what God is up to in the world. We are called to accompany, be with, people on their journey with Jesus. This ministry of presence will draw us deeper into the world around us, its joys and flaws, where the Spirit is at work and where folk are in bondage to Sin. We ought to be curious enough about ...

  Metropolitan Museum of Art, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons It is not good to practice a wholly ephemeral form of spirituality—one devoid of incarnation and physicality. If your only experience of God’s love is a warm feeling from words read or heard, you may miss a gracious avenue towards comfort and assurance, Christ’s body and blood given for you. After all, there are so many physical signs in this world that point to fear and death, you ought to receive at least one sign of God’s love and life, for you ! It is not good to worship and to eat in ways that dismember the body of Christ, that maim members of it. It was wrong for the Corinthians to make economic and educational distinctions in how people received the Lord’s Supper, such divisions of the Table are still wrong! It is not good for communion to be done in a way that makes it unrecognizable as a feast. On one hand, that can be caused by the disposition of those who receive the feast, but also by the type of elements u...

  A. Davey from Where I Live Now: Pacific Northwest, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons It is not good to denigrate God’s good creation, to cling to sarcasm and cynicism, instead of thanksgiving and praise. Likewise, it is not good to miss opportunities to be thankful, there are an awful lot of ways to join all the earth in praising God, we should take every one that we can, otherwise moments of sorrow and suffering might overwhelm us.                 It is good to celebrate everything God has first given us; to celebrate God’s world and celebrate with God’s world! We do so in worship, and if there are ways to make that more apparent, it is imperative that we do so.               It is good to cultivate habits of gratitude, wherever they are found. Be they in daily humorous questions that jolt ...

  Paul, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons It is not good to confuse the Scriptures and the incarnate Word. Nor is it good when scripture is resisted or destroyed because it contains Law as well as Gospel. It is not good when the Bible’s witness to Jesus Christ is drowned out by a cacophony of stories, many more banal than the average soap commercial. Nor is it good when we claim that the Bible has properties that it does not claim for itself, confusing the intensions and interests, genres and functions, with various modern works—namely science books or blueprints for governing a modern state. On the other side of the coin, it is not good when familiarity breeds contempt—when we believe we know scripture so well that we refuse to go deeper, or even take it seriously. When scripture can no longer surprise or challenge us, we’ve lost the plot. Often times, this is a sign that we’ve overlayed our reading of scripture with cultura...

  R. and K. Wood, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons It is not good to make excuses for a sin based on it being part of your job or role. Similarly, hiding from sins that are extremes of what you’ve done in the past and it was okay, does not make them any less a sin. In fact, if a “success script” you rely on leads to sin, it is worth reflecting on the entire script; for example, “I just love too much” was maybe a dangerous thing for David’s soul and relationships all along, but he didn’t realize it until it led him to rape and murder. It is not good to describe sin or forgiveness in solely disembodied ways—it can make it hard to know that someone has broken a relationship or that the mending of that relationship has occurred. In that line of thought, it is not good to wallow in a sin after it has been forgiven, after a while it can come off as bragging or picking at a scab.   It is good to take seriously the ways we’ve harmed other people, even if the hurt was uninten...

  It is not good for the body of Christ to be divided. When the church embraces the divisions of the wider world, especially when we bring them into worship, we are infecting Christ with bigotry and prejudice. At the same time, we are not looking to limit how much of a person can show up on a Sunday, how much of who they are is washed and claimed by Christ. As such, the unity in Christ found in Baptism isn’t a shorthand for erasing people’s uniqueness or being “color blind” in a way that blinds us to the totality of who a person is. It is not good that there are many things that crowd out a baptismal life. It is especially worrying that modern life short circuits community in a way that individualizes our baptismal journey—a whole community walks this path together in song, leaving it up to individuals makes a joyful thing into a burden; at best the baptismal life bereft of community is a singular grand heroic act, but for most it becomes an absurdity to be abandoned.   ...

  Mike Dickison, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons It is not good to abandon the assembly. Gathering is a habit and it takes practice to do well. It is not good to misuse our liberty, to be distracted by the variety of tasks and options at our disposal and dispose of Christian community. It is not good to be alone. Don’t worry introverts, I’m talking about isolation not the frenetic activity extroverts bathe in. But these plague years have taught us at least that, while the current ethos of our society is to not be joiners—to be skeptical of gatherings—an isolated life is disjointed. Similarly, to put such an emphasis on Christianity as a personal relationship that you ignore any public and communal component—any moment where you might rub up against those with whom you disagree, and in so doing learn from the experience—is to miss being formed into the Body of Christ. It is not good to gather in ways that exclude, that make th...