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Morning Devotion for the Season of Lent

March 22, 2023

Invitatory

Rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and repents of evil.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Spirit;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.

Reading - John 6:27-40

“‘Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.’ Then they said to him, ‘What must we do to perform the works of God?’ Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.’ So they said to him, ‘What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ Then Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’ They said to him, ‘Sir, give us this bread always.’

Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away; for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.’”

Meditation - Winnie Smith

We are preparing to mark the resurrection of Jesus, arguably the most important day on the church calendar and one of the most important in human history. Resurrection is a big deal. So big, perhaps, that we lose sight of its magnitude. It is so fantastic, so magnificent that we just can’t really understand it, therefore we don’t celebrate it the same way we do Christmas or birthdays or even National Puppy Day (which, apparently, is tomorrow.) Why is this? How does Jesus’s birth call for us to stop everything and celebrate, while his dying and returning to life barely register on many of our radars? Perhaps we are able to connect with birth, since we see it happen every day throughout the world, but resurrection is the unknown. As Christians, we believe that it will happen to us, too, but it’s just too far off and too unclear to celebrate.

There is so much to life! There is joy, pain, decisions, and possibilities, and many of us see death as the end of those things. It’s the ultimate exhale. Maybe there is a heaven. Maybe we get to rest forever on pillowy clouds, watching those we love go on living below. Maybe we get to frolic in a field and eat all our favorite foods. Maybe every day is Christmas, every day is National Puppy Day. But resurrection? Coming back in this imperfect body? Why? To do what?

Our Catechism keeps answers about resurrection broad: “Christ promised to bring us into the kingdom of God and give us life in all its fullness” (BCP p. 851). The Creeds are similar: “I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting” (Apostles’ Creed) and “we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come” (Nicene Creed). The Catholics do only slightly better: “we believe that the souls of all who die in Christ's grace . . . are the People of God beyond death. On the day of resurrection, death will be definitively conquered, when these souls will be reunited with their bodies" (Paul VI, CPG # 28). These are all encouraging words, but not particularly descriptive ones. They assure us that there is more to our stories after we die, but that’s about it. Nowhere can we find an account of what will actually happen the moment we die.

I wish I could posit here a more satisfying answer about resurrection. Instead, I am taking the words of Jesus in John’s Gospel as a promise and am finding hope in them: “this is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.’” None of us can know what it will mean to be raised up on the last day. But how marvelous is it to know that our stories will not end on the day our bodies give up. That hope is cause for celebration even during this season of Lent. It is cause for celebration today, tomorrow, Easter Sunday, and every other day of our lives.

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven,

   hallowed be thy Name,

   thy kingdom come,

   thy will be done,

       on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

   as we forgive those

       who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

   but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom,

   and the power, and the glory,

   for ever and ever. Amen.