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.

I was recently at worship and noticed that the series of stained glass windows in the sanctuary highlighted several important stories from the Hebrew scriptures. What struck me about the image of Adam and Eve in the garden was that the only things visible were their hands, and the serpent’s body was wound around them like shackles, resulting in the poignant picture of what it is to be ‘bound to sin.’ As much as we try to become better, to be more aware, and to choose life, it seems that Satan’s claim on us as a world holds fast.

Yet the promise of Easter is that Jesus’ own act of righteousness – living a human life, suffering, and dying before God raised him from the dead – leads to life for all. How much is the struggle to live in this promise! Surely if the gift of God’s grace is free it should be easier, right?

As Pastor Jeff Poor says, “The Church is like a gym. It exists to train, equip, and challenge the body of Christ to live in light of the Gospel.” Perhaps this Lent we can reimagine how and why we exist as a body of believers, gathered together for worship and fellowship. How does our communal life equip and train us to resist the bonds of injustice and greed to live in the life that only Jesus can give? And the good news is that Jesus does give this life – no matter how many times we mess it up. He is there, waiting with arms open, to loose us – and our church – from all that holds us bound.

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