March 17th anonymous reflection
March 18th reflection by Stephen Fitch
March 19th reflection by Dale Williams
March 20th reflection by Rodney Duke
March 21st reflection by James Lorello
March 22nd reflection by Alex Fischer
Boone United Methodist Preschool
March 17th
Daniel 9:4-10 Luke 6:36-68
Advent and Lent have several things in common. They are both seasons of preparation: one for the Lord’s coming to our home; the other for his return to His home. We tend to approach these seasons in different ways. During Advent we are full of excitement and hope for God is sending His Son to save us. During Lent we meditate on our transgressions and on the price God’s Son paid to save us. However, the actuality of both of the seasons is much the same. Jesus came knowing that his arrival would lead to the cross and in both seasons we are acutely aware of God’s mercy and forgiveness.
The prayers we use for confession of sins in our formal worship services are much like Daniel’s prayer. His confession is not of personal sins but of the collective sins of his people. It is a long list. One impact of confessing together is that it is “our” confession. “We” confess to our failure to follow Jesus perfectly. While I am not listing my personal, individual sins, I am realizing that I am just like everyone else. Even as Daniel prayed alone he expressed this connection to all his people and their disobedience of God’s laws. He listed the numerous sins of his people. Then, in the middle of the prayer (v 9) he refers to God’s mercy and forgiveness.
In Luke’s account of one of Jesus’ teaching sessions with the multitudes, Jesus tells us to be merciful, as God is. He warns us that our attitude towards others is the gauge by which we will be measured. When we confess, communally, we need to remember that we are part of the community. We cannot hold ourselves above it. Corporate confession is a reminder that in not judging or condemning we are caring for others as God has cared for us. And in our individual penitence we are not to thank God that we are not as sinful as some others. When we accept others and give freely to them Jesus says we will receive “a good measure”. What more bountiful gift could we ever receive than Jesus’ blood poured out for us? (Lk 22:20) Thus the response at the end of our public confession “We are forgiven.”
Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! (II Cor 9:15)
March 18th reflection by Stephen Fitch
Readings: Isaiah 1:10,16-20; Matthew 23:1-12
Jesus, like many prophets before him, had sharp words to say to religious folk: “They do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders” (Matthew 23: 3b-4a). Likewise, Isaiah writes “Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong” (Isaiah 1:16). Our faith must not be in word only, but in deed: the religion of, not about Jesus. We must remember his peacefulness, love, grace, and shrewdness. That he comforted the poor and broken and challenged the rich and prideful, but loved all.
In these forty days leading to the Cross and Resurrection, we must remember Christ’s lonely, broken heritage. First, as a refugee baby in a war-torn land, one who escaped infanticide, oppressed under Roman imperialism, born by a questionable birth, raised in poverty in the Palestinian badlands where “nothing good comes from” (John 1:46), Jesus is called. Jesus was not middle class, rich, American, or politically advantaged, but, given his low statue, followed His Father’s austere path of love and justice. This should give us comfort and challenge, knowing that anyone, anywhere, in any number of ‘impossible situations’ can be a humble and radical servant in God’s kingdom and find rest in it, even with persecutions leading to death!
Then, the Holy Spirit brought him into the desert for forty days. Wait, into the desert?
Yes, and during lent, we realize that we too, like Jesus and Israel, are all in a desert. We are all wandering this side of life, sometimes aimlessly, sometimes stutter-stepping, wondering what is the purpose of this life, who are we, and who is God. But, like Elijah, we learn that in the silence, not noise, is His still small voice (1 Kings 19:12). Like Paul, we realize that His grace is enough, because His strength is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). And like Jesus, we know that the “greatest among you will be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Matthew 23:11-12). Therefore, in silence, weakness, humility, and service, we are made strong, the greatest, and hear God. These values, which are diametrically opposed to those of our culture, are the simple values we can cultivate to follow the simple Way of dying and life, nonviolence and revolution, Cross and Resurrection.
