Lent
March 16, 2021
Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 31:31-34
The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord’, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.
What would the world be like if we all knew the Lord as God is, not what we want God to be? Therein lies the rub. It is just too easy to take the road most traveled and measure righteousness by the quantity of society’s agreement rather than the justice of our actions as they represent God and the best outcomes for all people.
This year Tulsa, Oklahoma, is observing the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Riot. The Oklahoma Bureau of Vital Statistics officially recorded 36 dead resulting from the riot. A 2001 state commission examination of events confirmed 39 dead, 26 black, and 13 white. The Commission estimated there could have been between 75 and 300 people killed. Mass grave sites are now being studied to provide answers. The riot started apparently when a young black man did something to scare a white woman. The truth is, the cause was probably tied to white privilege and greed. Tulsa’s predominately African American Greenwood District was dubbed Black Wall Street. It was a thriving middle-class and upper-middle-class community, probably also tied to the day’s oil boom. Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI documents the story of the greed of outsiders trying to reap the oil’s riches on Osage land. These activities occurred in the 1920s, shortly after the Tulsa Race Riot. Osage County borders Tulsa County on the North.
Lent is an excellent time to consider what motivates us to do the things we do and causes us to choose the values we practice. Are we growing in God’s wisdom and truth or being carried away by our cultural priorities?
Prayer: Lord, help us know you more nearly to shape our motivations to match yours. 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.