Friday, March 31

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” (John 14: 18-20)

Do you know the saying, “My life has a superb cast but I can’t figure out the plot”? It’s a funny way to appreciate your friends and family while facing surprises that bring big life changes.

Major choices - education, children, mortgages, and jobs can define life as “points of no return.” Other plot twists are unwelcome - think addiction, living with chronic pain, or losing a house to catastrophic weather. Life can feel like it happens “to us” with turns like financial windfall, relocation, or falling in love as big points of no return.

Let’s think about how the author of the Gospel of John elucidated a point of no return for all mankind.

John recounts the death and resurrection of Jesus so carefully it leads us to see a startling new reality – an inseparable Holy Trinity. In the telling, Jesus is a sacrificial lamb offered the afternoon before a Passover holiday. It is different from other Gospels as a first-hand version of the Crucifixion. Surely, the life of Christ had major plot twists.

Seriously, God now dwells inside - n o t  j u s t  v i s i t s – believers? Did you say not just one believer like a king, a priest or a prophet, but ALL believers? Can you imagine having to explain that concept to the world for the first time? I believe they would still be scratching their heads and trying to defend such an outrageous idea if it were not simply true.

To people of faith it is self-evident, the indwelling, as we know a holy presence totally not of our making. The Holy Spirit keeps us inseparable from God. To believe in the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ is to believe in a point of no return for all mankind.

A life of faith is a game changer because from that point on, come what may, you are never alone. Think about how a loving God allows us to see ourselves in our own children as a beautiful demonstration of being inseparable. Life is good.

God’s Peace,

Vickie Schreffler 

Thursday, March 30

“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever - the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.” (John 14: 15-17)

God’s life-plan led me down the pathway of becoming a professional educator. So the role of Jesus as a teacher has been a focal point for much of my Biblical reflections. What does this verse from the Gospel of John teach me? How can my actions positively impact others and me?

The Gospel of John shows through Jesus’ teachings and actions that He is the Christ, the Son of God. John 14:6 states: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.“ This Gospel emphasizes individual relationship to Jesus rather than the corporate nature of the church. John 14:15 challenges us to show our love for Christ by keeping His commandments. While John 14:16-17 reassures us that although we cannot see or know him, Christ’s love always abides with us through the Holy Spirit, for generation through generation.

With that thought in mind, here is my “teacher” story. Teachers have classes, but teaching is about individuals. God’s plan seems to be for us to connect with certain individuals. I had a student, Courtney, whom I have remained in contact with for over 15 years now. She decided to become a teacher, and then God called her to enter a community of religious sisters in Tennessee. When I received her 2016 Christmas card, she told me she had been called to a parochial school in Virginia. The school, St Thomas of Aquinas, is the same school where my granddaughter, Katie, is a third grader! Wow - small world!! She is not Katie’s teacher (yet??), but they have connected. Katie says: “Grandma, she makes my day every morning when she says hi.” And Sister Mary Agatha says: “Katie makes my day every morning when she gives me a big smile.”

So how does this story connect to John’s Gospel? Jesus taught that His love and His advocate - the Spirit of truth - live within us and guide us. Whenever we share our love, we advocate for Christ; and even our simplest actions of love (something as seeming so small as a hi or a smile) are passed on generation through generation.


Sylvia Wadsworth
"Love takes up where knowledge leaves off." - Thomas Aquinas 

Wednesday, March 29

“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” (John 14: 12-13)

When Jesus says, “Very truly I tell you,” He means listen up and pay close attention. He is speaking the truth. What a fantastic blessing to us to be able to do the work of Jesus because of our belief in the Father. Take the risk, God will be with you. We need to strengthen our belief in God to do greater and greater good works. Pray to Jesus for strength so that through Him the Father’s name will be glorified.

Dear Lord,
Help me to increase my faith in you with each day. Help me to know that with your guidance, I can listen for your direction for the opportunities to do good works that will glorify your name. I pray this to you, Jesus, as my advocate to the Father. Amen.


Ellen Strickland 

Tuesday, March 28

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14: 6)

Dear Heavenly Father,

Remove all doubt from me of your steadfast Love, and provide me the courage and faith to follow you.

Protect me from temptation, so that I may keep your commandments.

Allow me to become a person of the beatitudes, so that I can see your son in others, not just those who I know, but especially those I do not know.

Empower the Holy Spirit in my heart and open my eyes so that I can see you in the leper, tax collector, prostitute, non-believer, down trodden, sick, hungry, disenfranchised; those souls who yearn for your blessing.

