A Lenten DevotionAL for 2015A collection of reflections on the Daily Office readings by members of the parish

Cover art: The Prophet Jeremiah, roof of the Sistine Chapel, Michaelangelo 16th Century

Once again it is Lent. While we may mark this time differently from century to century and culture to culture, one thing we have in common with that great cloud of witnesses through the ages is that Lent refocuses us on Jesus.

Lent takes us to the core of faith, not faith in the free market system nor in our political systems, not even in our own special priorities. Lent focuses us on faith in Jesus and that greater love of his that gives life to all.

We began our spiritual discipline of writing a Lenten devotional to share as a gift with one another three years ago. Each year it becomes our companion along the journey in a slightly different way.

First, it was a printed booklet and many people asked to copies for share with friends. Last year, it was once again available in booklet form, but it was also emailed early in the morning to everyone on our mailing list. I was told it was often forwarded to loved ones around the world. This year, we are adding the daily devotions on our Christ Church in Short Hills Facebook page. I realize not all of you participate in social media, but for those who do, this will be a way to write a response to a meditation that may have been especially meaningful to you. One of our writers last year said, “I wrote it, pressed ‘send’ and would have loved to have had some feedback, some conversation.” Well, here’s our attempt at a new way to draw us into connection with each other.

I am so deeply grateful to those of you who have taken the time to create this remarkable gift. This year’s readings come from our Daily Office and focus mostly on Deuteronomy and Jeremiah. Our authors were asked to lift one or two lines from their assigned texts and use that as a theme for their reflection. Those passages are highlighted each day. One person said, “What! Deuteronomy! Are you kidding? I don’t know anything about Deuteronomy.” She then went on to tell me that one afternoon she sat down and read the entire book. She argued with God. She argued with herself. She wrote her devotion and rewrote it. That’s exactly why this is so wonderful. It brings us places, even within our own hearts, minds and faith we may not have gone before. We’ve also talked about vulnerability as a gift within community, that is rare in our culture.

Thank you to our contributors for putting yourselves out there. Most of us are not professional theologians, so this can be daunting, especially in a place like Short Hills. But you model why Christ Church matters. We become a safe and exciting place both to be ourselves and to grow more and more into the women, the men, and the community Christ calls us to be.

Lent is not considered a party atmosphere, but especially in this season, for Christ and for all of you, I remain:

Joyfully yours,

The Rev. Dr. Timothy J. Mulder, Rector

Wednesday | February 18

Endurance is not a popular notion for anyone. But in his famous sermon on this passage from the Letter to the Hebrews, Gardner Taylor exhorts his listeners to, “Press on!” He repeats that phrase over and again: “Press on! Press on!”

But not without that which makes it possible to endure, to press on: “looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Over the next forty days (not including Sundays - the day of resurrection), we are being called to “run with perseverance the race that is set before us.”

This year our texts for Lent come from the books of Deuteronomy and Jeremiah. They are the story of a long race where the runners often thought about giving up, taking a detour, going in another direction, seeking another prize. In these readings God disciplines his people in ways that make us uncomfortable.

Perhaps that’s the point. When we consider how God has called us to live as his people, when we consider the things God has provided for our journey (everything from manna to eat to a great crowd of witnesses to support us along the way), when we consider what Jesus gave up for us all, not always being “comfortable” may be the precise reason Lent exists. It is a time of recalibration.

I was especially struck this year by that phrase, “looking to Jesus.” Think of all the things we set our sights on, all the running we do, the prizes we chase. Then Paul brings us back: look to Jesus. Remember Jesus as you run. Do not forget what he has done for you. It’s a long race, but “lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees…” Why? So, that “what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.”

This is Paul at his best, reminding us that all things work together for good when we work together with God. We stray sometimes, but Lent calls us back, back to looking to Jesus.

Lord, help us neither to give up along the race of life, but rather, to find our strength for each day by looking to you. Amen.

- Tim Mulder

HEBREWS 12: 1-4“Looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.”

Thursday | February 19

I’d always heard this passage as, “ I will be your God and you will be my people”. It has been a source of comfort to be claimed by God as one of his treasured possessions. However, as I reflected on this, I was struck by the phrase “you are a people holy to the Lord your God” The Complete Jewish Bible phrases it “you are a people set apart as holy.”

What does this “set apart” look like and feel like? For that matter, what does my daily life look like if it is holy? To paraphrase a current question, “if I were on trial for being set apart as holy, would there be enough evidence to convict me?

Is carving out time every Sunday morning to join a community of worship part of the setting apart process? Does participating in worship with the full expectation that Christ is in our midst and one day might be seen in the Eucharist constitute some part of the holy? Does believing in the efficacy of prayer and praying belong to the set apart life?

What about daily life, the daily commute, life in the office, decisions on how to allocate time and money? What are the hallmarks of being set apart as holy? Is there a check off list or is pondering these questions and trying to find the answers being set apart? How do I keep the holy in front of me as I live out my life?

God is wily. Rather than being able to continue to get comfort from being claimed by God, I now feel a responsibility to live my life so that I really am set apart as part of the holy family of God. How to do that will be wrestled with for the rest of my days.

- Sandra T. Johnson

DEUTERONOMY 7: 6-11“For you are a people holy to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you

out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession.”

Friday | February 20

On this third day of Lent, we reflect on a passage of Biblical life before Christ’s coming. God instructed the Israelites to have no pity for the wicked nations around them and not to serve their gods. The language is harsh and violent.

Reflecting on this sets a somber tone for Lent leading up to Palm Sunday and culminating in Easter. For without Christ’s gruesome death, we cannot experience his glorious Resurrection.

We are instructed not to pity the wicked but how do we reconcile this because each one of us is a sinner? We have parts of our personal histories that we may not only wish we could forget but that we may also regret and remember with varying degrees of shame. We are each personally responsible for our own actions. The burden of these actions can be very great.

Martin Collins wrote, “Repentance from sin is the difference between self-pity and sorrow. Self-pity involves no repentance, while godly sorrow produces repentance.”

Where is the redemption in this? My gift during this Lenten season would be to encourage all to recognize that there is a natural tendency to deal with life’s difficulties with a degree of self pity. Instead we should pray for God’s help and try to find a new focus.

- Tom Gordon

DEUTERONOMY 7: 12-16“You shall devour all the peoples that the Lord your God is giving over to you,

showing them no pity; you shall not serve their gods, for that would be a snare for you.”

Saturday | February 21

The writer of today’s text tells how the Israelites were disappointed that God did not suddenly and decisively deliver the Promised Land to them. Instead, God said it would be a gradual process.

Recently I promoted an employee to the position of manager and the young man wanted to know why he was not given a significant raise upon assuming the title. I explained to him that being appointed a manager did not make him a manager. His appointment was the first step in the process of learning to be a manager. He was promoted because he had shown signs of leadership in his current job and now he would be expected to build upon that foundation and develop in to a successful manager.

Sometimes we forget that life does not always deliver instant results even if we deserve or demand it. We forget that the little boy who runs carefree around the playground today once clung to the wall and could not be tempted to cross the floor unless his mother’s arms were outstretched ready to catch him if he fell. We forget that the mature woman writing her doctoral thesis was once the little girl whose biggest intellectual challenge was learning the alphabet.

When I was a teenager, our church youth group members once wore buttons to high school with the initials: PHP: GINDWMY. We did it as a conversation starter to invite other teens to one of our youth group events. The initials stood for: Please Have Patience: God Is Not Done With Me Yet.

As each of us strives to grow – “little by little” - each day in our Christian living, may we recognize and appreciate not only our own – but each others individual journeys: each one doing his own work, in his own way, according to his own capacity.

- John Debreceni

DEUTERONOMY 7: 17-26“God will clear away these nations before you little by little.”

Monday | February 23

There is a recurrent theme throughout the first several chapters of Deuteronomy where God communicates through Moses what he expects of the Israelites. The message is simple: Do or die. And he means it. Either do exactly what he says, including following the ten commandments to the letter or perish.

In this passage we get a little more color about what God’s motivation is in dragging the Israelites around the wilderness for forty years. Moses explains that God wants to “humble” them and “test” what is in their hearts. He lets them be hungry. But then He makes up for it by feeding them “manna” from heaven and ensuring that they have clothes on their backs and their feet don’t swell.

