Becoming God’s Blessed Community Devotions and Small Group Readings For the Lenten Season Chelsea First United Methodist Church February – April, 2020 v2 2 8 2020 Devotions in Preparation for All-Church Lenten Study For Use Prior to Ash Wednesday, February 26, 2020 Pages 1-3 provide an introduction and example of the format and content of the upcoming Adult Lenten study. Each week’s materials will contain 3-4 pages – a mixture of Scripture, associated readings and questions for reflection and discussion. The goal is to focus our minds and hearts on the needs of people around us, and to help us discern how to be Christian Neighbors in these situations. A Plea to the Lord Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; According to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Psalm 51: 1-3,6-7,9-10 Readings Is that the sort of fast that pleases me, a day when a person inflicts pain on himself? Hanging your head like a reed, spreading out sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call fasting, a day acceptable to the Lord? Is not this the sort of fast that pleases me: to break unjust fetters, to undo the throngs of the yoke; to let the oppressed go free, and to break all yokes? Is it not sharing your food with the hungry or sheltering the homeless poor; if you see someone lacking in clothes, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own kin? Isaiah 58: 5-8 With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6: 6-8 1 Video Story The video can be found at https://vimeo.com/273009173; this story is one of several. It begins at about 8 min 37 sec, and goes for roughly 4 minutes. The voice of Pastor Ellen Zienert runs over video images of parishioners driving to a dairy farm on a sunny winter day – Ash Wednesday. The group stands together with farm workers in the barn while all share in a short service of the application of the ashes. Transcript: I’m Ellen Zienert and I’m Pastor of St Johns First United Methodist Church in St. Johns, Michigan. Today we’re out taking ashes to various farms and homes of our students. The Neighbors Ministry started at the church about eleven years ago when the idea came to teach English to Spanish-speaking farm workers that live in the area. And when they tried it they realized there was a need there and that their gifts matched the need and they could be in ministry with people who were in our community. A few years ago we decided we would take ashes out to the farms to those people who would like to receive ashes. We have a lot of dairy farms around this area in the center of Michigan, primarily Mexican immigrants work on those farms. There was a need for translation, a need for support in terms of transportation, because in Michigan, undocumented immigrants cannot receive driver’s licenses. Often the wife needs to get to school to be in a conference with the children, or take the children to a doctor’s appointment, things like that. And it’s a real blessing to have people who can help translate a little bit, or even if you can’t translate, just be there as a support and a calming presence. Just driving people places, and that’s a pretty easy thing to do. I was a Spanish major in college and taught English in Columbia for a year after I left college. I just felt like God had placed me here, that this was a place where I could use that talent that I had to further my ministry and be of service in this community. I think this church was really faithful to listening to God’s call. Because originally they really thought that they would offer a 16 week English class to maybe 15 people and that would be good. I’m thinking that 11 or 12 years this ministry has been going on. It really has opened up this Congregation’s eyes and hearts to the plight of immigrants. They see real people who are working very hard jobs, who are here because they want to provide for their families, who left desperately poor situations at home. It’s been a great two-way learning opportunity for both of us to get to know a little of the Mexican culture and for our students to help them to more fully enter into the culture in the United States. I think that’s the main thing in any kind of ministry, just to listen to where your heart takes you and where God is taking you as you try to engage in ministry. And not to be afraid that you don’t have all the Spanish it takes or all the knowledge or anything else. Just to be there in ministry and in love with people. Sharing of the Ashes at St. Johns (MI) First United Methodist Church Video prepared by the Michigan Annual Conference 2 Reflection Lent is traditionally a time of waiting, of repentance, and quiet contemplation of Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf. Are there particular questions or issues that you wish to focus on – either privately or with others -- during this season? Do you come from a family or a faith tradition that had particular ways of marking Lent? Did you celebrate “Mardi Gras” or “Fat Tuesday” with partying or rich treats? Did you ever “give something up” during Lent? Did you attend worship on Maundy Thursday or Good Friday? Does this time in the church calendar have meaning for you? If not, what might make it so? The prophets are dismissive of “burnt offerings” and the typical sacrifices meant to gain favor with God. How does this translate to our lives and practices today? What are Lenten activities or sacrifices that we can adopt that would be pleasing to the Lord? Have you ever felt profoundly welcomed in a place where you were a stranger? What was it about that experience that made it moving or significant? What does it mean to you to welcome someone in the name of Christ? Or to welcome someone as if he or she was Christ? How is it different from simply being friendly and polite? Poem for Ash Wednesday I said to my soul, be still, and let the dark come upon you Which shall be the darkness of God. As, in a theatre, [when] The lights are extinguished, for the scene to be changed With a hollow rumble of wings, with a movement of darkness on darkness…. I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love, For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting. Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought: So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing. From T. S. Eliot, “East Coker” Provided in A Service for Ash Wednesday, www.spaciousfaith.com Prayer Dearest Lord, Create an opening in my life and my heart for you to enter. Reshape me, and apply me to your purposes. In Christ’s holy name, Amen. 3 Devotions for Week 1 (Centered around the First Sunday in Lent, March 1, 2020) Contemplations on the Pain of Shame and Worthlessness Lament My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; And by night, but find no rest. But I am a worm, and not human; Scorned by others, and despised by the people. Do not be far from me, For trouble is near and there is no one to help. Psalm 22: 1-2, 6, 11 Jesus Knows Our Sorrows He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Isaiah 53:3 When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, “Listen, he is calling for Elijah.” And someone ran, filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.” Mark 15: 33-36 Consolation See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! 1 John 3:1a Know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold … but with the precious blood of Christ.