Lent
March 21, 2016

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 65:17-25

They shall not labor in vain,
   or bear children for calamity;
for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord—
   and their descendants as well.
Before they call I will answer,
   while they are yet speaking I will hear.
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together,
   the lion shall eat straw like the ox;
   but the serpent—its food shall be dust!
They shall not hurt or destroy
   on all my holy mountain,
says the Lord. –Isaiah 65:23-24

The pictures are so tragic. Small children being carried out of harm’s way, with even the fleeing being extremely dangerous. The picture of our day is of the lifeless body of a three-year-old little boy drown while trying to escape terror in an overcrowded boat. The inerasable picture from my college days, the late sixties, was of a naked twelve-year-old girl drenched in Napalm as she ran from the pain, she could not escape that seared her gaunt body. Too many children have been and are being lost to calamity of adult creation.

It was this sort of injustice Jesus faced down during what we now call Holy Week. I somehow do not think we would have called it set apart by God at the time had we been there, but with hindsight Holy Week is an apt descriptor.

Let us, too, set this week apart as a time when we can grow closer to God. The injustices of our world will still be there next Monday ready to reclaim our concern. Now is our time to rekindle our love of God for the gift of the Incarnation in Jesus. Now is the time in the face of all that says otherwise to acknowledge that God has indeed overcome the world. Now is the time to prepare once again to answer Jesus’ call as partners in creating a just and peaceful world bound by love.

Prayer: Lord, reinvigorate our whole being, bodies, minds, and souls to your service as we observe the Holy this week. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized 
Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council 
of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights 
reserved.