A Gift For You

Lenten Devotions for 2005

Jesus is Denied by Pe t e r
 O Sun of Justice, Jesus Christ,
dispel the darkness of our hearts,
till your blest light make nighttime flee
and brings the joys your day imparts.

In this our “time acceptable”

touch every heart with sorrow, Lord
that, turned from sin, renewed by grace,
we may press on toward love’s reward.1

1
Anonymous, Latin hymn circa sixth century, With One Voice: A Lutheran Resource for
Worship, Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis, MN, 1995.
 M on day, February 28
At that moment the cock crowed. Then Peter remembered what Jesus had said:

“Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept

bitterly.
Jesus, may Thy love constrain us,
Matthew

26:74b-75. That from sin we may refrain us,

In the In Thy griefs may deeply grieve;
darkness of
night, it is Thee our best affections giving,
easy for us
to deny To They glory every living,
Jesus, for we
think that May we in Thy glory live –
no one will
see us. But
Jacobus de Benedictus
when the
sun come
13th Century
up, sheds its The Hymnal and Order of Service:
light on the
Authorized by The Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod
world, and awakens everyone, we know
that what we did at night will be exposed When we refuse to correct our wandering,
by the light of day. we will move further and further away
from God and it becomes harder for us to
When this happens, we have only two return to God’s way of life. When God
alternatives. We can either deny that we plants our feet back on the path, we can
sinned or we can be sorry for our actions. work with God to bring life into the
If we ignore God’s actions in the world world.
and in our life and refuse to
acknowledge our missteps, we then place
our will before God's will. If we, through
the power of the Holy Spirit, admit our
wrongdoings, God will forgive us.

Dear Lord, when I have erred, may I always be sorrowful

and be able to recognize right from wrong. Help me in
my moments of weakness, so that I may always be true
to you. Amen.
Jesus is Judged by Pilate
 Wide open are Thine arms,
A fallen world to embrace;
To take to love and endless rest
Our whole forsaken race.
Lord, I am sad and poor,
But boundless is thy grace;
Give me the soul-transforming joy
For which I seek they face.2

2
Bernard of Clairvaux, Died 1153, Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church, The Lutheran
Church in America, 1917.
 Tuesday, March 1
As soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and
scribes and the whole council. They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to
Pilate. Mark 15:1.
The world's best and brightest have
decided that the Word can no longer be
free but instead must be punished and be
put to death. The charges against Jesus
are serious. He is the King and we do not
want to be placed under His rule.
Our king is Caesar and we want to give
him our loyalty and our tribute.
Caesar’s load is light and we like it that
way. Our ruler only wants our life and
our taxes, nothing more. In return,
Caesar will protect us from our enemies,
he will provide education, and he will
improve our cities. Caesar does not care
how we treat those who do not have legal
status in his kingdom because they are
not his citizens. So, we are free to have
them work long hours at low wages. We
can refuse to provide them the basic
protection given to us. We can ignore
teaching them. We can also allow them
to live in the unimproved portions of our
cities.
The Word wants more, much more. The
Word wants everything that we have:
our thoughts, our love, and our existence.
He demands this both in time and when
time ends. In return for everything that
we have, the Word will give us freedom.
The Word tells us that we do not have to
be protected from our enemies since we
have no enemies because we will love
them. The Word gives us the Truth and
asks us to give that Truth away, at no
charge, to everyone else. The Word has
the ultimate urban renewal plan: treat
others as you want to be treated. Unlike
Caesar, the Word tells us that we have no
borders and thus everyone belongs to His
kingdom. So, we cannot abuse others What king do you want: Caesar or the
because they do not belong to the Word. Word?
We are to freely give them everything,
just like everything has been given to us.

Dear Father in heaven, Jesus is being bound and led away

makes me think of what I have bound my life to, and
just where it is leading me to. May I be bound to Jesus
and be lead to my Father in heaven for eternity. Amen.
 Wednesday, March 2
Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” He answered him, ``You say so.'' Mark

15:2.

The King of the Jews is on trial. At stake He called it into being and existence
are His life and His kingdom. He is continues only because He wills that the
charged with bringing universe exists.
true life into the world.
When He is asked if He The more important
is the King of the Jews, reason why Jesus
He answers with the denies that He is the
statement, “You say so.” King of the Jews is
that God is not
There are two reasons interested in
why he answers as He kingdoms or power.
does. First, Jesus is Instead, God has
more than the King of reveled God's self in
the Jews. Not only is He a much different
the King of all way.
humanity but also He is the King of the
cosmos. Everything exists only because
Throughout the Church's history, God's
shape has been professed to be that of the
Three in One and the One in Three. In
this confession, we state that God's
revelation in history has been that of a
family where each and every member of
the family is both independent of the
others in power and authority but each
and every member of the family has
agreed to subject themselves to the power
of the Father in order that the Father's
will may be accomplished in time.
But, this confession of faith holds a
problem for us because large portions of
our society have neither experienced
family nor community. We have taken
our broken image of a family and
projected it onto God instead of projecting
God’s family onto us.
Jesus is telling us that the Trinity
makes a difference in every day life.
Their freedom and their unity gives us
the freedom to love, the freedom to unite
the divided, the freedom to move the
united community toward a future goal
of being children of God who live in
God's family eternally.

