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Morning Devotion for the Season of Lent

February 25, 2024

Invitatory

You will show me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy, and in your right hand are pleasures for evermore.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

Reading-Genesis 4:10 New International Version

The LORD said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.

Meditation-Rebecca Northington

This past President’s Day weekend the Redeemer Youth Group traveled a short distance to our nation's capital to learn about and serve a population living on the margins of an exciting, vibrant, wealthy and impoverished city. This trip was very different from our trips to Navajo Land or even Appalachia where we find ourselves in a completely different world, with different geography, different accents and languages, and a different kind of poverty. While food, housing, education, employment and medical resources are challenging in these places, the sense of community and culture is strong.

In DC we stayed at St. Columba’s Church on the edge of Chevy Chase and Tenleytown, and we spent our Saturday evening in Georgetown, shopping M street with all of the comforts of Suburban Square. In fact, in many ways the culture and language of DC felt just like home for us, which makes the disparity that much more personal. We were not in a new land and could not make excuses for the extreme poverty that was embedded within extreme wealth. Like Philadelphia, the two live one on top of the other and side by side.

Beyond the similarities the trip was still a work trip, where the kids were stripped of their own creature comforts: no privacy, no beds, no down time; showers that are opened up to the unhoused for daily access, and a general stripping away of the life we can control. The kids,(and leaders) experienced extreme discomfort, which can lead to a different kind of surrender…or freedom. When you cease to worry about what you can control, you have the potential to lose yourself into a different kind of experience.

On the third day of our trip we woke up at 5:30 am and left our host Church to serve at The Church of The Epiphany a stone's throw from the White House. This Church has undergone significant change over the last ten years when they welcomed the unhoused or homeless population into their congregation as full members, voted on by the vestry, resulting in flight of 80% of their congregation into the suburbs. When we visited them four years ago they had a vibrant and interactive unhoused population both in worship and at their welcome table-a warm breakfast offered on Sunday mornings.

Since covid, much of their population has been “evicted” from the neighborhood parks and grassy areas. They have been relocated to outer neighborhoods of DC and cannot make their way back to the church. The welcome table and the service were at maybe 30% capacity, comparatively. We did see many folks we saw four years ago and worshiped with maybe 30-40 parishioners. The kids were able to have meaningful breakfast conversations with people who had fallen on hard times. They had lost their jobs during covid or could no longer pay their rent, but were committed to making their way back to Epiphany; intelligent, well-educated people. Their demeanor and attitudes were hopeful and kind and I think the kids were genuinely surprised.

We attended worship after we served breakfast and then made our way to the Holocaust museum. The kids were really impressive as they made their way through this museum in shock and horror. They asked important questions and mostly came back to the same refrain: how could this have happened? How did the world let this happen?

The museum finishes with a room of remembrances. There are many quotes on the walls, and candles that can be lit, prayers to be said. Many of the quotes are from scripture. They are reminders. I often tell the kids that scripture is not a dead text, and while it reveals God to us, it also reveals us-to us: who we are and what we do, and how it affects us and how it affects God.

Today in confirmation class we talked about power; how do we have power and what do we choose to do with it. We also talked about the interplay of power and faith. We tell these kids that they are choosing to become adult members of our faith community, and in the youth group next year that they will have the opportunity to bring experience into these more theoretical conversations. Why do we study scripture? Why do we worship? What does it all mean? What does it truly mean to be a Christian?

These trips challenge us to apply what we learn in Sunday school and confirmation class. We read the text from genesis as we finished this powerful exploration of human horror, the Holocaust museum. Many of us can reflect on our first, second and maybe third reading of the Cain and Abel story. I certainly never thought it meant me-that I could kill my brother; but that is precisely the warning. How do we use our power? How do we apply our faith to our daily living? Do we allow jealousy, vengeance and pride to play dominant roles in our lives? Or do we fight against those all too natural human tendencies and turn instead to God; to love, faith and hope? I hear shock and horror in God’s voice in this telling, and I think it requires us all to ask ourselves where we are in the story. Hopefully that is what a work trip provides for these kids; an opportunity to really, deeply, ask - where are we, and where do we want to be in the story of humanity. A question perhaps we all should be asking.

Collect for the Second Sunday in Lent

O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways, and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your Word, Jesus Christ your Son; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.