God paints a beautifully poetic image of what the Promised Land will be like: “a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in the valleys and hills.” A land bursting with abundance and prosperity “where you will lack nothing.” But of course, there is a catch. God reminds the Israelites that all of this is contingent on them keeping his commandments, his ordinances and his statutes. If they don’t, “so shall you perish.”

Thankfully most of us have not experienced the incredible hardship the Israelites did (unlike others in many parts of the world). But God gives the Israelites a particularly insightful warning that I think applies to many of us. Envisioning the Israelites in the Promised Land after they have eaten their fill, built fine homes and their herds and flocks have multiplied, God cautions them: “Do not say to yourself, ‘My power and the power of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.’ He reminds them to “remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth…”

When we are successful we tend to make it all about ourselves. We don’t seem to “need” God as much. Conversely, when we are “humbled” by life’s trials, God is at the forefront. Lucky for us, God is always there waiting.

Prayer

Help me to know what is in my heart and remain strong in my love and commitment to you in times of prosperity and in times of hardship.

- Linda Walker

DEUTERONOMY 8: 1-20“Do not say to yourself, ‘My power and the might of my own hand

have gotten me this wealth.’”

Tuesday | February 24

After wandering around the desert for 40 years, the Israelites are sitting on the Plain of Moab, looking over the Jordan River into the Promised Land. They are finally ready to take that last step into Canaan. They are ready to make that step of faith and fulfill the covenant God made with their ancestors.

I think Lent is very much like the time in this passage. A time to reflect on our rebellious ways. A time to repent. A time to step out in faith, follow God and stake our claim in the “Promised Land” on Easter morning.

It took the Israelites 40 years to make a journey which normally takes only 10 days. I can empathize with them because I too get in that “40 year mode”. Like the Israelites, I am sometimes doubtful, rebellious and stubborn. I think about how many times I’ve been inspired to do something and lacked the courage to follow. I think about the times I’ve been advised to go one direction and have gone another. I think about the times (and time) I’ve agonized over making decisions and lost opportunities presented to me. Yes, like the Israelites, I have wasted a lot of time doubting, rebelling, stalling and finding the “Promise Land”.

However, reading this passage, I also can’t help but think about God’s patience. God could have said “Sheesh people, 40 years? Come on, this is getting old!” But God didn’t give up on His promise to the Israelites and God doesn’t give up on His promise to me (us) either.

Lord, Throughout the Bible we read story after story about humans’ doubts, greed, arrogance, stubbornness and rebelliousness. We read about people sick, homeless, starving and murdering. We also read about your love, your promises and your patience. We still SEE the same in our lives today Lord and thank you for your patience.

Fill us with your Holy Spirit, that we may hear you, feel you and have the courage and faith to follow you. Take our sins of doubt, greed, arrogance, stubbornness and rebelliousness away and forgive us, that we may worship you freely this day. Continue to guide us as we move through this Lenten season toward the Promised Land, that we may see the glorious resurrection on Easter Day. Amen.

- Gordon Stuart

DEUTERONOMY 9: 4-12“Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness: you have been rebellious against the Lord from the day you came out of

the land of Egypt until you came to this place.”

Wednesday | February 25

In today’s passage, Moses recounts how God was angered by the Israelites’ stubbornness and rebelliousness, with one of their worst offenses being when they turned to Aaron to create a golden calf. God tells Moses of His desire to wipe out the Israelites in judgment and to start over again with a new nation descended from Moses himself. Fortunately, Moses is able to intercede for the Israelites and for Aaron, and God relents. Moses returns from the mountain and, in righteous indignation, breaks the two tablets of the covenant and obliterates the golden calf.

Reading today’s passage made me think of those times when stubbornness or rebelliousness takes hold of us, when we find ourselves with golden calves in our lives. We don’t always have a Moses to intercede for us and set us straight, and yet God finds a way to forgive us. We can take comfort in knowing that God’s mercy is waiting for us when we inevitably lose our way. As Moses earlier reminded the Israelites:

“For the LORD your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.” - Deuteronomy 4:31

- Frances Adkins

DEUTERONOMY 9: 13-21“Furthermore the LORD said to me,

‘I have seen that this people is indeed a stubborn people. Let me alone that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven;

and I will make of you a nation mightier and more numerous than they.’”

Thursday | February 26

In this reading, Moses dramatically and persistently asks God to forgive the Israelites, even though they disappointed and hurt Moses. He lays “prostrate before the LORD those forty days and forty nights.” Can you imagine? Face down in the dirt for 40 days and nights!

Moses asks God to forgive his people for their imperfection; their humanness; their stubbornness, wickedness, and sin. Perhaps during Lent we could model Moses behavior and pray for God to forgive someone we love and who has disappointed and hurt us.

- Suzanne Willian

DEUTERONOMY 9: 23 - 10: 5“Overlook the stubbornness of this people, their wickedness and their sin.”

Friday | February 27

I have a five year old daughter who does not particularly like to listen to authority. She oftentimes says “no” to the simplest of requests, the most basic of directions, like “please put on your shoes” or “please wash your hands.” She is busy doing something else, focusing on something else, or just doesn’t want to comply.

My husband and I have been scratching our heads (or more like banging them against the wall). What is so hard about just following a simple request, we wonder? Why does she have to be so stubborn?

Well, sometimes a request seems simple, but it so very hard to carry out.

Consider the direction given in this passage from Deuteronomy. I would guess that many of us have asked ourselves, what does God actually want me to do? What is most important; what is required? And this passage provides an answer: only to fear the Lord, to walk in his ways, to love him, to serve him with all your heart and soul and to keep his commandments. Simple, right?

Intellectually I understand each of these directives – they make sense to me, and they don’t sound unreasonable. But can I carry them out? If I am honest with myself, I would say probably not. At least not all the time, and not completely. Lots of things get in my way. I get distracted; I focus on other things; I get caught up in my own daily dramas - a lot like my daughter.

So the passage tells us to “circumcise the foreskin of your heart and be no longer stubborn.” To me, that means opening myself up and letting God in to help me walk in his ways. To remember that it isn’t always about me. It won’t be easy and I won’t be perfect, but it is a great thing to strive for.

- Michelle Lesperance

DEUTERONOMY 10: 12-22“Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.”

Saturday | February 28

In this passage, Moses recounts to the Israelites the instructions that he has been given by God on Mount Horab. It echoes the covenant made with Abraham in Genesis 13:14: “Raise your eyes now, and look from the place that you are…for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.” In the preceding passage, God also agrees to drive out all of the existing inhabitants of those lands, provided that the Israelites hold close to God.

I do not recognize this God. He plays favorites. As they say, history is written by the winners and I see this as an example of that maxim. The Israelites managed to conquer Canaan and Judah, so by default their god must have been pleased with them and also must have been more powerful than the god backing the unfortunate inhabitants of cities such as Jericho. Who was their god and what lovely promises had he made to those people? We don’t know; they were massacred, their cities sacked and their traditions lost forever.

If one accepts the Christian view that there is only one God, who created the earth and all of its beings, it is illogical to think that he would play favorites. After creating the Canaanites did God really come to the conclusion that he had made a mistake with them and that they ought to be destroyed? Was he so impressed by the zeal of the Israelites that he changed his mind about the other inhabitants of his civilization? According to Exodus and Joshua, that is exactly what happened, but I don’t believe it. It has the aroma of history edited by the winners.

This would all just be an amusing intellectual exercise if there were not millions of people that still believe that God gave that land to Abraham and his descendants. This belief that God plays favorites has horrific consequences, ranging from the destruction wrought by zealots who believe that God is working through them to the emptiness felt by those who think that God has abandoned them. I believe that God made no promises to anyone and bears no accountability for the countless actions undertaken in his name.

- Sam Reckford

DEUTERONOMY 11: 18-28“Every place on which you set foot shall be yours;

your territory shall extend from the wilderness to the Lebanon and from the river, the river Euphrates, to the Western Sea.”

Monday | March 2

In the first chapter of the book of Jeremiah, we hear of the prophet’s home and family. We hear about his call by God, which echoes those of Moses and Isaiah, and his first experiences of receiving a prophecy.