Later, in Jesus last week of life, sweating blood and shaking with fear, Jesus went to carry His Cross. Let us carry our Cross everywhere we go. Let us remember our death we die daily, our baptism, and our thirst, hunger, and God’s providence in our deserts. Let us remember that Jesus had many disciples and friends; his mission was not individual but the restoration of all. God, let us not to be prideful, but humble, not Pharisaic, but faithful, not to judge but to serve, not to oppress but to love, and not to be violent in word, deed, or intention but peaceful, not to hate or condemn, but to even pray for our attackers and enemies, and loving them, even while suffering shame, abuse, or even torture affixed by three nails to two wooden beams. Easter is coming, Easter has come, Easter is.
Peace; Love,
Stephen Fitch
March 19th reflection by Dale Williams
Matthew 20:17-28
Do you ever want to cover your ears and not hear something?
In John 20, Christ clearly lays out the truth of his coming death by the hands of Gentiles. The twelve disciples wanted nothing of it. This was not in their game plan.
Next, Jesus tells his followers to be great in His kingdom they needed to serve others – to be slaves. Good grief!
The disciples must have been covering their ears. Jesus was not sharing Good News.
But as Jerusalem came near, the shroud, which has on many occasions covered the meaning of Christ’s teaching, is drawn back. The raw reality and cost of sacrificially following Christ is laid bare.
When I travel in a plane, I like to watch movies using my personal headphones. The over-the-ear cups, block out noise and amplify the movie’s sound track. With the headphones, I can be in my own little world, hearing only what I want to hear.
Towards the end and near his crucifixion, Christ’s lessons became more pointed, while the disciple’s faith and faithfulness were called into account. They needed to hear what the Lord had to say, even if it was hard to accept.
May this Lenten season be a time for us to take off our headphones to hear what the Lord Jesus has to say to us. His voice is infinitely more important than the movie we are currently watching.
March 20th reflection by Rodney Ruke
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into this or that town and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.” You do not know about tomorrow. What is your life like? For you are a puff of smoke that appears for a short time and then vanishes. (James 4:13-14, NET)
The words of James address my pride: I am but a puff of smoke. Two points of engagement come to mind. The first confrontation is explicit in James. Smoke is temporary. In but a moment, it has dissipated and vanished from sight. Like smoke, my life does not last long. I do not know if I will be here tomorrow. That thought does not frighten me. It focuses me on what matters most. It does not mean I should not make plans for the future. It means that today needs to belong to Jesus. That’s when the best plans are made. I want today to be a day in which Jesus plants a seed of the Kingdom of God through me. That’s a good reminder for me during Lent.
James’ smoke metaphor also recalls the Old Testament imagery of mist and vapor being compared to idols and idolatry. Mist, like smoke, offers no solidity. There is nothing about it on which one can depend. Such are the idols of life. God, however, is a rock, the Rock. A person should set one’s soul upon the Rock, not upon anything else. Anything else is mist, vapor. Setting one’s soul on anything else is idolatry.
That Old Testament association leads me to another humbling point of engagement. Like smoke, who I am and what I offer is not just fleeting but also immaterial. In my pride, I certainly tend to believe that I am something substantial. I want to be noticed. I want respect. But, like the mist of idolatry or a puff of smoke, I have no “substance” on my own. However, I do have eternal substance when I am “in Christ” — the One who loves me enough to humiliate himself on the Cross. I want to find my true substance in Jesus. That’s a good reminder for me during Lent.
March 21st reflection by James Lorello
Stonework of Our Lives
42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:
‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is amazing in our eyes’?
43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. Mathew 21: 42-43
This season of lent is truly the first I have ever participated in with my whole self. What I mean by this is I am not randomly deciding to give up Facebook, or forgo meat on Friday’s. Growing up Catholic and then transitioning through a time of agnosticism/atheism left me not really understanding what lent was all about upon my return a few years ago to Christianity. I found myself either not participating in lent because I felt it became a 40 day fad, or doing something just for the purpose of saying “I did it!”
The passage of this reflection is Matthew 21: 33-43, 45-46, also known as the parable of the Wicked Tenants. Jesus speaks in the passage telling a parable of what is to happen to Him. God planted a vineyard, leaves tenants to take of the vineyard, sends his Son and heir to return to the vineyard and we the tenants then kill his Son. What to me is key in this passage is “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes” (Matthew 21: 42), a reminder that Jesus, the one whom was rejected, is the cornerstone.