Protect me from indifference and provide me the strength to leave the fold, to reach out to the one who is lost, so that their heart and eyes are opened to your truth and life.

Use me in the name of your Son, to be a glimmer of light which shines in the darkness, countering the divisiveness, anger, hate, and sin which is so prevalent in this world.

I ask this in the name of Jesus Christ your Son, Amen.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.


Ken White 
St. Andrew Apostle Church 
Silver Spring, MD 

Monday, March 27

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going. Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” (John 14: 1-5)

In my traveling, I know where I am going but often have to depend upon other devices such as GPS, maps, or road signs and can get quite mixed up as on the trip I have just returned from. With our Lord’s guidance we will get to the place He has prepared for us without any trouble.


Ruthie Charlton 

Sunday, March 26 - Fourth Sunday in Lent

His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
(John 9: 2-5)

The two things that seem to be most evident in this verse are first, the question of whose sin is to blame for the man’s blindness, and Jesus answers, “Neither,” but his affliction allows the “works of God to be displayed in him.” Don’t we all look for someone or something to blame in times of strife? It seems to make the “bad” things that happen to us easier to bear. Maybe I need to try to see how God is using me to show His works through me even in times of strife.

The second thought I gathered from this scripture is that we should use our “day” to do God’s works. I believe this means that the “day” is actually our life and we should be working for God our whole life long. Then, at the end of our life (in the evening), we will no longer be able to work and can rest.

This reminds me of one of my favorite prayers in The Book of Common Prayer:

O Lord, support us all the day long, until the shadows lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy work is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then in thy mercy, grant us a safe lodging, a holy rest, and peace at the last. Amen.


Jeanne Pool-Coppage 

Saturday, March 25

“I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am who I am. Very truly I tell you, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me.” (John 13: 19-20)

This passage is taken from the Farewell Discourses in John’s Gospel and is recorded after Jesus’s washing his disciples’ feet and before he declares that one of them will betray him. The word “accepts” (some texts say “receives”) is repeated as part of the logic presented. But accepting anyone? Accepting where or what? Accepting into one’s home? Accepting into one’s life? Accepting into one’s heart?

As part of our Baptismal Covenant we are asked if we will “...seek and serve Christ in all persons.” I invite you to see a direct linkage between these two phrases. To seek and serve Christ in all persons is also to accept and receive Christ in all persons. When a gift is given us, we accept and receive that gift. And to do so, requires trusting in the giver or the sender of the gift. The gift of God’s love is ours to accept and receive. And it most often comes from others.

Lord, on this Saturday help me to accept and receive Christ in all I meet this day. Help me to accept and receive this gift in love, trusting in the giver, and serving you. Amen.


Tom O’Brien 

Friday, March 24

When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.” (John 13: 12-14)

The story about the washing of the disciples feet by Jesus is found only in the Gospel of John.

Jesus, by His actions, sets a clear and laudable example for all of His followers, including you and me, to honor and respect everyone. Washing the dust and grime of the road off tired and weary feet is basic first century hospitality. If Jesus does it, how can we, in our own day, do less? How can we not join with Jesus in leveling the “Heavenly” playing field, treating everyone we meet along the Way with dignity, respect and the tenets of the Golden Rule?

Almighty God, you proclaim your truth in every age by many voices: Direct in our time, we pray, those who speak where many listen and write what many read; that they may do their part in making the heart of this people wise, its mind sound, and its will righteous; to the honor of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen (From the Book of Common Prayer)


Joe Beckett 

Thursday, March 23

“I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness. If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.” (John 12: 46-47)

Live not in darkness, believe in me 
and see my face.
Know that I'm
your saving grace.

I come as light
to inform the night.
Not to judge you 
but to woo!

To save the world
planets, stars and sun.
All the people
every one! 

Great creator of earth and sky
Purge the darkness from my eye. 
Let not me judge
But make me light 
That I, too,
might save the night. 

If Christ came to the world as light, then I, too, am called to be light.

If Christ came not to judge, then I too, am called not to judge. 
If Christ came to save, then should I be saving, too?

Pat Wilson 

Wednesday, March 22

“Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” (John 12: 27-28)

Over the years I have learned a great deal about people and their families by being with them as they talked about dying or their beloved’s dying. Our dying has a way of focusing and revealing the parts of our lives we consider important and how well we have met hardship and failure.

