2022 Lenten Reflections
There are currently more than 20 people in the Diocese of Missouri discerning a call to ordination. Bishop Deon Johnson has asked this group of discerners to engage in the holy season of Lent by sharing reflections on a selection of Bible readings.
We've asked each discerner to reflect on the lectionary for the First Sunday in Lent:
- Deuteronomy 26:1-11
- Romans 10:8b-13
- Luke 4:1-13
- Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16
We'll post the reflections (video and/or written text) on this page throughout the season (3 or 4 each week). We'll also share them on our social media pages. Our gratitude goes to all the discerners who participated in this project.
Each day during Holy Week (April 10-17), we'll be posting daily reflections from ordained clergy members from throughout the Diocese.
We invite you to add these reflections to your Lenten observance. As you will see, each discerner and clergy member has a unique perspective to share with us.
Our series begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Easter Day with reflections by the Rt. Rev. Deon K. Johnson, Bishop of The Diocese of Missouri.
Easter - Sunday, April 17: The Rt. Rev. Deon K. Johnson
The Rt. Rev. Deon K. Johnson, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri, brings us this reflection for the Sunday of the Resurrection:
Lectionary for Easter Sunday:
Holy Week - Holy Saturday - Saturday, April 16: The Rev. Deacon Barbi Click
The Rev. Barbi Click serves as a deacon at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in the Carondelet neighborhood of St. Louis. She shares this personal prayer with us for Holy Saturday:
Lectionary for Holy Saturday:
Holy Week - Good Friday - Friday, April 15: The Rev. Aaron Rogers
The Rev. Aaron Rogers serves as the Associate to the Rector at Trinity Episcopal Church in the Central West End of St. Louis. He offers this reflection on the challenges of Good Friday:
Lectionary for Good Friday:
Holy Week - Maundy Thursday - Thursday, April 14: The Rev. Michaelene Miller
The Rev. Michaelene Miller serves as the director of the Deaconess Anne House, the St. Louis branch of the Episcopal Service Corps. She offers this reflection for Maundy Thursday:
Lectionary for Maundy Thursday:
Holy Week - Holy Wednesday - Wednesday, April 13: The Rev. Deacon Patricia Peets
The Rev. Deacon Patricia Peets serves at Trinity Episcopal Church in St. James. She offers today's reflection:
Lectionary for Holy Wednesday:
Holy Week - Holy Tuesday - Tuesday, April 12: The Rev. Sujanna Raj
The Rev. Sujanna Raj is a pastor at Faith Christian Church of India in Ballwin and Associate Priest at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Webster Groves. She offers today's Holy Week reflection:
Lectionary for Holy Tuesday:
Holy Week - Holy Monday - Monday, April 11: The Rev. Bill Nesbit
The Rev. Bill Nesbit is the Priest-in-Charge at Grace Episcopal Church in Jefferson City. He offers this reflection on today's Holy Week lectionary:
Monday in Holy Week:
Holy Week - Palm Sunday - Sunday, April 10: The Rev. Laurie Anzilotti
The Rev. Laurie Anzilotti is the Vicar of St. Francis Episcopal Church in Eureka. She offers this reflection on today's readings:
The Liturgy of the Palms
The Liturgy of the Word
Saturday, April 9: Joshua Smith
Joshua Smith is a ministry intern at Christ Episcopal Church in Cape Girardeau and discerning a call to ordination. He shares this Lenten reflection from Luke today:
I grew up in the Ozark foothills, surrounded by forests so thick the light couldn’t get in.
When I was a kid, I remember wandering these backwoods with my friends Ben and Jonas, scrambling over ancient rocks and trees, crawling through creek beds and getting stuck in the mud. There was magic in the woods, and there was just no telling what we might find out there in the wild.
But there was a catch: Ben and Jonas’s parents had a giant school bell in their front yard, and whenever we heard that bell ringing, we knew that it was time to drop whatever we were doing and come home.
Luke tells us that even before the start of his public ministry, Jesus faced impossibly hard choices in the wilderness; choices between deprivation and sustenance, between risk and personal safety, between public influence and quiet anonymity. This Lent, if you find yourself scrambling through your own wilderness, if you find yourself lost and weary and covered in mud and facing difficult decisions, may you hear the voice of the One who goes before us ringing clearly in your ears, calling and guiding you back where you belong.