The words, “I will be with you”, are repeated twice in this chapter of Jeremiah. They come right before and after his first visions, which set the theme for his ministry as a prophet. God makes this promise again to Jeremiah several times during his active life as a prophet in Jerusalem during the last years of Kingdom of Judah, just before the Exile in 586 BCE.

We hear the despair of these years of calamity and exile first in Jeremiah’s continuing prophesies of oncoming disaster. Then, in Psalm 137, where an exile sings of weeping by the rivers of Babylon. In the prophesies and poetry of the prophet known as Isaiah II whose work begins “Comfort, O Comfort my people, says your God” we listen to the hopes of the exiles. During the difficult times of rebuilding Jerusalem after the Exile, God repeats the promise to the prophet Haggai.

The promise continues to be heard in the New Testament where Joseph is told that Jesus is to be called Emmanuel or “God is with us” at the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel. Jesus himself, at the end of that Gospel, tells us “I am with you always….”.

I find comfort, courage and support in these words. Many years ago, in a moment of great despair, I felt as if I had fallen into a well. Not able to sleep, I went out early in the morning. As I walked, to my surprise and relief I found God at the bottom of the pit with me. I knew I was not alone but had a partner at my left shoulder ready to walk along with me.

Faced with a difficult task I know that I need to do it myself. But in the doing, I know that God will be with me, providing me with a base to stand upon, a foundation. So I recognize and connect with Jeremiah’s dismay at being called to a difficult task and his relief and comfort in God’s words of support.

- Juli Towell

JEREMIAH 1: 1-19“I will be with you.”

Tuesday | March 3

From 1996 to 2000 our family –my husband, two children and I – lived in a Houston suburb. We joined the local Episcopal church, enrolled both children in Sunday School, and knew the real reason we went to church was “for the children.” When we moved here after Houston, our path was similar. Join a church, in this case, Christ Church, for the children. For whatever reason – perhaps many reasons – over the years, that focus has grown much deeper. The church and the church community we are a part of have shifted in our lives from a man-made thing into something fuller and more meaningful .

The difference between a whole-hearted relationship with a church community and the way we thought of church when we were simply “doing it for the children,” well, that could be akin to the difference between a fountain of living water and a cracked cistern that has long ago leaked its water into the earth.

I don’t remember going to a single funeral when we went to that Houston church and yet I have been to many at Christ Church. Yes we were younger when we lived in Texas and so we wouldn’t have had as many occasions to go … but that’s an incomplete explanation. In Houston, in our young-family-bubble, almost all our friends were other young families. Our kids were in school, on the soccer field, together. We lived in our cohort, a man-made and structured one. We didn’t really know anyone who was old, much less who might die. But in a true community, people grow old and people die and the larger community celebrates the life now passed with a funeral, just as they celebrate a baptism or a wedding. Together.

Jeremiah was understandably frustrated with the Israelites. How could they shut their ears and close their eyes to the wonders of God’s abundance and choose instead their small and limited lives, lives as lacking in nourishment as a cracked cistern? It is a frustration he might feel today looking out at our man-made towns and lives. The ceremony of shared experience, sorrow, and communion can give us a taste of that living water. But we have to be willing to step outside of our man-made lives to drink it.

- Cynthia McChesney

JEREMIAH 2: 1-13“For my people have committed two evils:

they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.”

Wednesday | March 4

The Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah: Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and played the whore there? And I thought, “After she has done all this she will return to me”; but she did not return, and her false sister Judah saw it. Shesaw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce; yet her false sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore. Because she took her whoredom so lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree. Yet for all this her false sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but only in pretense, says the Lord.

Then the Lord said to me: Faithless Israel has shown herself less guilty than false Judah. Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say:

Return, faithless Israel, says the Lord. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, says the Lord; I will not be angry forever. Only acknowledge your guilt, that you have rebelled against the Lord your God, and scattered your favors among strangers under every green tree, and have not obeyed my voice, says the Lord. Return, O faithless children, says the Lord, for I am your master; I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.

I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. And when you have multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, says the Lord, they shall no longer say, “The ark of the covenant of the Lord.” It shall not come to mind, or be remembered, or missed; nor shall another one be made. At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall no longer stubbornly follow their own evil will. In those days the house of Judah shall join the house of Israel, and together they shall come from the land of the northt to the land that I gave your ancestors for a heritage. (NRSV translation)

- The Rev. Dr. Karen Rezach

JEREMIAH 3: 6-18“A call to repentance.”

Thursday | March 5

Jeremiah was speaking to a people who had a covenant with God. But they were soon to have their country destroyed, and they would be carried away to Babylon. In addition to this, they were being ravaged by barbarians from the North, the Scythian invasion. His words challenge the Lord, asking what is God doing on his side of their covenant: “thou hast greatly deceived this people”.

The philosopher Roger Scruton in his book, The Soul of the World, says, “the God of the Old Testament is inviting us into the realm of the covenant with the promise that he too resides in it.” Our theology speaks of what God is doing instead of what God is; that is, God as verb not as noun. Here we go further, not just saying what God is doing but asking how we are bound together with God in relationship, in covenant. That is to say that we speak of two subjects, not subject and object.

But here one might be tempted to think of negating the relationship. J.L. Mackie in The Miracle of Theism asks: “Does God make the world a wretched place so that man will feel the need for religion?” Mackie is arguing that we give up on the idea of god. The title of his book is meant to provoke; he is not a fan of the idea of miracles (along the lines of the skeptical arguments of Hume). Well, we may reach certain contradictions if we try to reason about God’s power and motivations, but I am not satisfied with the conclusion that we should simply walk away for further engagement with the question.

So we ask with Roger Scruton: “The question ‘why’ is addressed from I to you. It is thrust upon us in those moments in the extremis when the order of creation irrupts around us. It is then that we cry out to God – who will tell us why we suffer, why we live, and why we die.”

Almighty God, grant that as we probe the mysteries of your creation, we may come to know you more truly, and more surely fulfill our role in your eternal purpose; in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

- Scott Chastain

JEREMIAH 4: 9-10, 19-28“Ah, Lord God! Surely thou hast greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying,

‘Ye shall have peace; whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul.”

Friday | March 6

Jeremiah is commanded by God to search the city of Jerusalem carefully and thoroughly. All he has to do is to find one faithful and just person and God will forgive the community. The vivid descriptions in the full scripture passage (Jeremiah 5:1-9) indicate the completeness and thoroughness both of the search and of the sinful behavior. However, no one is to be found. Perhaps Jeremiah has been looking at the wrong group of people. After all the poor are weak, powerless and do not know better. However, the rich as well as the poor fail to meet the test and have broken the bonds that connect them to God.

Perhaps Jeremiah has been look at the wrong gender? Over twice as many parallel verses that I searched on the computer in preparing this meditation (such as the King James – 2000 and 1611) use the phrase “a man” rather than “one person” or “anyone”. Until very recently more men than women (at least in western civilized societies) were thought to engage in the types of sinful behavior described in Jeremiah 5:7. Oops, I am getting sidetracked. Citing research makes this devotional exceed the word limit. But new research does show that human growth occurs within relationships.

Father Tim’s instructions asked me to “pray” the passage not “search on the computer.” Isn’t the point being out of relationship with God?

I cannot exempt myself. When I was young I was taught that God was a judge who evaluated everyone’s behavior. I had better watch out. Now my concept of God is more that of a friend who walks along with me in my journey – sometimes even carries me-- as I struggle through the difficulties and challenges of life.

I do not fear the destruction depicted in the passage upon the entire community: complete destruction by three vicious animals: a lion, a wolf and a leopard that will tear them apart and feed on them. I may fear other types of destruction, but not that.

Most of all, my concept of God is that of a loving and forgiving God. I am most grateful for that.

- Bobbi Engler

JEREMIAH 5: 1-9“Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem, look around and consider,

search through her squares. If you can find but one person who deals honestly and seeks the truth, I will forgive this city.”

Saturday | March 7

Jeremiah was a ‘true’ prophet, appointed by the Lord in the late 7th century BC to speak His word to the people of Judah (Jer. 1:1-10).

An English derivative word, jeremiad, is defined as “a long, mournful complaint or lamentation; a list of woes.”

Jeremiah’s ministry was to warn the people to turn away from the sins of the public officials, central prophets, and priests who had become especially powerful after the untimely death of King Josiah. His was truly the lamentable job of sounding the alarm of an impending doom at the hands of the Babylonian armies. His was a dangerous task, for the people of the time loved greed and profit.