Our Lord in his Gethsemane wrestled with dodging his “hour” or being faithful to his Father. As we do, he weighed avoiding approaching pain and isolation. He could have sidestepped it to our everlasting harm.

“Hour” has much meaning in John. This is not clock time. “Hour” means Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension. John will spend chapters 13 to the end of his gospel talking about the “hour.”

Jesus’ sorrow around his approaching hour involves the need for his death. He carries the weight of all our sins - since the beginning of time - every human failure to place God ahead of ourselves in his “hour.” Jesus carries the burden of every cruelty - all human disobedience of God.

Jesus also experiences the unimaginable wrath of God upon the sin Jesus carries for us. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” At Jesus’ Cross God takes seriously our sin and wrong. Jesus’ cross overcomes the separation from God that our sin deserves. Here we see the tremendous cost of God’s grace - the death of His best Lamb.

Jesus asks, “Father, glorify your name.” “Glory” over and over in the Old Testament shows God’s presence. God’s glory descended upon Mt. Sinai and came to the Tabernacle in the wilderness. Scholars have called John chapters 13 to 21, “The Book of Glory.” Jesus asks that we see God’s presence in His death.

And God said, “I have glorified it.” I will be with you and the world will come to know that I am with you.

As we approach Jesus’ Last Supper, his Cross on Good Friday, and his Resurrection of Easter these words deepen our love for him and show us how to move toward death and be with others when death draws near.

Thank you, Lord for “this reason that I have come to this hour” - to show the Father’s glory - God’s presence in your dying, being raised on Easter.


The Rev. Spottswood Graves 

Tuesday, March 21

“Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.” (John 12:25-26)

The Message Bible (Peterson) translates this chapter in a way that is more understandable to me: “anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and eternal.”

This reminds me of the bumper sticker: DO RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS! In other words, if we hold onto the things we value in the world and put all our hope and faith in that, it will eventually leave us lonely and alone. But if we let those THINGS go, and live recklessly in loving each other, we will receive the eternal love and happiness that Jesus was offering to us.

Prayer: Creator Spirit, help us to divest ourselves of the things that we try so hard to hold onto and instead follow Jesus’ example of loving God and our neighbors as ourselves. Help us to act with kindness and unconditional love whenever we have the chance and not worry about the consequences!


Carole Kimmel 

Monday, March 20

Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” (John 12: 23-24)

Death and Glory

If you look at the narrative in John’s Gospel, these words follow Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on a donkey, the acclamation of the crowds, and inquiries from Greek seekers. As we know, the political situation is also brewing. Jesus chooses to accept the course that leads to his death. Moreover, he predicts resultant glory, which seems unlikely at the outset, given the charges.

Jesus uses this teaching moment and gives us a metaphor of the kernel of grain, which must die in order to yield seeds and produce new plants. And, indeed, the metaphor illustrated Jesus subsequent death, resurrection and the spread of the Gospel by the dispersion of his followers.

How do we explicate this metaphor for ourselves? I benefit from this lesson in this way. Each of us is born as individuals into our moment in history. We can choose to further that individualistic trend, guarding our rights out of fear, separating ourselves from other creation, engaging in right-wrong “dualistic” thinking, etc. OR we can realize those moments that come to us, moments to challenge ourselves to reach down within ourselves, and choose the “higher way” of creative problem solving, understanding, respect and dignity for all creation.

Flowers will come. Grain will grow.

My God, I welcome your Spirit. May I discern my teaching moments and choose the better way. Thank you for your continuing presence with me. In Jesus’ name, Amen

Jane Welch 

Sunday, March 19 - Third Sunday in Lent

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” (John 11: 25-26, 40)

John’s Gospel, I believe, is to assure us that eternal life is for everyone who believes. John makes reference to eternal life and life over 30 times in his Gospel making it a central theme. More so, than any other gospel, John seeks to show that John the Baptist came to baptize Jesus and reveal that Jesus was the Son of God. To believe in Jesus is to believe in God. Jesus came from heaven to give life now as well as eternity. What does this “eternal promise of life” mean to me? Since with God all things are possible, the mystery of life after death is yet to be revealed. By faith I can believe in a new life here on earth, and after this part of my journey ends, a continuation of a new and different life with God and Jesus.