Amen.
Friday, April 8: Aaron Rogers
Aaron Rogers is serving as the Associate Rector at Trinity Episcopal Church in the Central West End of St. Louis while he completes the ordination process in the Episcopal Church. He offers this Lenten reflection:
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, *abides under the shadow of the Almighty.
He shall say to the Lord," You are my refuge and my stronghold, *my God in whom I put my trust.
-The opening to Psalm 91
The word dwell has a couple of interesting definitions. To dwell can mean to live in or at a specific place. It can also mean the regular pause in the motion of a machine. Dwell. When the psalmist encourages us to dwell in the shelter of the Most High. I think the psalmist’s definition covers these two camps. In the midst of a busy life, the psalmist invites us to rest and pause, to halt the endless automation of busyness and take stock of the possibilities of life when we place our trust in God. When we trust in God the vicissitudes of life are no match for the changelessness of God. Plagues are stayed. Dangers are safe enough to be treaded upon. Angels are at our call and catch us before we stumble. Trust in God, in something bigger than ourselves, is the net that holds together the clash and clatter of humanity. It gives us peace in times of war and hope in times of fear. Pause, the psalmist shouts at us and trust. The second encouragement from the psalmist is almost a challenge. She challenges us to make this trust in God our home, our habitation, our dwelling place. Take up residence in the arms of God the Psalmist seems to say. When I think of home, I think of the place that I return to again and again for nourishment for love and for grace. During this Lenten season I commend to you this work to find within your heart the place to trust in God and then to stay there awhile. Returning to it again and again when you feel drained, dismayed, and or deterred. Take off your weary shoes. take off your worn-out soles, take off your weather-beaten hat, and rest here under the shadow of the Almighty.
Wednesday, April 6: Loretta Go
Loretta Go is serving as a seminarian intern at the Episcopal Church of the Holy Communion while she makes her way through the discernment process to ordination. She shares this Lenten reflection on Luke 4:1-13:
Luke’s account of how Jesus became filled with the Holy Spirit and was led into the wilderness to face temptation -- has much to offer us as we begin our own Lenten journeys. Filled with the Holy Spirit at baptism, we go about our daily lives intending to lead a Godly life and then somehow we end up lost in the wilderness. How I wish during the trying times I could stand up to temptation much as Jesus did…by sending the devil on his way.
The realities of fullness and emptiness, grace and temptation, are very much a part of all our lives. I encourage you to follow Jesus and use our times in the wilderness to reflect and struggle through intense soul-searching.
Let us pray, from the Book of Common Prayer:
Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan: Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations; and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Monday, April 4 - Mark Waight
Mark Waight is a member of Christ Church Cathedral in St. Louis and is discerning a call to ordination. Mark brings us a reflection on Luke 4:1-13:
After his baptism, Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread." Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone.'"
Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, "To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours." Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'"
Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you, 'And 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'" Jesus answered him, "It is said, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.
So, I was reading Luke 4:1-13, you know, the one where the devil temps Jesus three times in the wilderness and a lightbulb when off in my head. My key takeaway from this passage is that God is our all and that is good enough.
As I think about my own trials and tribulations, the moment I placed them in the context that “God is good enough” they all seem to fall to the wayside. In some ways, Lent is the period we allow ourselves to be tempted. We give up certain things to prove that these things don’t really have control over us.
We attempt to re-center ourselves that God is good enough. I don’t need that chocolate; God is good enough. I don’t need to eat meat; God is good enough. I don’t need to rule over the world, God is good enough. Our trust and reliance on God is good enough.
I have a good friend who also happens to be my neighbor. Whenever either of us are in a bind to fix something, we can always call on each other to help. Each time we work on a project, we end it with “it’s good enough.”
It’s a way of us acknowledging to each other that life goes on and we will not get caught up in perfectionism. Why? You got it. Because God is good enough!
Friday, April 1: David Luckes
David Luckes is one of more than 20 members in the Diocese of Missouri discerning a call to ordination. He offers this prayer, inspired by Luke 4:1-13:
God of the Wilderness
Help us to acknowledge that we’re bone-weary tired.
