March 5, 2021
|
Dear Lake B Family & Friends,
In this season of Lent, you will be hearing from different voices in our community - offering weekly devotional reflections to encourage our own journey toward Holy Week, the Cross and the Resurrection. Our theme for Lent is “Beautiful Questions on the Way.” This week’s passage is Luke 15. In it are three different parables Jesus uses to teach about the nature of God’s heart to pursue those who are “lost”; the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin and the Prodigal Son. Thank you to this week’s contributing writer, Carrie Strawn. Also thank you to our contributing artist, Sheyne Martin who provided artwork of the Lost Sheep. May God continue to meet us on the way in this Lenten Season, Grace and Peace, Pastor Lina Gospel Reading for the Second Sunday in Lent March 5, 2021 Luke 13:1-9 and 31-35 Lost and Found It was gone. They searched the car, searched their luggage, but my mom’s purse was nowhere to be found. Her license, bank card, credit card – it had everything my parents needed for a 6-week road trip. After finding out that the purse (with everything in it!) was still at the McDonald’s where they’d stopped for lunch, they backtracked four hours to retrieve it. Relief and joy! The extra hours of driving were worth it to recover the purse. Would any of us have done differently? Jesus knew the value of recovering items that are important to us. He also knew our values are sometimes upside down, and we value things we’ve lost more than we value people who have lost their way. The passage starts out saying, “all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to (Jesus),” and the religious leaders were “grumbling” because Jesus welcomed them. He responded with three parables. The first two were familiar to his listeners, and his questions reminded them how they valued recovering lost things. Jesus’ third parable is the heart of his message; and this time he was telling, not asking questions. Two brothers had lost their way. The younger son took what he would have inherited from his father and left, spending all of it on wild living. The text says that he eventually “came to himself” and found his way home. His father threw a party to celebrate his return, but the older son didn’t come to the party and wouldn’t accept his brother’s repentance; we aren’t told anything else about the older son. As I listen to this story, one of my questions is: do we value things we have lost more than we value brothers and sisters who have lost their way? If so, what does that say about us? Thanks to contributing writer, Carrie Strawn. 
|