I have just finished re-reading our Lenten booklet for 2014 on “Reflections on Resurrection.” What awesome testimonies of “resurrection stories” appear there. I hope you all still have that copy. It is filled with belief, love, faith, and joy. It makes my heart leap for joy to know that so many experience daily “resurrections” in this life. That’s what John is stating over and over again as each story told lets us believe in the life Jesus came to show us with His love. The Samaritan woman believes, a man born blind sees, Lazarus lives, people filled at the wedding feast, sick healed, five thousand fed, an adulteress forgiven; is this not resurrection for those that believed?

Jesus’ message lives on in John:
I am the Bread (John 6:35-51)
I am the Light (John 8:12; 9:12)
I am the Door (John 10:7)
I am the Good Shepherd (John 10:11)
I am the Resurrection and the Life (John 11:25) I am the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6) I am the True Vine (John 15:1)


I AM THE LIGHT

Light led wise men
To the Light of the world 
And that life was the Light.

John bore witness to the Light
The true Light which gives light to all 
To have the light, believe in the Light.

I am the Light, He said, follow me 
You will not walk in darkness
But have the light of life.


Kaye White
I dedicate this to my mother, Daisy Ward Milleson, (March 19, 1913 – July 13, 1989) who knew and taught me that God’s love is for all who believe. 

Saturday, March 18

“Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”
(John 10: 37-38)

John’s gospel, (often called the “spiritual gospel”) is quite different from the three earlier synoptic gospels, being written in beautifully poetic and symbolic language. Its message was/is to encourage readers to believe Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God.

What could this passage from John be saying to us today?

Part of what I hear in this passage is “Hey, open your eyes. Look around you at – the intricacy of nature, the beauty of a sunset, the change of the seasons and the accompanying change in flora and fauna, “the vastness of interstellar space, this fragile earth our island home” - see the works of the Father even if you don’t believe Jesus. As for the second part of this passage, if as we have learned we are all united, all children of God, then surely, we are in God and God is in us.

Mary Lou Beckett

HYMN OPEN MY EYES

Open my eyes, that I may see 

Glimpses of truth Thou hast for me; 

Place in my hands the wonderful key 

That shall unclasp and set me free.

Refrain

Silently now I wait for Thee, 

Ready my God, Thy will to see, 

Open my eyes, illumine me, 

Spirit divine!

Open my mind, that I may read 

More of Thy love in word and deed; 

What shall I fear while yet Thou dost lead? 

Only for light from Thee I plead.

--Clara H. Scott, pub. 1895 

Friday, March 17

To the people who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8: 31-32)

There is a descriptive phrase here that occurs only once in Scripture: “the Jews who had believed in him.” When the author of this gospel refers to “the Jews” he is speaking about a group within the group. (Painting all Jews with the broad brush of unbelief has unleashed bigotry and denies God’s saving power among God’s chosen.) In this instance, the description appears to refer to a subset of Jews who had hoped Jesus was a particular kind of Messiah, only to realize Jesus was not the Messiah they had created in their minds. Perhaps that is why that grammatical tense leaves me feeling that their belief in Jesus is not so strong anymore.

The truth can set us free, but only if we are willing to hear it. This group who “had never been slaves to anyone” clearly forgot (denied) the reality of their time of servitude in Egypt. But more than that, they were trying to play a mind game with Jesus by speaking about literal slavery - when I’m pretty sure they just didn’t want to own up to a bondage of their own making: slavery to sin.

By trying to assert that they weren’t enslaved by any one, they were also refusing to admit that they could be enslaved by any thing. That’s pride gone bad: a refusal to acknowledge the need for God’s saving power (“grace”) in one’s life. No doubt this group felt that if they followed the letter of the law, they had done all they needed to do. Reformer Martin Luther had a lot to say about the problem of believing that we accomplish our own salvation.

The discipline of Lent can serve as a corrective mirror: to help us see our true selves with our shortcomings and failures, and to help us learn of our need for redemption. That’s a necessary dose of reality if we hope to truly be the people we are called to be. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, God, who is faithful and just, will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:8-9). Once we acknowledge our weakness, God in Christ will help us become strong - in witness, service, and love.

Lord Jesus, help us to see ourselves as we are, so that, with your guidance, we might become the people you know we can be. Amen.


Pastor Keith Dey 
Emanuel Lutheran Church 
Southern Shores, NC 

Thursday, March 16

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8: 12)

“Walking in darkness” conjures up several thoughts and images: being alone, scared, cold, in danger, not to mention more sinister images of secrecy, conspiracy, and ignorance. Once these things are “brought into the light,” they lose their power and hold over us. If we cling to them, they keep us in darkness and separate us from the truth, from God.