Turn the page twenty-eight centuries to Governor Cuomo’s edict to insert an ethics clause into the New York 2015 budget – his response to Sheldon Silver’s actions over many years. Watch the portrayal of the mayor of a small Russian village in the movie “Leviathan”; read about the greed of a California vintner. The news is full of people of influence using their position to ‘waxen’ their pockets while the unfair oppression of many ordinary people continues. Are there no ‘true’ prophets today – or are they here, but we do not listen?

I will spend time this Lenten season tuning my ears for hearing a guiding voice strong enough to break through the noise that surrounds us today.

- Jane Derickson-Friar

JEREMIAH 5: 20-31“My people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes?”

Monday | March 9

This scripture passage goes directly against the commonly held belief that “showing up is 80% of life” (Woody Allen). Sometimes “showing up” seems to be the best we can do, but God makes it clear to the people in his temple that just showing up is not enough. He calls the people to re-evaluate their lives, their actions, their thoughts and deeds. He makes known to the people that He sees all, and that He is aware of the multitude of sins that they have committed.

God questions the people as to why they are “showing up” at all. This begs the question: If showing up really is 80% of life, then what is the other 20%?

It is an uncomfortable thought that our kind and benevolent God only wants those who reform their ways and actions to enter His temple. The God in this passage is angry and threatening, He holds us to a higher standard; to tap into that other 20%.

God is demanding life changing reformation. God is calling for a re-evaluation of one’s own life in order to consciously and clearly make the changes that will transform a sinner into not just a better person, but a more God-like person. God challenges us to make life-changing actions that will directly impact our lives. As in any project, “the effort you put forth in whatever you do is directly proportional to the results you produce” (Mark W. Boyer).

God challenges us to remember that “you cannot expect to reap a harvest that you are not willing to plant” (Yvonne Pierre). This is true with every aspect of our lives. It describes a value and a work ethic that we try to instill in our children regarding their studies, their success on the playing fields, and in their personal relationships. It is what we as adults have come to know through life experiences. Nothing can be achieved without hard work. It only makes sense, then, that in order to be accepted fully by God in his temple, we must continue to work hard at making ourselves better and worthy of being there. “Showing up” is not enough.

- Sallie Bunn

JEREMIAH 7: 1-15“This is what the Lord Almighty, God of Israel, says:

Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place.”

Tuesday | March 10

“Are you listening?!” How many times have I uttered these words to my children in an exasperated tone? It is not a question only for children, though. I have wondered the very same thing of colleagues, family, friends and even strangers.

“It is not enough to hear me,” I often repeat to my children, their eyes glazed and minds shutting their ears off to my words,”but try to do a better job listening.”

Isn’t that the same for everyone, though, myself included? I feel myself rejecting people’s noise, whether well intentioned or not, all of the time. I am busy, I am tired, I already know what you are trying to say so I do not have to listen this time. Or sometimes I simply do not want to listen and am selfish and stubborn. There are excuses that run through our thoughts when we simply do not want to listen to anyone else. We do not think that we have to listen.

On the day my mother died I remember sitting on the back porch of my parents’ home that afternoon looking out across their yard, the sun hot in the summer sky. I sat looking out unable to grasp what exactly had happened. I remember hearing her voice. She was telling me she was still here, with me, she would always be with me. I could hear her voice so vividly. If I closed my eyes I could listen to her comforting me. I wanted to hear her voice. I wanted it to be her. I did not want to shut out the noise. I wanted and welcomed it.

We have to want to listen to the words of God. We have to want to pay attention to what He is trying to say to us whether it is in our hearts and minds, or in what we hear at church on Sundays, and even what we read in the Bible. In order to go forward we should learn to open ourselves to the noise we so often ignore. We should remember to listen- completely and fully participate in the act of listening. If we want to hear His words, we will.

- Katie Foster

JEREMIAH 7: 21-34“Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people.

Walk in obedience to all I command you, that it may go well with you. But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations

of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward.”

Wednesday | March 11

This is Jeremiah speaking to the people of Israel, who have finally returned to the promised land after their long captivity. At last, they have settled in the good life and the good land…Gilead, a town renowned for a turpentine-like resin, known to be a medicinal balm.

However, like most human beings, once the bad times are behind the Israelites, their dependence on, attention to, and awareness of their covenant with God, sometimes becomes blurred and not quite so important. God has become displeased, and bad times are abundant. The prophet Jeremiah, rather sarcastically, tells the complaining people that, perhaps they should look to God for their balm, rather than to their good life or turpentine. “Don’t you have lots of local product for your woes? Perhaps you might turn to your forgotten God.”

I had thought to write about what are the balms that we sometimes turn to, instead of to God. The bartender asks us to “Name your poison”. Can we name our balms/poisons that we sometimes turn to, instead of to God? The good life can be very seductive and very distracting…not to mention VERY busy. Instead of asking you to name your poisons/balms, I decided to direct the question to myself. I have just lived through 4 years of sadness, loss, and momentous changes for the remainder of my life. Don’t get me wrong, deprivation of comfort was definitely not part of my problem. Indeed, except for the loss of my beloved husband of 47 years, I have never been more comfortable.

But there have been lots of poisons…shopping - Guilty, distractions of selling my home of 40 years- Oops, multitudinous details of designing and building a new home - Dear me, sinking into the mourning process/depression a little deeply - Gulp……all helping to distract me from my pain, but also distracting me from the truly blessed balm of the Holy.

Okay, so after that little self-directed exercise, I asked my myself what was the life saving balm from God’s good grace that I have received. First, was the love and support of my family…not only my personal family, but that of my Christ Church family. But most importantly, the abundant outpouring of grace into my life.

But just this week, I realized that the most important balm in my life is trying to be a co-creator in God’s magnificent creation….loving God’s children, caring for those who are less blessed than I, working to facilitate God’s work in this world (RUMMAGE SALE!), and taking enormous joy in it all. Believe me, I am no Mother Theresa, but when one has been given so much joy, how can one not share it….spread the good stuff around?

Okay. I’ve told you of my balms, both good and bad. Lent is a good opportunity for all of us to take stock and tell that sarcastic Jermiah exactly what balms we do have. Turpentine, anyone?

- Eileen Paduano

JEREMIAH 8: 18 - 9: 6“Is there no balm in Gilead?”

Thursday | March 12

In verses 11-24 Jeremiah is preparing the people of Judah for their exile in Babylon. He has repeatedly warned them to repent but they have not heeded his warnings and the Lord is about to “sling out the inhabitants of this land and bring distress upon them.” Catastrophe is about to happen and Judah is to be laid waste and its people scattered to the wind.

The passage ends with the prayer above that according to the commentaries was inserted at a later time perhaps to soften the hard lessons of this chapter. It conveys the pain of a people who have been judged and found wanting. It speaks of a people who find out they are not really in control of their destiny and are asking for leniency. It’s a very human quandary. I did wrong, I’ve been caught, now what? Dare I ask for forgiveness. Perhaps not, what I did after all was pretty unforgivable. Okay so it’s time to step forward and accept the inevitable but please, please, don’t make it too bad. “Spare me from a trial too great to endure.”

- Jane Houston

JEREMIAH 10: 11-24“I know, O Lord, that the way of human beings is not in their control,

that mortals as they walk cannot direct their steps. Correct me, O Lord, but in just measure,

not in your anger, or you will bring me to nothing.”

Friday | March 13

The prophet Jeremiah presents a strongly worded passage that reminds us of the relationship we have with the Lord. At face value, this reading makes us stop and consider the strength of God’s response to our wandering ways when we stray from the path of the Lord. But, one can also look at the language of Jeremiah and realize that so much of what is written here can be viewed through a metaphorical filter.

When the Lord promised the Israelites a land flowing with milk and honey, did the Israelites ever wonder, “Hey, what happened to that milk and honey?” Or were they clever enough to realize that God was metaphorically speaking and that the Promised Land would contain trees flowing with fruit nectar and well nourished animals fed from the agriculturally fertile land? As so much of the Bible contains parables used to relate broader philosophical concepts, we can also view Jeremiah’s descriptions of the vengeance of the Lord through this metaphorical lens.

