We encourage you to sign up for the 40-40-40 Lenten Challenge, a challenge with our partner Southeastern Iowa Synod to participate in Lenten practices, including these daily devotions. Just signing up counts as participation! More info here.

What defines you? What defines your faith community? Or rather, who defines you? In the gospel lesson for Sunday, the tempter tries to identify Jesus as the Son of God by the acts he performs rather than simply by who he is. There are so many ways that the world tries to define us today: by your job, socio-economic status, race, gender, political beliefs, etc., etc. I think the tempter is even sneakier when it comes to faith communities, saying things like, “If you are a good church…” We could finish this temptation in so many ways, “If you are a good church you would have the best programming, perfect music, and bulletins, all your committees and council filled… But who, church, are we letting define us?

In the waters of baptism, God clearly names and claims us as individuals and community: You are God’s child. In these four words, we find the gift of life itself. Free from the burden of proving anything, you are allowed to simply be you – with all your gifts and brokenness wrapped up in the loving grace of God. In this identity you are empowered to show up fully as the person and community God created you to be, unapologetic and bold in your witness to proclaim all of God’s goodness in a world that would rather label, pigeonhole, and make you prove your worth.

This week, and in the coming weeks, listen to God’s voice for us and our faith communities, “You are my beloved, in you, I am well pleased,” and see how living in our true identity transforms us for the sake of the world.

Prayer

God, you call me from the ashes of death to live in the life of Christ.
Open my heart to listen to the voice of your Spirit. Give me courage to hear and boldness to act in those places you are revealing need to be changed. Broaden my imagination for what it means to be a disciple in your world, that I may more fully experience your love and grace. Amen.

Journal Prompt

Lent calls us to repentance, to turn from that which does not give life. This week I invite you to write or make a list of all that is getting in the way of you experiencing the fullness of life in Christ. What are those things in the congregation that no longer give life? Over the course of the week consider what God might be saying to you as you examine those things which hinder your experience of God’s life? What might God be calling you to let go, or leave behind, in order to create space for life?

Week One Devotions by Rev. Erika Uthe, uthe@seiasynod.org