By keeping the light of Jesus burning within us, through daily awareness of - and gratitude for - his truth, we can move forward unafraid, no matter how vast and foreboding the darkness of the world may appear.

An excerpt from a Scottish blessing:

May the blessing of light be on you - light without and light within.

May the blessed sunlight shine on you like a great peat fire, so that stranger and friend may come and warm himself at it.

And may light shine out of the two eyes of you, like a candle set in the window of a house, bidding the wanderer come in out of the storm.


Jennifer Beckett 

Wednesday, March 15

At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. (John 8: 2) 

Jesus taught at the temple each day, touching on many subjects and urging the people to be alert and not to allow their minds to be dulled by worldly cares. He urged them to pray at all times for strength, guidance, and to keep their eyes on God. At the end of the day, Jesus would leave the city and spend the night on the hill called the Mount of Olives.

I suspect that Jesus would spend the night in prayer and communication with God. I imagine that it was a pretty silent night with Jesus listening to what God is saying to him. We tend to have some discomfort with silence. But silence is when God responds to us. And when we take the time to listen to what he is saying, it nourishes us and “fills our buckets” so that we may nourish each other and “fill each other’s buckets.” The hard part of praying is waiting and listening for God’s response. We may hear things we don’t particularly want to hear, but God is with us to help us bear those things. Listening is beautiful! In the third verse of the Christmas hymn, “It Came Upon A Midnight Clear,” the verse ends with the words “O hush the noise and cease the strife, and hear the angels sing.” That is listening to the beauty of God’s loving responses to us.

My prayer this Lent is to love the silence, listen to God, and hear the angels sing.


Kay O’Brien (1941-2016) 
(Kay wrote this meditation for our first Lenten booklet in 2010. Thank you, Kay, for teaching us still as you sing with the angels.) 

Tuesday, March 14

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” (John 6: 51)

John anticipates the institution of the Eucharist here with the saying about “living bread.” The effect of “life-giving bread” carries forward the theme of sharing Christ’s very being as we partake in the Eucharistic feast. In this way we become part of his saving act. “This bread is my flesh,” that is “my very being,” and that is what I give to you. As we receive the bread and the wine we become part of a world shaking event; an event which turned the world upside down.


Father Ted Bishop 

Monday, March 13

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” (John 6: 35)

We think of bread as one of the staples of life, both our physical life and our spiritual life. In the Old Testament, manna was the bread-like substance miraculously supplied as food to the Israelites in the wilderness (Exod.16). Today we often see bags of flour delivered to those in extreme need.

In the Lord’s Prayer, we pray ‘give us this day our daily bread,’ or maybe, our daily physical sustenance. We receive the Bread of Life in the Eucharist, our spiritual sustenance. When we receive the bread and the wine, we are nourished by faith in these symbols of everlasting life.

Collect
All that I am and all that I have are gifts from the Lord. May these gifts sustain me and those I love in this life and the life to come. Amen


Father Bob and Caroline Morisseau 

Sunday, March 12 - Second Sunday in Lent

Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” (John 6: 28-29)

The mantra “Just Do It!” is in vogue. Those commanding words are applied to everything from refinancing a mortgage to choosing not to do drugs. In some cases they may seem appropriate. In most instances they are utterly simplistic, particularly when applied to believing in Christ. In our verse from John’s gospel for today, Jesus says: “The work of God is this: to believe in the one whom God has sent.” Of course, it is HE of whom He speaks! And in this case, “Just Do It!” is an exhortation from the very heart of God!

The problem is, it is far easier to say than to do - much more a process than a one-time act, completed and done! When I answered that daunting question asked of me at my confirmation: “Who is your Lord and Savior?” the Holy Spirit blessed me to be able to answer with a resounding: “Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior!” I meant what I said, and I have never ever regretted it.

But, it was the second question and my response, which has been a continual struggle for me. The question was a simple one: “Do you trust in Him?” I quickly answered “I Do!”

Had I known then what I know now, I might not have answered quite so quickly! Because, saying we believe isn’t a “Just Do It!” and it’s done kind of business. It’s not all that simple. No! Because belief is not an intellectual transaction, it’s an ongoing commitment actively to trust and follow Jesus at every moment and in every situation in our lives! Daunting! Difficult! Impossible! Without the Holy Spirit it won’t happen!

