Lent

Lent Devotional #3 – A Love Story for Lent: The Gospel of John 4:5-42

Third Sunday in Lent

A man and a woman meet at a well. They talk. Their heads bend toward each other. Her head jerks back in astonishment. He leans forward to explain. With a sweep of an arm he gestures for her to leave, and she drops her head to say something.

Lent Devotional #2 – Father Abraham

Reflections on Romans 4:1-5, 13-17, Second Sunday in Lent

The Epistle reading for Lent 2 is Paul’s most extended discussion of Abraham. Paul points to Abraham to illustrate his doctrine of justification by grace through faith. The faith of Abraham is witnessed in his trust in the promise of God. (4:20).

Lenten Prayer #1

Lent 1:  Genesis 2:15-3:7

Prayer after reading of the garden’s Keeper

 Maker:

for gardens and walls;

for Eden and our homes to the east;

for your talk with us and ours with you;

Lent Devotional #1 – The Temptation of Power

Reflections on Matthew 4:1-9, First Sunday in Lent

I am haunted by the story of the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. So was the Russian novelist, Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Early in his novel, The Brothers Karamazov, Ivan tells Alyosha of a poem he has written he calls "The Grand Inquisitor." In the prose/poem Jesus returns to earth in human form, but it is not to Nazareth in Galilee. It is to Seville in Spain in the midst of the Spanish Inquisition of the 16th century.