Lent
Ash Wednesday
February 18, 2015
Scripture Reading: Psalm 25:1-10
To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
O my God, in you I trust;
do not let me be put to shame;
do not let my enemies exult over me.
Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame;
let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous. . — Psalm 25:1-3
Twenty one Egyptian Coptic Christians were ceremoniously beheaded this week by members of ISIS simply because they were Christian and, I assume, would not renounce their faith. ISIS has also executed Jews and other Muslims who do not accept ISIS’s doctrine. When I read the scripture for today, I thought of these Christians, as they were paraded for the cameras near a beach, each with his own executioner. Mercifully the television station spared us the actual beheadings.
This the first day of Lent, Ash Wednesday, is an appropriate time for God’s people to consider what has gone so horribly wrong among peoples of faith? The quick and easy answer is evil, but that is not a good enough answer. What causes God’s people to turn away from God in the first place and seek out evil?
The Bible is full of just as heinous stories of persecution and annihilation done in the name of God. Some, according to the scripture, were done at God’s command. My sense is that is what ISIS believes they are doing, following God’s command to rid the world of evil.
I do not know the answer to these questions, but I have a need to explore them with others who are willing to struggle with the truth we might find as we seek to know God’s way in this season of Lent.
Prayer: Make me to know your ways, O Lord;
teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth, and teach me,
for you are the God of my salvation;
for you I wait all day long. (Psalm 25:4-5) 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.