We learn the dimensions of active trust in God most clearly when life reminds us we can’t go it alone and be masters of our fates and captains of our souls! It doesn’t take much: a stressful job change; a child going through a painful struggle; a dream dashed on the rocks; the death of a loved one; a divorce; worry over a serious medical condition. These days I’m thinking a lot about that rather impulsive “I Do” with which I answered the question, “Do you trust in Him?” I’m realizing that in spite of the way I’ve often thought of that question, it is a 24/7, day-by-day business!

PRAYER: Lord Jesus Christ, help me gladly to accept your gift of trust in you, day by day, hour by hour! Amen.


The Rev. Craig Peel 

Saturday, March 11

“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.” (John 5: 24)

This verse is seen by Biblical authorities as a possibly authentic saying of Jesus, while those before and after, i.e., vs. 19-29, are a theological exposition by the author of the Gospel reflecting the doctrine of the relationship between the Father and the Son which had developed by the end of the first century when the fourth Gospel is believed to have been written.

Since the earliest decades of a new faith growing within and separating from the ancient Yahwist faith, the central theological dispute has always been, who was Jesus and just what was his relationship with the single god - the great understanding of the Abrahamic peoples.

Over the centuries since, as the Christian church organized and matured, great minds suffused with faith have grappled with this conundrum and created many subtle if unsatisfying definitions and explanations as well as guiding creeds. And, in the process, sincere groups have broken from the main stream and created their own satisfying eddies of faith or even great religious movements.

For so long, God, however defined, was close by - perhaps on a nearby mountain top or just above the firmament overhead. And Hell was just below our feet. But the time came when the wits which God gave us humans exiled God from those nearby precincts. We learned of planets, galaxies and a universe of unfathomable dimensions. Where now does God reside? In ancient days, a god was god of a given territory; that other territory over there had another god and if you went there, you had to worry whether your god went with you. So, is our God territorial, just of our Solar System? Or, will he be with us when we ultimately explore the billions of stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way? How about the billions of galaxies in our universe? And, how about the possible billions of universes before and around the universe of the Big Bang?

Mankind will never know the answers. But long ago in simpler times Jesus said that anyone who believed in God who had sent him, would have eternal life. THAT is the central fact of faith!

O God, as we pass through this tumultuous life, help us to keep our attention on the great verity: to love God with all our heart, all our mind, and all our soul, and to love our neighbor as our self.


Richard Calhoun 

Friday, March 10

Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” (John 5:19)

In preparing this meditation, I read John 5:19 over and over and kept coming to the conclusion that this would be pretty simple; a clear case of “like father, like son.” Parents teach children a lot of things, sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. A father teaches a son how to drive a car by having him practice starting, stopping, and turning, and the son also picks up driving habits by observing how the father makes judgments behind the wheel. Like the verse says, “whatever the Father does the Son also does.” All done. That was easy.

Wait a minute....not so fast. We’re talking about a different kind of son, aren’t we? But wasn’t Jesus human? Yes. And no. We were all begotten of our human fathers. But Jesus was the only begotten son of God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father, God made manifest in human form. Jesus experienced all the same emotions that we do, joy and sorrow, pain and pleasure, friendship and loneliness, but unlike us, Jesus is one with God. So perhaps it would be more appropriate to say, “like father, like son... like father.”

As the Son can do nothing by himself, and he can do only what he sees his Father doing, may we remember that we too can do nothing by ourselves, and must rely upon God to guide us on our walk through life. May we understand that Jesus IS the word of God, and may we always stop and think about what Jesus would do as we face decisions on our journey through each day.


Les Hunton 

Thursday, March 9

So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” (John 5: 16-17)

How do you spend your Sundays? Hopefully you are working on this day off, but not “laboring” which often implies strenuous physical work. My dictionary takes a half page (in small print) to define “work” and includes purposeful activity, acts or deeds (a person of good works), works in art, moral actions (those regarded as just, merciful, effectual, etc), to acquire knowledge or skill at, for example. Sunday work, for most of us a day we can use as we chose, has many meanings.

Paul Hanson 

Wednesday, March 8

A certain man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, knowing that he had already been there a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I don’t have anyone who can put me in the water when it is stirred up. When I’m trying to get to it, someone else has gotten in ahead of me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” Immediately the man was well, and he picked up his mat and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. (John 5: 5-9 CEB)

In Jerusalem, near the Sheep Gate in the city wall, was a pool called Bethsaida—House of Mercy, a hospital. It had five covered porches crowded with people who were sick, blind, lame or paralyzed. Sitting among them was this invalid, sick 38 years, longer than most men lived in those days, an old friendless man.

