Lent
February 25, 2016

Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:1-23

I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness. –1Corinthians 10:1-5

John tells us that Christ was with God at creation. Paul tells us here that Christ was the rock from which our ancestors in the faith drank in the wilderness. God has loved us ever since he created us. God loves us still and will forevermore. We seem to be the ones who take flights of fancy into wildernesses from which we cannot get out. And God even follows us into those dark places of the soul.

It is really, really hard to change. I remember a foster child whose mother was seriously mentally ill. Until he was about ten years old, he thought her behavior was the way all mothers acted. Chaos at home was his norm. As children they hid from attackers that were not present and dodged airplanes in their house that they could neither see nor hear. He had to relearn how to love. He did love his mother and I never questioned that she loved him and the other children. It was not the way they would experience love in the rest of the world and they had to live in the rest of the world and still love their mother as the person that she was. Tough challenge for a child. Tough challenge for anyone.

This child had no control over his world those first ten or so years. Most of us do have the option of making different choices than the ones we make. We can choose to wander around in a wilderness and whine about our situation or we can trust God to walk with us out of the darkness and into God’s light. It is not easy because as bad as our situation might be it is where we have established a level of comfort. Walking away from comfort is never easy. Paul is telling the Corinthians and he is telling us to step out into the light. God is always with us.

Prayer: Lord, we live in times that are viewed as dark and fearful. Reignite us as children of your light and let us show those stuck in darkness your way, your truth, and your life. 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.