Our parents brought us into the Covenant with the Lord at our baptism. We renewed that agreement during our Confirmation. We live the Covenant with the Lord every day by honoring God and the Commandments. As we honor God, the Lord provides to us the “land of milk and honey” every day so that we are able to live our lives full of God’s love. How we measure the benefits of the Covenant with God are all dependent upon our interpretation of the fruits provided by the Lord.

But as Jeremiah so vividly points out, there are times when we do not uphold our Covenant with the Lord and God delivers his curses. Will these curses take the form of the roar of a mighty storm, the olive tree in flames, destroying the fruit of the tree? Those who move away from the Lord will not find these literal symbols of the Lord’s curses, but rather will find their hearts longing for fulfilment that material and earthly possessions cannot satisfy. Where the Lord’s love once lived, a void will grow that cannot be mollified without returning to the Lord.

- Zach Davis

JEREMIAH 11: 1-8, 14-20“Obey me and do everything I command you, and you will be my people, and I will be your God. Then I will fulfill the oath I swore to your ancestors,

to give them a land flowing with milk and honey - the land you possess today.”

Saturday | March 14

I read this passage so many times and each time I was uncomfortable with is meaning. God tells Jeremiah to “go and buy yourself a linen loincloth and put it on your loins, but do not dip it in water.” God next instructs Jeremiah to go and hide the loincloth in a cleft of a rock. After many days he is instructed to go get it after it has been ruined by the weather and it is good for nothing. What a graphic image this is.

“For as the loincloth clings to one’s loins, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, in order that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise and a glory. But they would not Listen.”

Living life as a true Christian is so difficult no matter what era we live in. So often I am not listening or hearing or following God and I am falling short of living for Gods renown, and praise and honor.

Being honest, to many times I have tried to take ownership of my life instead of putting God first. We are his people, not our own.

We are no better than anyone else, although some times I think I am. This thinking is so judgmental, it is about Gods honor, not our honor. We should strive to be more like the disciples who acted not for their glory but so that Jesus became better known.

If we stray to far from our Christian values, there are consequences. Just as we would scold our children when they don’t listen, God will remind us that we have strayed from his path. As an individual, we can have some control, but as a society it is a lot harder to control our neighbors. Perhaps if we truly love our neighbors as ourselves and we praise God to others we might get more right. Like last Sunday’s sermon, if we just take someone else’s hand and lift them up the world would be better off. Striving towards this unattainable but transforming goal, is a major factor for my belief in God.

It is difficult to live thru but God will humble us and ruin our pride when we try to be proud or independent; just like the ruined loincloth. I have to remember to rely on God more, not myself. Being disciplined is painful and not pleasant but hopefully we recognize it and are encouraged and eventually heal and become at peace.

- Arlene Sommer

JEREMIAH 13: 1-11“Go and buy yourself a linen loincloth and put it on your loins,

but do not dip it in water.”

Monday | March 16

Remarkably, if one tried hard enough, one could actually connect this selection and a rather different Jeremiah, namely the bullfrog of “Three Dog Night” fame. (It is entirely possible that I am the only one who tries “this hard.”) “Our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things where there is no profit;” or, more casually “throw away the cars, and the bars, and the wars.” Obviously, the biblical Jeremiah is no bullfrog, but he would seem to share the passage’s concern with materialism and false idols. That’s the traditional reading of the passage: the consequences the Israelites faced for their worship of false idols. Consequences that stretched for generations. I see something else at work here as well.

God permits people to make bad choices. There are plenty of bad choices at work here. Take your pick: Walking after other gods. Forsaking the law. Vanity. And God, being God, sees all of this. Since this is God to whom “all things are known, all desires known,” as we hear each Sunday, their “iniquity is not hid.” God doesn’t stop them from making bad choices. I have a feeling that God, like any parent, would have rather seen God’s children make better choices. But, people make bad choices – and they, with their children, suffer the consequences.

What gets the Israelites – or, rather, us - back to God? Faith. Not hope, but faith. In the words of a noted writer on sustainability, Claire Sommer (hearkening to James 2:14), “Faith is active. Hope is passive.” Hoping that things will change, just because we would really like them to, doesn’t change anything. Having faith, and taking active steps to engage with those things that are important to us, living as our authentic selves while respecting the rights of those in our community to live their lives authentically: these are things that bring us back to God. Worshiping false idols is easy: they are glittery and sparkly. We can sit back, watch – and hope that things will get better.

Newsflash: sitting back rarely makes things better, and hope alone rarely gets us what we want. Even when we’re cast out of the land we know, we can use our God-given free will, and our faith in God and ourselves, to make better choices, to avoid the false idols and distractions. Then we will find our way back to those things that truly nourish our souls.

- Melissa Bristol Paolella

JEREMIAH 16: 10-21“Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us?”

Tuesday | March 17

When you hear the word Sabbath, what images are conjured? I think of Jewish people sitting in the dark. That doesn’t sound like a very appealing way to spend Sunday. Indeed Jesus agreed. In response to the legalistic society of his time that transformed the Sabbath, a day of supposed repose, to become an intricate labyrinth of rules, he remarked “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath” Mark 2:27. Though religion is the antithesis of permanence and immutability, this tenet has held in Christian faith to this day. From my perch as a layperson, The Sabbath is a nebulous concept not often discussed. Hence I am not surprised that Weber credits Protestantism with moving people to create enterprises, engage in trade, build wealth, and make investment.

Think of your life. Like many of us, you are on at all times. Maybe you are glued to your smart phone writing e-mails overseas during the midnight hours. Maybe you are constantly planning your children’s schedules and watching over them to ensure their proper development and success. Just maybe you find yourself with no errand to run or project on which to embark, and so you make something up to do, because let’s be honest at this point it’s a habit. That is why God created the tradition of the Sabbath. In the Christian faith it does not have to be a day with rules; it can be a church service, coffee with friends, or lunch with your loved ones. The Sabbath should be an unstructured, unproductive time when you take a bird’s eye view of your life and thank god for all that you have. It should be a state of mind that begins with putting away your smart phone and not looking at the clock, appreciating the sound of the breeze rustling the leaves, and connecting with the company at your table.

I challenge you this week rest for a minute and notice nature’s beauty. This Sunday sit down with your family, put all your phones, iPads and laptops in another room, and really let go of the burden of worrying about all of your foibles so you can relax and be present for the people in your life. That is how I think Jesus wanted us to spend The Sabbath.

- Simon Drake

JEREMIAH 17: 19-27“Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day,

nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; nor carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, nor do any work,

but hallow the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.”

Wednesday | March 18

In reading this verse and thinking about the task the Jeremiah was called to attempt – it would seem a prescription for failure as the people he was asked to help understand the all powerful LORD did not want to heed his words. They believed that they were in charge – not the LORD. However, in trying to apply this passage to my own life, there have been many times when I questioned myself and my motives for taking action believing many times that I was in control and not wanting to admit that it was really God in control.

When I moved back to New Jersey contemplating divorce and spent a great deal of time speaking to a childhood friend, I realized that I needed to let God back into my thoughts and prayers, not just superficially by attending church, but by having regular conversations with God about how I could let go of the bitterness that I felt toward my former husband and his actions toward me and our son. Like Jeremiah, the task seemed impossible.

The image of a potter being able to remold and reshape something that was not right resonated with me in my own quest to put my life back on track and I realized that I could not address my life issues without talking to God. Just deciding to change a course in one’s life is not really changing it. So, like the potter, one piece at a time, I prayed about how to proceed. My first step was to join a choir and listening to the music and sermons helped to shape my conversations in my prayers. Gradually, I began to feel at peace with the steps I was taking spiritually, personally and professionally.

In closing, a passage from Luke was the basis for a Homily at my wedding:

Luke 15: 8-10 “Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

- Paula Stuart

JEREMIAH 18: 1-11“Now, therefore, say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem:

Thus says the Lord: Look, I am a potter shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, all of you from your evil way,

and amend your ways and your doings.”

Thursday | March 19

Construction project, addition, new car purchase; Who among us has gone through a construction project, whether addition or new home, dealt with a car salesman or any salesman for that matter and have tried to getter a better price for their service? [Speaking for myself,] I always feel good if I get a better deal. While I enjoy getting a good deal, I would never go so far as to cheat or take advantage of someone for my own benefit.