It was festival time; maybe the Feast of Purim, 14th of Adar (March), celebrating the deliverance of the Jews from the plots of Haman, one of the most popular feasts, characterized by festive rejoicings, presents, and gifts to the poor.

Jesus came to this hospital, not to the party places in Jerusalem. So often he went where people were, where hurting people happened to be. And among all the people there he saw one man. Really saw him. And already knew what was hurting him. Not just the paralysis, not just the aged, but the friendless, the uncared for. And he asked, “Do you want to get well?” not “what’s wrong,” or “how can I help?” or “why are you here?” He saw and knew and acted. God knew and acted. All he wanted was permission.

What the man answered was his excuses, he blamed others. How often do we do the same?

But Jesus ignored that answer. He commanded, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” Immediately the man did it. I’ll bet he was shocked. I’ll bet the people lying there were shocked.

And in the passages that followed this excerpt, Jesus is gone, no one knew who he was. The establishment questioned how the man could be out carrying his bed. It was the Sabbath; no work was to be done. But he walked away, healed, and answered “the man told me to.”

If today someone asked you, as Jesus did, “Do you want to be made well?” would you be offended? Would you give him/her your excuses?

Sundays, pairs of your fellow parishioners stand ready to ask, “How may we pray with you?” With the scales on our eyes and deaf human ears we often have no idea of the pain in you or in another. We’re human, not divine, but seeking healing for our own. Will you come? As Father Tom sometimes says, “All should, some will, none must.” Will you?


Perry White 

Tuesday, March 7

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4: 13-14)

8 pints a day – water required to maintain our bodies. What does it take to sustain our souls? How do we access that spring of water? Getting older, that vitality, creativity and motivation, the feeling of lively possibility often eludes. How to access the promise of ‘a spring of water welling up’?

Intellectual exercise becomes part of spiritual exercise. How are we to identify the life-force deep in ourselves? Dynamic energy in those deeply lived moments? How to recognize that positive power in others and in events? In Jesus, per John’s Gospel, that life-force was fully present, dynamic and engaging. The divine creative force was at work. The impact was perceptible and palpable: mediated through Jesus, divine power changed for good the specific circumstances and entire lives of those with whom he engaged. Jesus promised this power to his disciples, ALL he encountered and through the Spirit to those coming later.

Jesus’ teaching, miracles and death give identity to this wonderful life-force, personal and positive. His lifestyle – a balance of worldly engagement and withdrawal to worship and pray points to the way we too access the Spirit.

Affirming the challenging presence of God in ourselves, letting the Gospel live for us as we contemplatively read, remembering the deeds and thoughts of the Church through the centuries, engaging with fellow followers - the community of saints, identifying wonderful people and happenings in the world. This inspires and connects one to the life-force and motivates us to making the Kingdom present, the creation splendid.

Of course, it is good to drink water and walk, Jesus did a lot of that – it was part of His being, too!

“Lord, Well up within us and let us overflow with your gracious being.”



Lilias Morrison 

Monday, March 6

“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” (John 4: 11-12)

This scripture is from the story of Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at the well. His actions in this story are remarkable in many ways – he, a Jew, spoke to a Samaritan woman, and asked her for a drink of water. The woman, taken aback, looked at the water from Jacob’s well literally as something to quench the thirst of the family and their livestock. Jesus offered her ‘living water’ which implies a spring or active source from which the water flowed.

When Jesus told the woman that he could provide this ‘living water’ that would quench her thirst forever, she asks how he will get it, since he has no bucket to draw from the deep well.

When we are quenched by the ‘living water’ and live into the Spirit that it represents, we will never be thirsty again. This means to me that I must give up my concerns about what others think of me and the material possessions that I hold onto as important in my life. Instead, I must recognize that loving my family and neighbors in the world is the thirst-quencher for true life.

Prayer/Meditation: Creator of life-giving water, sustain us with your love. Help us see that it is the spirit within that sustains us, not the material things

that we hold onto.

Carole Kimmel 

Sunday, March 5 - First Sunday in Lent

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water”...The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” (John 4: 7-10, 16-18)

I Have No Husband

I have no husband
And everybody knows
They hurl stones at skin already toughened by their words 
“Slut”
“Whore”
“Easy”
I live with my guard up
So when He asks me for water
A man,
A Jew,
I defend.
Not just “Samaritan;” no,
“Samaritan woman.”
Sexualized, dehumanized, ostracized Samaritan woman.