Pandemic, winner take all politics, long ignored racial injustice has us running on empty. We live in a time of dislocation, isolation, hardship.
Remind us that our sacred stories recount times like these.
Israel knew displacement and deprivation in the desert. The wilderness took away their illusion of self-sufficiency. In their vulnerability, they turned to idols and doubted your promise to care for them.
Help us to confess that we’re more like our ancestors than we admit.
We cling to an illusion of self-sufficiency, and, in our vulnerability, we’ve turned to demigods. We’ve questioned your care for us.
Remind us that you didn’t abandon Israel.
You walked with them, provided for them, made a covenant with them as you guided them to the promised land.
Help us to hear the footsteps of Jesus who walks with us today as you walked with Israel then.
Jesus knows our hunger, our thirst, our vulnerability firsthand having endured the wilderness himself.
Help us trust that Jesus is your living water who still makes deserts bloom.
Restore our hope, O God of the Wilderness.
Amen
Thursday, March 31: Valerie E. Patton
Valerie Patton is a member of All Saints and Ascension in Northwoods. She shares this Lenten reflection on Psalm 91:
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ as I reflect on this psalm and the designated verses verse 10 stood out for me which said, “There shall no evil happen to you, neither shall any plague come near your dwelling” and the word refuge. God’s protection became clearer to me as I reflected on a conversation with the late Frankie Muse Freeman (an African American lawyer) as she shared her experience on fighting for equal housing here is St. Louis. She was on the team which argued the Shelley v. Kraemer case in 1948. This case was about an African American family who purchased a house that was subject to “restrictive covenant” preventing people of Negro race from occupying the property.
She shared with me much pain, suffering as well as pride as she and her family experienced death threats, destruction of personal property, and nasty slurs and looks. Her faith sustained her as she continued to move forward as the case went to the U.S Supreme Court after being blocked by the Missouri Supreme Court. God’s will was done! We are to fulfill God’s purposes and He will protect us as we do His will in His way! How does God’s protection give your strength?
Wednesday, March 30 - Erin Pickersgill
Erin Pickersgill is discerning a call to ordination. She offers this Lenten reflection:
Recently I led a Sunday service at a rural church in Nottinghamshire, where I live. I was new there, and I didn’t know the ropes. And I made a big mistake. I confidently and wrongly announced our first hymn number! The organist started playing one song, and the congregation started to sing “Once in Royal david’s city” - in February.
In Romans 10, St. Paul is noticing that kind of disconnect, except he’s talking about the heart and the mouth. Lent’s a great time to talk about mouths and hearts. I imagine the heart and the mouth connected as if by a string, and at each end - a bell. It is inevitable that one when one end rings, the other does too. They cannot act independently.
And yet, when I do pretend as if they are not connected, I get sick. This is my experience - is it yours?
Sometimes we can lie to ourselves that we can live one reality on the outside - led carefully by what we say from our mouths; and another private reality in our deepest place of knowing - our heart.
Jesus himself invites us into the season of Lent, in love, to consider this precious part of our humanity - how do we honor that string that holds, on either end, our heart and our mouth?
Tuesday, March 29: Parker Williams
Parker Williams from Holy Cross in Poplar Bluff is discerning his call to ordination. He offers this Lenten reflection on Luke 4:1-13:
One of my favorite paintings is Christ in the Desert painted in 1872 by Ivan Kramskoi.
It depicts Jesus not in a heroic, victorious battle with the notorious enemy with a pitchfork. Instead, he is pictured in a stark, stony wilderness. Somber, he appears tormented in an internal battle of will, not an external argument with the tempter.
I get the sense from the painting that the voice of the devil appears within the heart of Jesus, and he must face the test in that most challenging of human arenas. The temptations are a series of options as to how he can get the things he needs and deserves. Jesus is wrestling not so much with whether he was the Messiah (vs. 3 could be read “since”), but what kind of messiah he would be.
The wilderness is a place free from distractions. Lent is our opportunity to again follow where Jesus has led, in this case, an honest wrestling with our broken attempts to get what we need.
Do we have what it takes to embark in that dark direction?
No.
But he does.
My prayer in this season of willing wilderness, in the testing of our heart, is that we can learn that it is safe to trust him for our needs.
