Lent

March 28, 2020

Scripture Reading:
John 11:1-45

Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, ‘Lord, he whom you love is ill.’ But when Jesus heard it, he said, ‘This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.’ Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

Then after this he said to the disciples, ‘Let us go to Judea again.’ The disciples said to him, ‘Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?’ Jesus answered, ‘Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.’ –John 11:1-9

As I read in the above scripture that Jesus chose to walk into danger by choice to fulfill his mission, I thought of all the health care workers and emergency respondents who are doing exactly that—walking into danger by choice right now. A friend has a son who is a nurse and who is apparently on call with FEMA to serve in disasters. He was sent to Puerto Rico shortly after that disaster happened; he now is in New York City dealing with the covid 19 pandemic.

I like the idea of working in the light of day so that we do not stumble. That speaks to me of prevention and protective measures and the oneness that must be present for any pandemic to be swept away.  The first thing I do when I get up in the morning is to make my bed. Sometime in late February or early March, I am not sure when, there was enough light streaming through my bedroom windows so that it was not necessary for me to turn on the light electricity provides. By habit I am an early riser. I found it a bit disconcerting the first morning of Daylight Savings Time that I had to turn on the light. Just a couple of weeks later the daylight was streaming again.

We do God’s work in our world in both times of light and darkness. During times of great joy and great fear God’s light persists. In this time of bleak darkness, we need to depend on that light to shine on our path and show us the way to be God’s people within his light of love.

Prayer: Open our hearts and minds to let your light shine through us during bad times as well as good. 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 America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.