But His voice is gentle,
And devoid of disgust.
He listens,
He gives me voice.
Slowly I start to peel back the layers,
cleansed of the torment others have afforded me. 
Even when I say those damning words--
“I have no husband”
His calmness continues
and He continues
until my thirst for acceptance and understanding is quenched.


Lauren White 
Gettysburg College 

Saturday, March 4

“Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” (John 3: 11-15)

Jesus asks, “I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?” When I read this, I heard him asking me how I can hope to do the really tough things in life if I can’t even master the easy ones. To me, even the easiest types of faith are hard to come by. I can’t even drive over a bridge without thinking the people who built it didn’t really know what they were doing after all, and any minute I’ll be plunged into the water below, and certain death. So how could I ever develop a faith in something as abstract and endlessly complex as God?

Faith, to me, is belief, in the absence of direct evidence. If I never had it for a bridge, then what hope is there for a faith in God? The answer is in a word almost as powerful as ‘faith.’ In a word as simple as any, yet as deeply meaningful as a book of 10,000. For over 45 years of my life, I was as inaccessible to faith as the greatest doubter. Through my logic and fear, I had rendered ‘faith’ nothing more than a fantastical idea. But this one word was the key that changed it all. It was not only the path to faith, but also the keystone to its strength. The word was ‘choice.’ For it was in the realization that faith is a choice I make or don’t make, every day, that I realized that no evidence or lack thereof could ever take away a strength I found in someone greater than myself if I chose otherwise. There are some things we can never know for sure. We can never break them down, piece by piece, and analyze their constituent parts to see how they make up the whole.

So the decision to believe or not to believe in them comes down to choice. God is either everything or nothing, and the answer to which He is lies in our choice. The only question which remains is ‘What do I choose to believe?’ This question puts all challenges of faith on equal footing, from the earthly to the heavenly. It puts all tasks on equal footing as well, from the easy to the hard. And I have the freedom, every day, to answer either way. To make my life one of endless, meaningless struggle, or one of fulfillment and purpose. Today, and hopefully always, I choose to believe.

“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:1


Jeff Edwards 

Friday, March 3

“The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” (John 3: 8)

The screen door is banging in the winter wind. The Holy Spirit is saying: “Wake up, wake up! God is calling you to Him, renew yourself. Renew your love for the One who is always with us. Renew your love for your spouse, your family and God’s family, the world. Smile at strangers, let them know you treasure them. Welcome friends, not only into your home, but also into your heart.”

The screen door continues to bang in the wind. The Holy Spirit still calls. We should answer.

Dear God, please continue to show your love for us by sharing your Holy Spirit in the movements of your blessed nature.


Jane Strauss 
Catholic Church of the Incarnation 
Charlottesville, VA 

Thursday, March 2

Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want? ”They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?” “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. (John 1: 38-39)

Where did Jesus stay? I started to gloss over the scripture as irrelevant. “Where are you staying” and “You will see.” The passage could just be about a group of guys hanging out together at Jesus’s place for the day. But something about it grabbed me.

Possibilities crept into my consciousness and I began to ponder what this scripture could be about if not read superficially. Two elements to ponder are: (1) The words “where” and “see” can take on dual meaning. We live and think in a multi–dimension existence built on facts, reason, logic and understanding coexisting with a parallel dimension built on faith, hope and love. Faith is one way to describe the mental state we move to when we exhaust facts, reason, logic and understanding but continue living toward a purpose. Faith is that which fills the void when logic, reasoning and understanding evaporate. (2) There always seems to be a tension or force pulling at us to be logical or to have faith. The world of facts and the world of faith (the world of the tangible and the intangible) are forces that attempt to have us focus on the one and dismiss the other. The forces of logic pull at us to only do, see and act on what is fact, logical, practical, etc. The forces of faith pull at us to continue to reach for what isn’t logical, yet, but could be once experienced.

The word “where” can speak to a tangible location, but it can also speak to an intangible/abstract state. In the abstract, the word can be used both as a description of a condition existing in the present or a condition/state that doesn’t exist yet. The word see can mean to look at something (tangible) but it can also mean to visualize something intangible. The words are used in both the tangible and intangible form.

What if the followers in the scripture asked their question in the tangible, “where” (a location) Jesus stayed but He answered in a spiritual or intangible form? Did he respond by showing them a physical location or his spirit? Perhaps he showed them his place of faith, charity, hope and love so they would truly see, not just understand. His response: “Come, he replied, and you will see.”


Joe Wilson