In this passage, the Lord is stating, through an oracle, sorrow to those who take advantage of neighbors and or workers by not paying them their fair share. Using others to exalt oneself. The person who exalts himself in that way, will, in death, be treated like an animal and in death, and no one will mourn his passing.

My gift during this Lenten season would be for all to consider the other person. Be aware of those who do the jobs that we don’t do and don’t want to do. Show care and concern, just be aware of the other guy. It may make you feel better and who knows, perhaps it could be continued beyond the season of Lent.

- Alice Lurie

JEREMIAH 22: 13-23“Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness,

and his upper rooms by injustice; who makes his neighbors work for nothing,

and does not give them their wages.”

Friday | March 20

This is odd wording. Maybe I am being misled by wording peculiar to this translation (The New Oxford Annotated Bible) but here is my takeaway. It is not that we should try to shepherd others, which seems condescending to me. Rather, we shepherd one another, which is what makes us a community. Spending time with one other, caring for one another, this is what overcomes fear and dismay. “Nor shall any be missing.”

We are all “missing” some times I think, maybe a lot of the time.

Sandra Johnson roped (shepherded) me into writing this (“You are retired now! How can you not?”), but it is making me feel more a part of the Christ Church community.

I am enjoying spending more--and more relaxed--time studying and sharing thoughts with others doing the same thing. In EFM, we are (very slowly) working through Diarmaid MacCulloch’s “Christianity: The First 3000 Years,” which is way more fascinating than the title sounds. The compassionate and lively sharing is a big part of why it is rewarding.

Also, TV is consuming a big and expanding chunk of my time. I do think the best series are hugely enlightening. Alan and I just finished watching “An Honorable Woman,” for which Maggie Gyllenhaal won a Golden Globe in January for best actress in a TV mini series. It’s an 8 episode BBC production that you can see on Netflix. It’s one of those British thrillers with a super complicated plot that’s daunting to get into but riveting once you do. (It helps to read the recaps online after each episode to sort out the plot threads.) It is focused on Middle Eastern conflicts. There is much effort to solve these conflicts, in the TV series as in real life, which efforts are regularly mired in fear and dismay. But what does work, what does save people, are personal efforts to reach out and help one another--to shepherd one another, to ensure that no one goes missing--even when they fail. I highly recommend this series.

God help me overcome the fear and dismay of going missing, by being a shepherd and letting myself be shepherded.

- Alice Longley

JEREMIAH 23: 1-8“‘I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear

any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing,’ says the Lord.”

Saturday | March 21

O Lord, I pray to you for the strength to stand tall in your shadowless lightMay I be that unashamedMay I trust in you that completely

Help me to listen for your voice through the cacophony of voices whose words would lead me away from you

Help me to rid myself of thatwhich I have chosen to take on but do not need for the journeyI am on with you

Help me to hold dear only that whichyour light has helped me to find

When I stray help me to be burdenedonly with finding my way back to you

In a society that preaches for me to bethe master of my own destiny may Iremember that my destiny lies inmy journey with you

I do not wish to walk without you nor do I wish to travel a path you have not laid for me

O Lord, I fear your anger and surrender to you I acknowledge my impurities and beseech your forgiveness

- Benjamin Fay

JEREMIAH 23: 9-15“Therefore their way shall be to them like slippery paths in the darkness,

into which they shall be driven and fall.”

Monday | March 23

God showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the Temple of God. This was after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah from Jerusalem into exile in Babylon, along with the leaders of Judah, the craftsmen, and the skilled laborers. In one basket the figs were of the finest quality, ripe and ready to eat. In the other basket the figs were rotten, so rotten they couldn’t be eaten.

God said to me, “Jeremiah, what do you see?”

“Figs,” I said. “Excellent figs of the finest quality, and also rotten figs, so rotten they can’t be eaten.”

Then God told me, “This is the Message from the God of Israel: The exiles from here that I’ve sent off to the land of the Babylonians are like the good figs, and I’ll make sure they get good treatment. I’ll keep my eye on them so that their lives are good, and I’ll bring them back to this land. I’ll build them up, not tear them down; I’ll plant them, not uproot them.

“And I’ll give them a heart to know me, God. They’ll be my people and I’ll be their God, for they’ll have returned to me with all their hearts.

“But like the rotten figs, so rotten they can’t be eaten, is Zedekiah king of Judah. Rotten figs—that’s how I’ll treat him and his leaders, along with the survivors here and those down in Egypt. I’ll make them something that the whole world will look on as disgusting—repugnant outcasts, their names used as curse words wherever in the world I drive them. And I’ll make sure they die like flies—from war, starvation, disease, whatever—until the land I once gave to them and their ancestors is completely rid of them.”

In this fifth week of Lent, the text of a biblical paraphrase - Eugene Peterson’s “The Message” - is offered for your reflection. What jumps out at you? How does this paraphrase affect your understanding of the text? What response does it call from you?

In the last week of Lent, reflections are offered by parishioners, the clergy, and the Bishop of Newark.

JEREMIAH 24: 1-10“Jeremiah, what do you see?”

Tuesday | March 24

The verdict of God-of-the-Angel-Armies on all this: “Because you have refused to listen to what I’ve said, I’m stepping in. I’m sending for the armies out of the north headed by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, my servant in this, and I’m setting them on this land and people and even the surrounding countries. I’m devoting the whole works to total destruction—a horror to top all the horrors in history. And I’ll banish every sound of joy—singing, laughter, marriage festivities, genial workmen, candlelit suppers. The whole landscape will be one vast wasteland. These countries will be in subjection to the king of Babylon for seventy years.

“Once the seventy years is up, I’ll punish the king of Babylon and the whole nation of Babylon for their sin. Then they’ll be the wasteland. Everything that I said I’d do to that country, I’ll do—everything that’s written in this book, everything Jeremiah preached against all the godless nations. Many nations and great kings will make slaves of the Babylonians, paying them back for everything they’ve done to others. They won’t get by with anything.” God’s Decree.

This is a Message that the God of Israel gave me: “Take this cup filled with the wine of my wrath that I’m handing to you. Make all the nations where I send you drink it down. They’ll drink it and get drunk, staggering in delirium because of the killing that I’m going to unleash among them.”

- Eugene Peterson’s, The Message

JEREMIAH 25: 8-17“God-of-the-Angel-Armies”

Wednesday | March 25

“Preach it all, Jeremiah. Preach the entire Message to them. Say: “‘God roars like a lion from high heaven; thunder rolls out from his holy dwelling— Ear-splitting bellows against his people, shouting hurrahs like workers in harvest. The noise reverberates all over the earth; everyone everywhere hears it. God makes his case against the godless nations. He’s about to put the human race on trial. For the wicked the verdict is clear-cut: death by the sword.’” God’s Decree.

A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:

“Prepare for the worst! Doomsday! Disaster is spreading from nation to nation. A huge storm is about to rage all across planet Earth.”

Laid end to end, those killed in God’s judgment that day will stretch from one end of the earth to the other. No tears will be shed and no burials conducted. The bodies will be left where they fall, like so much horse dung fertilizing the fields.

Wail, shepherds! Cry out for help! Grovel in the dirt, you masters of flocks! Time’s up—you’re slated for the slaughterhouse, like a choice ram with its throat cut. There’s no way out for the rulers, no escape for those shepherds. Hear that? Rulers crying for help, shepherds of the flock wailing! God is about to ravage their fine pastures. The peaceful sheepfolds will be silent with death, silenced by God’s deadly anger. God will come out into the open like a lion leaping from its cover, And the country will be torn to pieces, ripped and ravaged by his anger.

- Eugene Peterson’s, The Message

JEREMIAH 25: 30-38“. . . ripped and ravaged by his anger.”

Thursday | March 26

At the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, this Message came from God to Jeremiah:

“God’s Message: Stand in the court of God’s Temple and preach to the people who come from all over Judah to worship in God’s Temple. Say everything I tell you to say to them. Don’t hold anything back. Just maybe they’ll listen and turn back from their bad lives. Then I’ll reconsider the disaster that I’m planning to bring on them because of their evil behavior.