Monday, March 28: Darlene Hillier
Discerner Darlene Hillier offers this Lenten Reflection from Luke 4:1-13:
Prepare, pray, rise to the call and know the story to share with one and all. Resist the temptation to be self serving and rise above the damnation to serve all of creation. Do not put the Lord your God to the test but rather seek shelter and rest so that you may be your best. Know that when times are tough that you are enough and can show the world your light even on the darkest night. Let the Love of God guide your light as you rise above the fray of each day as you choose to trust in him and walk in his way. Know that you are God’s own and that you must not live by bread alone. Prepare, pray and rise to resist the temptation to achieve greatness through bullying, cheating or deception. Show the world your light by serving all of creation and demonstrating that Love is not the exception. But through the Love of Jesus we can face the worldly temptations of daily life as we prepare, pray and rise above the strife so that we can all say Satan not today.
March 25: Josephine Ezenwa
Discerner Josephene Ezenwa offers this reflection on Luke 4:1-13:
We remember after Jesus’ baptism; He was led to be tempted by devil.
We remember His crucifixion on the cross.
We remember the Love of God that is poured out through Jesus on the cross.
We remember Satan’s role in His death.
We remember Jesus defeated death, resurrection that brings Eternal life to humankind.
We thank God for Lenten season, as we prepare to renew our faith; and deeper our relationship with Jesus.
We thank God for Jesus showing us the way to “Worship the Lord God and serve only Him.”
In reflection, we prepare our minds and souls in prayers, fasting, giving, and fellowship with others during Lenten season.
Gracious and most Merciful God,
Creator of the Universe. The Giver of life,
You made us in your own image,
That when we sin against You.
You never give up on us because You Love us so much.
You send Your Devine One, Jesus to die for us,
That we may be saved.
Thank you, God, that we have answered your call into fellowship with Jesus. Thank you, that Your grace saves us through the Love of Jesus and our sins are forgiven.
Thursday, March 24: Benjamin Prieto
Discerner Benjamin Prieto offers this poetic reflection on Dueteronomy 26:1-11:
we suffer like our ancestors in a land that keeps us close,
each generation tastes of the fruit of God but does not fill,
for She is reserved in His giving for reasons They know,
the more we seek the more we’re sought,
that’s what we’re told by priests who
try to fill the dissonance we speak,
but that’s not how we’re taught,
because we oppress, and we are fraught,
over milk and honey that isn’t just ours,
She tells us not to worry but we worry all the same,
we are human, we are flawed, and once we accept this,
we can finally eat full in the land that He gave us,
where we will be the ancestors to those who will suffer,
wondering if their fruit will taste the same.
Wednesday, March 23: Bethann Rohlfing
Bethann Rolfing offers today's Lenten reflection on Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16.
I love reading Psalm 91 during Compline. This Psalm is such a reminder to me of the peace and protection that the Lord has provided me. He is my shelter, my refuge and my fortress. I have been told that this psalm accompanied many soldiers when they went to war. I found comfort in this psalm as a mother of a chronically ill child. I put my trust in the Lord and in his promises, I found peace. I believe that the Lord is my refuge and my fortress. I trust that he will protect me from evil and danger. Why do I trust? I trust because of his promises to deliver and protect those who love him. He promised to answer those who know him and call his name. He has promised to be with us and rescue us in times of trouble. He promises us a satisfying long life and salvation and our salvation is in fact made up of these promises. This psalm makes me think of grace. We receive so much from our Lord and at what cost? We only need to believe!
Gracious Lord, As Lent begins remind us of your promises to be with us always. Amen.
