Great Plains Daily Devotional for 3/18/2021

John 12:20-26

Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, 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. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.

Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.  During Lent our practice has been to turn away from practices that separate us from God.  Do we truly let the scriptures guide us?  The above scriptures are part of the New Revised Common Lectionary for the week of 03/21 and they still stand out for me as I think about how we should treat Lent this year, well any year for that matter. 

We are a divided country in our politics, in our theology, in the way we treat others in the world.  We must turn away from an us vs them mentality.  My wife recently told me that she saw a flag flying from a private residence in our community that had a four letter profanity Biden.  Politics is not an arena I would ever want to enter because no matter what we say or do someone is not going to be happy.  As I typed that last sentence I realized the same can be said for pastors.  But our country is broken. 

Jesus calls us to serve and follow him in verse 26, “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will be my servant also.”  Are we willing to turn away from attitudes that cause division?  Are we willing to truly look at one another as a precious child of God?  Those are two big challenging questions and in the midst of us we must be willing to let the Holy Spirit speak.  Let us put our broken attitudes aside, let us look at one another as a precious child.  In a men’s group I am part of we have had discussions about how know that each and every person in the world is created in God’s image and God loves them even if we are challenged to do so, too.  Those conversations challenge us to realize there are no us vs them it is a matter that in our country and the world we are one body so our attitude should be a “we”. 

As we continue through Lent let us be willing to turn away from thinking that separates us and embrace and attitude that unites us.  I know these words may seem simple but today these are some of the biggest challenges we face always.

Prayer for Reflection

Numbers 21:4-9
Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22
Ephesians 2:1-10
John 3:14-21