“Say to them, ‘This is God’s Message: If you refuse to listen to me and live by my teaching that I’ve revealed so plainly to you, and if you continue to refuse to listen to my servants the prophets that I tirelessly keep on sending to you—but you’ve never listened! Why would you start now?—then I’ll make this Temple a pile of ruins like Shiloh, and I’ll make this city nothing but a bad joke worldwide.’”

Everybody there—priests, prophets, and people—heard Jeremiah preaching this Message in the Temple of God. When Jeremiah had finished his sermon, saying everything God had commanded him to say, the priests and prophets and people all grabbed him, yelling, “Death! You’re going to die for this! How dare you preach—and using God’s name!—saying that this Temple will become a heap of rubble like Shiloh and this city be wiped out without a soul left in it!”

All the people mobbed Jeremiah right in the Temple itself. Officials from the royal court of Judah were told of this. They left the palace immediately and came to God’s Temple to investigate. They held court on the spot, at the New Gate entrance to God’s Temple.

The prophets and priests spoke first, addressing the officials, but also the people: “Death to this man! He deserves nothing less than death! He has preached against this city—you’ve heard the evidence with your own ears.”

Jeremiah spoke next, publicly addressing the officials before the crowd: “God sent me to preach against both this Temple and city everything that’s been reported to you. So do something about it! Change the way you’re living, change your behavior. Listen obediently to the Message of your God. Maybe God will reconsider the disaster he has threatened.

“As for me, I’m at your mercy—do whatever you think is best. But take warning: If you kill me, you’re killing an innocent man, and you and the city and the people in it will be liable. I didn’t say any of this on my own. God sent me and told me what to say. You’ve been listening to God speak, not Jeremiah.” The court officials, backed by the people, then handed down their ruling to the priests and prophets: “Acquittal. No death sentence for this man. He has spoken to us with the authority of our God.”

- Eugene Peterson’s, The Message

JEREMIAH 26: 1-16“. . . you’ve never listened! Why would you start now?”

Friday | March 27

This is the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to what was left of the elders among the exiles, to the priests and prophets and all the exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken to Babylon from Jerusalem, including King Jehoiachin, the queen mother, the government leaders, and all the skilled laborers and craftsmen.

The letter was carried by Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah had sent to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. The letter said:

This is the Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel’s God, to all the exiles I’ve taken from Jerusalem to Babylon:

“Build houses and make yourselves at home.

“Put in gardens and eat what grows in that country.

“Marry and have children. Encourage your children to marry and have children so that you’ll thrive in that country and not waste away.

“Make yourselves at home there and work for the country’s welfare.

“Pray for Babylon’s well-being. If things go well for Babylon, things will go well for you.”

Yes. Believe it or not, this is the Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel’s God: “Don’t let all those so-called preachers and know-it-alls who are all over the place there take you in with their lies. Don’t pay any attention to the fantasies they keep coming up with to please you. They’re a bunch of liars preaching lies—and claiming I sent them! I never sent them, believe me.” God’s Decree!

This is God’s Word on the subject: “As soon as Babylon’s seventy years are up and not a day before, I’ll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home. I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.

“When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen.

“When you come looking for me, you’ll find me.

“Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.” God’s Decree.

“I’ll turn things around for you. I’ll bring you back from all the countries into which I drove you”—God’s Decree—“bring you home to the place from which I sent you off into exile. You can count on it.

- Eugene Peterson’s, The Message

JEREMIAH 29: 1-13“When you come looking for me, you’ll find me.”

Saturday | March 28

“Be ready. The time’s coming”—God’s Decree—“when I will plant people and animals in Israel and Judah, just as a farmer plants seed. And in the same way that earlier I relentlessly pulled up and tore down, took apart and demolished, so now I am sticking with them as they start over, building and planting.

“When that time comes you won’t hear the old proverb anymore,

Parents ate the green apples,

their children got the stomachache.

“No, each person will pay for his own sin. You eat green apples, you’re the one who gets sick.

“That’s right. The time is coming when I will make a brand-new covenant with Israel and Judah. It won’t be a repeat of the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant even though I did my part as their Master.” God’s Decree.

“This is the brand-new covenant that I will make with Israel when the time comes. I will put my law within them—write it on their hearts!—and be their God. And they will be my people. They will no longer go around setting up schools to teach each other about God. They’ll know me firsthand, the dull and the bright, the smart and the slow. I’ll wipe the slate clean for each of them. I’ll forget they ever sinned!” God’s Decree.

- Eugene Peterson’s, The Message

JEREMIAH 31: 27-34“And they will be my people.”

Monday | March 30

He showed up on a donkey! The crowds were there cheering “Hosanna”! They came out to see the new Messiah who had raised Lazarus from the dead only a few days earlier and was the “talk of the town”! Maybe Mary, Martha and Lazarus were in the crowd. He had dined with them just a few days before in Bethany just 2 miles from Jerusalem. Certainly, the “family” would have been supportive of a triumphal return to the Holy City. But there were risks. Jesus threatened the very core of the Sandhedrin authority - and we are told through scripture that plans were underway to execute both Jesus and Lazarus for subversive activity once the Passover festival was finished.

But He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey! Why? He knew it was to fulfill old testament scripture (Zek.9:9). He knew it was “His Time”. No one else suspected what was to come: not the crowd, not His disciples, and not Mary, Martha, or Lazarus. Apparently, not even the priests recognized the fulfillment of scripture. Everyone was blinded but He knew. He understood. It was not enough that Lazarus was raised; nor that the blind could see; nor that He had cured the leper and the paralytic. He knew that He was to fulfill a destiny that only He understood. He dealt in Eternity. He knew that He was on earth to exceed all expectations. Go beyond the mere mundane. He entered Jerusalem in a crowd but was very much alone with eyes caste beyond the immediate, as if in solitary prayer with His God.

He entered Jerusalem as “King of Israel” but mounted on a donkey. This would be a Passover unlike any other that had occurred and one which would transform mankind for ever more. He entered Jerusalem in humility and was misunderstood. He prepared the way for the Eternal. His entry into Jerusalem on a donkey led Him to humiliation and ultimate triumph on the cross. Jesus, who wept for Jerusalem and all mankind, would exceed all expectations. He would show the world how to expect the unexpected. Like riding into town on a donkey. Like following His Way from the Earthly to the Eternal. Like Being of this world but Being beyond. Transcendent!

- Donald C. Syracuse

JOHN 12: 9-19““Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion.

Look, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!””

Tuesday | March 31

Today is holy Tuesday in Holy Week. Apart from that, it is far from the most popular day in the church calendar. What do we know about this day in the life of Jesus and his disciples? Nothing, except that they were in Jerusalem to remember Passover. Nothing, except that Jesus seems to know that this was the time where the way he had chosen to live his life would finally collide with the powers of church, state and all of humanity.

He was one out of all – one, distinct from everyone who had ever lived.

But for him that wasn’t enough.

It was not enough to be unique.

Not enough to be distinct.

Not enough to be special, to be noticed, to be oh so amazing.

Today, unremarkable, not popular, nothing special Tuesday, is the day we have a reading that reminds us, “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

Jesus did not come into this world simply to teach as one with authority, to call out evil spirits and to heal (as Mark’s Gospel defines his daily ministry). Jesus did not come into this world solely to reveal God to us so that we could see how God is (the Epiphany). Jesus did not even come into this world just to have the Word become flesh and dwell among us (the Incarnation – Emmanuel – God with us).

No, on this simple Tuesday, Jesus reveals that he came into this world so that there not be just one grain of God come among us, but that in its dying it becomes so numerous that the number of grains and fruit that come forth from that one will be beyond number.

Jesus came into this world so that you and I might become what he was, grain that, by its own self-surrender, gives new food and new grain, and new life to so many others that the multiplication cannot be numbered.

Today, in the theological story of things, it is no more than a single grain buried in the earth. But watch, wait, see what will happen. Today is why this quiet day and every quiet day matters so much.

Lord Christ, from whose singleness love, hope and life come to be: grant that we may so give of ourselves that there may be love, hope and life for others, and thereby your kingdom comes. Amen.

- Tim Mulder

JOHN 12: 20-26“ . . . unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies . . .”

Wednesday | April 1

The home stretch to ordination to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church begins with the General Ordination Exams, which I took in early January. They cover the “seven canonical areas” a priest should be proficient in: Holy Scripture, theology, Christian ethics, liturgy and music, church history, contemporary society, and theory and practice of ministry.