Monday, March 21: Janice Nihill
Janice Nihill offers this reflection on Deuteronomy 16:1-11:
A Blessing for Returning
- a reflection on Deuteronomy 16:1-11
When you’ve been in the wilderness
that place where the flame
that burns within you is just enough
to illumine your steps
and stars constellate the inky black sky
and all around you is the swirling mystery of genesis
it is here that you may rest
and realize that the place you’re in
is not the same as the place you once were
- that desolate and lost place of dry bones
here is wilder and stranger
than you could ever have imagined
and the Breath that spins the velvet night
is the same Breath that hovered over
the waters before time began
and then in the desolate place
whispered promises of returning
and still fills your lungs now
dwelling within you
fanning the flame of the Image
that you bear
and here
you may build an altar
and share your flame
as an offering
back to the One
who is evergreen
Friday, March 18: The Rev. Meg Goldstein
The Rev. Meg Goldstein is a Transitional Deacon at Trinity Episcopal Church in St. Charles. She offers this Lenten Reflection:
Meditation: Luke 4:1-13
Inspired by @blackliturgies
God of abundance, be near to us as we hear the call of temptation. We are weary of the ever present sin of this world. Your people cry out to you. Give us discerning hearts to listen for Your truth rather than the almost truth.
Encourage those who are lonely. Guide us towards connection. And help us to know that you are always close at hand.
Breathe in reliance on God’s provision.
Breathe out the lie of scarcity.
Breathe in faith in God’s grace.
Breathe out seeking external validation.
Breathe in basking in God’s love.
Breathe out saving God for Sundays.
Amen
Thursday, March 17: Garron Daniels
Garron Daniels is a seminary student at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. He offers this Lenten reflection on Romans 10:8b-13 (find the text below the video):
Our message from Paul today makes something clear to all of us, the need to both live into our faith and proclaim it aloud. You see, as Christians we are not to just believe in the death and resurrection of Christ. We are not called to just stand idly by and keep to ourselves with the knowledge of the saving grace of Christ. Instead, we are told that if we have Christ, his truth, and his message in our hearts then we are called to confess that truth and that message to the rest of the world. Being a Christian is not a private faith, but rather a public faith that calls us into action into the world. Our devotion in the Lord is not to just be within us, though extremely important, but also in all that we do.
So I hope you go into the world to live your life in a way that shows the radical love, mercy, and forgiveness of Christ and how we are to all confess what is in our hearts and in our very being; which is the saving grace of our one Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Wednesday, March 16: Jessica Wachter
Jessica Wachter is a seminary student at the Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas. Watch her video Lenten reflection here (text is below the video):
Who do you think you are? Maybe you, like me, heard this when you got in trouble as a kid. It’s also a question Deuteronomy 26:1-11 explores. In it, God’s people retell the story of who they are before God in the temple: We used to be few in number, slaves in Egypt. But God rescued us, brought us to the Promised Land, fed us, and took care of us. And the least we can do is give an offering and say thanks.
This Lent, let’s take on the discipline of gratitude, which reminds us we live not by our brains, wealth or luck, but God’s help. Let’s remember the ways God provides.
Maybe you were mourning a loss of a loved one when the familiar smell of her perfume came out of nowhere, God’s reminder she lives forever in the world to come. You were feeling lonely, but a friend from church called you. You were struggling to make ends meet when the person ahead of you at the supermarket paid your bill out of nowhere. Remember who you are, one who makes it by God’s grace, and thank God, your true source of life and joy.
Tuesday, March 15: Matthew Prest
Matthew Prest is discerning a call to ordination. He shares this written reflection with us:
As the Israelites step into the promised land, Jesus steps into the wilderness.
The season of lent is full of change and turmoil. While the Israelites rejoice in their deliverance from Pharaoh's tyranny, Jesus is left to suffer the trials and temptations of the devil in the wilderness.
What are we to make of our own journeys through this season? On which ground do we find our first step and where will our footsteps lead us?
The wilderness the Israelites journeyed through carried many of the same tribulations as the wilderness through which Jesus walks. Both journeys give us glimpses towards the suffering and deliverance at the coming cross and tomb.
As we discern our modern lenten disciplines and practices, take a moment to contemplate where the journey will take you. Keeping our gaze fixed on the hope of the empty tomb enables us to take each step through our own lenten wilderness.
In the change and turmoil of this and every season under the sun there is eternal hope for all who call on the name of the Lord.
Monday, March 14: Ryan Missel
Ryan Missel is a student at Virginia Theological Seminary and offers today's Lenten Reflection. Watch his video here; his text is available below the video.
Reflection on Romans 10:8b-13
If the walls of a waiting room could talk, perhaps they'd speak of feigned talks about the weather—or of whispers to God.