During this season of lent I am challenging myself to pray deeply about my life, and reflect on the fruits of my faith and works. Is Jesus the cornerstone of my life? How am I “rejecting” Him? Is God the very foundation of the stonework of who I am and what I do? How are my works producing “fruits of the kingdom”? How would our church community answer these same questions? It can be so easy to go through the motions of lent and allow our day to day to get in the way of God. Thankfully lent is the perfect time to dig a little deeper and ensure that God is our foundation.
As is usually the case asking these questions we may end up with more questions than answers, but I hope these reflections allow the Spirit to speak and work. Perhaps in our reflection we will find a few cracks, or need to replace a few stones, or maybe even rebuild from the ground up. I hope that during this season of lent we can truly reflect and let God into our homes for inspection, “whatever” the outcome may be.
March 22nd reflection by Alex Fischer
Micah 7:14-15, 18-20 & Luke 15:1-3, 11-32
It was spring of my freshman year at App State when I took a New Testament class; about halfway through the course we did a 3-class study on the Parable of the Prodigal Son. At the time, my faith was in a lull and frankly “weird” state. I had just come to college and everything I was so sure of in high school (I’ve been very open and “active” in my faith since I was 13) just seemed like it was barely there, if at all. I didn’t turn away from God, but I had definitely spaced out from any kind of conversation we were having. I felt lost. And then, I heard my professor (Ross Blackburn) explain this parable to us and all of sudden, I had come back to my senses.
We talked about how the younger son, by asking his father for his inheritance, was essentially saying, “I wish you were dead”. We talked about how when the son finally decides to come home, his father sees him from way off and runs to him. Back in that day, men wore long garments, so if the father was running, he had to lift up his clothes a bit to keep from tripping, which essentially was embarrassing for him. Before the son can even get a word out from his mouth, the father hugs him and kisses him, and when the son finally does speak, the father doesn’t even say anything to it and throws some new clothes on him and a ring. He’s so thrilled that he’s back; he has completely forgotten what his son said and did.
And so the same is for our relationships with God. All the time, every day, in what we say, what we do, how we act, the way we live our lives…we look at God and say, “I wish you were dead.” We harm and try to break the relationship. We do wrong. But no matter what, when we realize what we’ve done and when we decide to come back home, God is always there to take us in. We don’t even have to get all the way there; He sees us from a distance and runs to us (at the cost of shaming himself) and greets us with a hug and kiss before we can even get one word out of our mouths. God loves us, and always will. It doesn’t matter what our self-righteous older brothers might say (v. 28-30)…God welcomes us with open arms, and we have the True Older Brother (who told this story) to vouch for us and welcome us home as well. So if you’re feeling lost this Lent season and if you’re feeling spent and broken and all you want to do is just come home…then come on. God is waiting with open arms. Everything He has is ours (v. 31) and we can rejoice that His love will never fail us.
March 23rd
Boone United Methodist Preschool
This year a parent told me something that made everything I have done in this job worthwhile: “I believe God is using the preschool to bless my family.”
In this family, one parent is employed, and one parent has chronic health issues. The parents had called to talk about paying tuition. I assured them that because they were in special circumstances, we would not charge a late fee if they fell behind. We normally expect tuition payment each month but we would give them additional time.
Because the child, when not in preschool, is home with the parent who has health problems, the child does not receive much outdoor or active play time. Our teachers have suggested that the child would benefit from attending preschool five days a week instead of three, so I mentioned this to the parents. I told them that we offer scholarships to families with special needs. This year one family was helped with a scholarship for the amount of the difference between three-day tuition and five-day tuition. While I could not promise that our scholarship committee would approve that for this particular family, I did feel that I could say that we would help them as we were able.
We also talked about other problems that the preschool staff could help the family with related to the child’s preschool attendance and involvement. I assured them that the child’s teachers and our entire staff would work to accommodate their changing needs.
What a blessing to me to be able to offer help to this precious family! I felt so generous as I told them the multiple ways we could help them in their current circumstance! Not only is the preschool blessing this family, and all the families who participate in this program, but God is blessing us through our service. We are humbled and grateful as we represent His work in this church and this community.