I failed the theology question, which is fine, because I didn’t care for it any more than it did me. Several young adults, the question posed, have returned from their first semester in college and, filled with ideas about science and whatnot, have decided they no longer believe in God; my challenge, the question said, was to provide a rational and reasoned argument justifying belief in God, quoting the works of at least three theologians.

For the record, if any of your young adults come and ask me why they should believe in God, the last thing I would do would be to throw a bunch of theologians at them. In fact, I’m not sure I’d even entertain the question. After all, it supposes that God needs me to justify belief in him. It makes God more akin to a scientific equation that needs to be solved, or a political position I need to sell.

God needs none of that.

I was amused that the evaluators said my belief in God seemed to be rooted more in my experience of God than any logical justification for God’s existence. Experience, I’d argue, of God’s grace and love. There is nothing rational or logical about love or grace. But I know both to be true because I have experienced love, I have experienced what it is to long for love, and I have received mercy. Mercy doesn’t fit into any rational order, but I know it to be true all the same.

I have never been asked why I believe in God, much less what would happen to me if I didn’t. I suspect I’d be just fine. I’d have every opportunity for a good life: a family, children who love me, career success, fun friends. But I’d also have missed out on a love like no other, and the world, in its own indescribable way, would be darker for me because I’d have passed on that light which is God alone, which makes everything new, and assures me that I’ll never be alone.

- Matthew Welch

JOHN 12: 27-36“Jesus said to them, ‘The light is with you for a little longer.

Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going.

While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.’”

Thursday | April 2

Today is Maundy Thursday. It is the beginning of the Triduum, the three most holy days of our church year. Today, we Christians remember and take part in the very last days of Christ’s earthly ministry. Many churches will remember Jesus blessing bread and wine, thereby instituting the Eucharist. It is also tradition for churches to reflect on the story of Jesus going to the Garden at Gethsemane. There he prayed to God alone, seemingly distressed that he was about to die.

In the reading from John’s Gospel assigned for today, Jesus is also near the end of His earthly life, and in deep prayer. But Jesus’ prayer in this gospel is quite different from the prayer at Gethsemane. Instead of praying to the Father in private, He is praying at the dinner table with His friends. It seems that Jesus knows he is about to die, and he has an inkling about what’s in store for His disciples. Jesus understands human behavior and knows that when He is faced with death, the disciples will likely scatter and hide. It seems that Jesus is deeply concerned for the people He has come to save, and will now leave for a time. Jesus’ prayer at the dinner table is for His disciples. He prays “as you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one.”

Imagine being a disciple hearing Jesus pray this prayer for you, right in front of you. Now imagine that Jesus is saying that prayer to us, at the altar table on a Sunday morning. We are His disciples in 2015. We are called to be one with each other, one with God the Father, one with Jesus. That is quite a tall order. How do we do that? Think of all the ways we separate ourselves from the “other”, ways we separate ourselves from God. We human beings are prone to racism, cliques, gossip and complacency. Humanity can’t seem to get itself out of fighting wars. As we prepare for Christ’s death on Good Friday, a death caused by the hand of human beings perhaps not so different from us, may we pray for guidance in becoming one. May we seek to leave the things of this world behind, to know Christ and make Christ known.

- Krista Dias

JOHN 17: 1-26“. . .so that they may be one, as we are one.”

Friday | April 3

In the darkness of this Good Friday, we stand between the two promises Jesus made to Simon Peter. One is joyful and unconditional – the promise that we, too, will go where Jesus has gone, provided only that we believe in Him. But not yet, because first, there is the other promise to be fulfilled – bleak, and horrible, and apparently non-negotiable. Like Peter, we are doomed to deny Jesus, to betray him, to let him down in countless ways, great and small.

Why must we betray him? We don’t want to, any more than Peter wanted to. But we know that we will. So did God create us to be a sinful people? No, I am sure he didn’t, but He did give us a most singular gift – Free Will – and we have used it as the freedom to sin. No, we don’t want to … but Yes, we seem unable to resist it.

What Peter didn’t know on that first Good Friday, and what must have obsessed him throughout the days that followed, was whether Jesus could ever forgive him. The answer came from the resurrected Jesus over a makeshift breakfast on the shore of the Sea of Galilee two or three weeks later. It was simple and uncoded: “Feed my sheep”. Jesus put him to work.

For us, as for Peter, the good news is that, amazingly, Jesus understands. It is implicit in the great mystery of the Incarnation, the foundation stone of our faith, which St. John unveiled for us in the Christmas gospel – “the Word became flesh and lived among us”. Jesus, the Son of God, assumed our nature and our substance in order that He might atone for our sinfulness, once for all, on the cross at Calvary. So He knows what it is to be human. He did not sin himself – his godhead shielded Him from that – but He experienced our nature, so He has compassion – the ultimate compassion – for our weakness.

- Richard Somerset-Ward

JOHN: 13: 36-38“Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?”

Jesus answered, “Where I am going, you cannot follow me now; but you will follow afterward.” Peter said to him, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me?

Very truly, I tell you, before the cock crows, you will have denied me three times.”

Saturday | April 4

Over the years, I have discovered that the life of faith is less about saying no -- and more about saying yes. Saying yes to God. It would seem, on first reading of the 8th chapter of Romans, that St. Paul is more about saying no. Saying no to the sins of the flesh. And indeed, over the centuries -- from pulpits, tracts and treatises, there has been a flood of thundering commentary on the dangers of the flesh.-- and how our eternal life prospects are severely jeopardized should we become too cozy with the temptations that course within us and are dangled in front of us.

All God wants is to be with us. To be close to us. To be intimate with us. God wants to move on a continuum with us -- from being a stranger to an acquaintance to a friend to an intimate friend with God God’s desire for intimacy is to allow the Holy Spirit to dwell in us and then set us free. God gives us the chance -- and the choice, over and over again, to say yes to that gift.

The sins of the flesh purport to offer an intimacy -- but it is a fabricated and false intimacy; more about instant gratification than anything else. We live in a culture that is massively devoted to instant gratification, which can be fun and exciting -- in the moment. Instant gratification is also easy to sell, and can be readily bought. And it doesn’t last.

But the intimacy of the Spirit is deeper, more abiding and less flashy (and less fleshy). It is transforming. It can set us free. That is what St. Paul is writing about.

The intimacy of the Spirit has never been for sale. It is pure gift.

- The Rt. Rev. Mark Beckwith, Bishop of Newark

ROMANS 8: 1-11“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit

set their minds on the things of the Spirit.”

HOLY WEEK AT CHRIST CHURCHPALM SUNDAY

8:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. Holy Eucharist

MONDAY, TUESDAY, AND WEDNESDAYIN HOLY WEEK

5:00 p.m. Evening Prayer

MAUNDY THURSDAY7:00 p.m. Fellowship meal and Holy Eucharist

GOOD FRIDAY7:00 p.m. The Good Friday Liturgy

EASTER VIGIL7:00 p.m. The Great Easter Vigil Liturgy

EASTER SUNDAY 10:00 a.m. Holy Eucharist

LENTEN SERIES Join us Wednesday evenings during Lent for a simple supper, followed by a talk with friends. The cost of each evening is $10 for soup/salad/lecture

This year our daily Lenten Devotional is based on readings from the books of Deuteronomy and Jeremiah. To help us come to a deeper understanding of these writings and their import for our lives in this present age, we have asked two friends to come and help us.

WARDENS AND VESTRY

Sam Reckford, Senior Warden Juli Towell, Junior Warden

Scott Chastain, Joanne Cheung, Ben Fay Jean Funk, Rick Marchisio, Dara Near

Adaeze Nwachuku, Joe Ort, Gaye TorranceEileen Paduano, Jim Sammartino

Michelle Lesperance, Clerk of the Vestry

CLERGY AND STAFF

The Rev. Dr. Timothy Mulder, Rector The Rev. Krista Dias, Curate

The Rev. Matthew Welch, Deacon Dr. Andrew Paul Moore, Organist & Choirmaster

Georgeann duChossois, Parish Secretary James Johnson, Plant Supervisor

Lydia Zapico, Bookkeeper

CHRIST CHURCH IN SHORT HILLS66 Highland Avenue - Short Hills, NJ 07078

phone: 973.379.2898website: www.christchurchshorthills.org