I checked my watch: just after 5 AM. As I was doing my rounds at the hospital, I noticed a young woman sitting in the waiting room.
Beige Walls. Old magazines. Lukewarm cups of coffee.
“I’m Chaplain Ryan: may I join you?” She nodded yes.
For a while, we sat in silence.
For a while, we talked about the weather.
“ But you know,” she said—“I’m here waiting for my results and I’m scared.
Her hand reached out: “Can we pray?”
And With a shaky voice, she whispered:
“Lord Jesus, I need you, Lord Jesus. I need you in my heart, Lord Jesus."
The first rays of sunrise seeped into the waiting room:
“The word was near her,
on her lips and in her heart”…
For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Amen.
Wednesday, March 9: Josh Huber
Today's Lenten reflection comes from the Rev. Joshua Huber, a transitional deacon in discernment to become a priest later this year. Watch his video here; his text is available below the video.
Out where the Spirit led
—A Lenten Reflection on Luke 4:1-13
At first the silence pressed in, fresh
if alarming. Then the inescapable
sounds of himself— steps, breath, a beating heart,
bones, muscles, joints—all grappled
for rhythm. At last, a long way (too long) on,
discomfort found a voice outside
the self. Too hot, too cold, too tired hunger
became a body as real
as flesh. Say, about bread, control, escape.
Repeated.
Repeated.
Growing bolder
persisted: you could be
miracle full, world ruler, stark divine
embraced by angels. Only,
forego, a while, the miserable.
He refused. Clinging to
the tattered sheaf of his soul, his body,
he let himself be left alone.
Finally, after all those fulsome offerings,
desolation: the sound of sheer
silence; deep darkness; wind moving;
filling the aching hollow
beneath his ribs—a spring of voices singing.
Monday, March 7: Mtipe Koggani
Watch Mtipe Koggani's Lenten reflection here. The text is available below the video.
Hi my friends,
My name is Mtipe Koggani, I am an Anglican Studies student at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia and a Postulant for Priesthood in the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri. I am glad to share with you this Lenten reflection today.
Luke chapter 4 verses 1 to 13 says, “After his Baptism, Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when it was over, he was famished.”
This passage reminds me of outreach ministries to rural areas of Tanzania I was doing with a ministry called God’s Kingdom Business when I was in college.
This ministry helped me to see people in rural areas who were fasting most days of the week, not because they wanted to, but because the situation forced them as they had nothing to eat.
Jesus did not eat anything for forty days. He, himself decided to do that, but there are people around the world who fast because they have nothing to eat.
As we continue to walk in this Lenten season, it is my humble prayer that we remember those who have nothing to eat. Amen.
Friday, March 4: Mark Waight
Watch Mark Waight's video reflection here. The text is available below the video.
Romans 10:8b-13
"The word is near you,
on your lips and in your heart"
(that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. The scripture says, "No one who believes in him will be put to shame." For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."
“The Word is near you, on your lips and in your heart.” What comforting words. Words so many of us need to hear, especially while we are still in a pandemic after 2 years. Romans 10 reminds me that God is there with me in my suffering. I am not alone, and you are not alone.
Who thought it would be this long? Who thought so many lives would be lost? Who thought there would be such division over the very solutions that would bring the pandemic to an end sooner?
There is so much about this pandemic that I do not have answers for. But what I do know is that when I cry out to God, God answers me. During this pandemic, there are three things that has been brought to the forefront of my consciousness:
1. I keep being amazed what happens when I let go and let God.
2. I seem to be on a “just in time” relationship with God and
3. I’ve come to accept the fact that God has a wicked sense of humor.
Each time I think I have it all figured out, I am faced with the decision to let go and let God. Each time I become impatient about getting something done, God makes something happen that makes me realize, I am not in control. It is in these moments, that I often sit back and have a good laugh.
I don’t know what the future holds. I don’t know what the “new normal” will look like. But what I do know is that God will be there. I don’t simply know this in my mind, I believe it in my heart. I believe there is so much we will learn about each other from this pandemic. As Romans 10 says, “there is no distinction between us.” God loves us all. The only expectation God has of us is to love back, love forward, and love all as God loves us.
Ash Wednesday, March 2: Bishop Deon Johnson