Dear God, I want Jesus to be my “King.” For a king is a

ruler over his kingdom. May Jesus be my King and rule over
me and guide me in all that I do and say. I want to be a
reflection of my “King.” Amen.
 Thursday, March 3
Then the chief priests accused him of many things. Pilate asked him again, “Have you
no answer? See how many charges they bring against you.” But Jesus made no further
reply, so that Pilate was amazed. Mark 15:3-5.
God is on trial and if God is found
guilty, God then will be put to death.
Despite the fact that when one dies, one
no longer exists; Jesus refuses to answer
the questions that are brought against
Him. In His refusal to answer the
questions, in His silence, God shows us
pure grace.
In God's trial before Pilate, we are
attempting to do what we did in Genesis
when we took the fruit and ate and when
we gave the fruit and ate. Every one of
us wants to have the knowledge of good
and evil. We want to know everything.
The knowledge of good and evil means
that we literally want to experience the
entire range of existence. Of course, this
knowledge would include technical
information: the making of a house, the
making of a car, and the making of a
nuclear weapon. But the knowledge of
good and evil also includes experiencing
all of existence, human or otherwise: how
cancer feels, what it is like to be blown up
by a freedom fighter, and how it feels to
be betrayed by one who loved you. If God
provided us the answer to everything, it
would literally kill us.
Even though we deserve to die because we
have taken the fruit and have eaten it,
God grants
us a Well might the sun in darkness hide
reprieve.
Every breath And shut its glories in
that we take
shows us all
When God, the mighty maker died
how
graceful
For His own creatures’ sin –
God is
Isaac Watts, 1674-1748
because God
did not kill Lutheran Book of Worship
us when we disobeyed God’s will. Even
God’s passion for the universe. He
when we threaten God’s own Son and
withholds the knowledge of good and evil
God’s very being, God does
so that we might live even though
not give into our demands
He will die. He loves us so much
and give us what we want.
that He is willing to die so that we
Instead, Jesus shows us
might live.

Dear God, give me wisdom to know when to speak and when

to be silent. May my mouth always be ready to praise
you. May I also be wise in my silence. Grant me the favor of your Holy Spirit to
teach me these things. Amen.
 Fr i d a y, March 4
Now at the festival he used to release a prisoner for them, anyone for whom they asked.

Now a man called Barabbas was in prison with the rebels who had committed murder

during the insurrection. So the crowd came and began to ask Pilate to do for them

according to his custom. Mark 15:6-8.

When we call for a terrorist to be freed,

we are clearly telling others and
ourselves that God cannot help us.
God has not done what we want God to
do and we will take matters into our
own hands. We will take the
convicted murder over the One who
gives eternal life.

When the crowd called for Barabbas to

be set free, we are sinning. God has
sent us rulers and others in
authority. If the government is just,
we are to obey those in command and
when we do not we sin against God.
However, if governments are unjust we
do not have to follow them down the path
towards death.
Jesus did not call for the overthrow of
Rome. He told everyone to pay his or her
taxes. The Gospel writer tells us that
Barabbas had been found guilty of
murder. The crowd had no right to free
Barabbas.
instead of having a trial by jury, we are
sinning because we are telling God that
justice is not important. When we keep
people in power who starve and torture, we
are just as responsible as those in charge
because we are proclaiming that power is
more important than people. When we are
more concerned about profit over health,
safety, or the environment, we are telling
others that we worship money.

Today we are just as guilty of freeing God came and died for all of us:
terrorists as those people who called for Barabbas, those that free him and others
Barabbas over Jesus. When we keep like him, and us.
innocent
people in
prison

Dear Lord, there may come a time that I must not

listen to what ``the crowd'' is demanding. Give me
discernment to listen to the right voice, the voice of
the Holy Spirit. Amen.
 Saturday, March 5
Then he answered them, “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” For

he realized

that it was
Thou canst be merciful while just, --
out of This is my hope’s foundation;
jealousy

that the
On Thy redeeming grace I trust,
chief
Grant me, then, Thy salvation.
priests had

handed him
Shielded by Thee, I stand secure;
over. But
They word is firm, Thy promise sure,
the chief

priests
And I rely upon Thee. –
stirred up
Martin Luther, 1523
the crowd
The Lutheran Hymnary: Including the Symbols of the Evangelical
to have him
Lutheran Church
release Barabbas for them instead. Mark 15:9-11.
God gives us yet one more chance to free
Christ and to keep Barabbas in prison
where he belongs. But the crowd and the
religious leaders do not want God to be
free. We want God to be dead so that we
can continue in our life of sin. We are
hoping that with God out of the way, we
can take control of the situation and
profit from it.
The irony of this situation is that Pilate,
who is not a follower of Christ or a Jew,
recognizes the innocence of Jesus. But
Pilate is powerless also. For whatever
reason, he does not free Jesus and he
gives in to the will of the crowd. This
inaction is condemns Pilate as much as
the action of the religious leaders and the
crowd.
Christ came into the world for people like
this; the people that kill God. He was so
concerned about our well being that He
was willing to try anything to help us.
Ultimately, God will die so that we can
live.

Dear God, I pray that my motives will be pure. I trust that I

may not be motivated by feelings of anger. Help me to be a
peacemaker in the world. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria
 O Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
Accept my thankful praise:
Give me, as to the happy ones,
Treasure of endless days.
If firm in faith and hope I stand,
I grain the crown, the better land,
O God the Lord of hosts.3
Ann Wofford – Prayers

Elaine Lenz – Crosses

The Winstons – Photographs

Jody Winston – Writing

3
J. Aström, 1819, The Lutheran Hymnary: Including the Symbols of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church, Augsburg Publishing House, Minneapolis, MN, 1935.