Write after you worship

Record your reflections about today’s worship. Ask yourself:  So what did that mean?

 (What is staying with you?  Something from the scripture lessons?  Or the prayers? Or the music?  Or the sermon?  Or the Eucharist? )

Enter the Scripture

Read the lesson for today.  No need to write today.  Hopefully you will make it to  church to be with the others who are praying, singing, listening and receiving.  Let this be a Sabbath day for you -- it is a mini-Easter, remember?  


Mark 8:31-38
8:31 Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.

8:32 He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

8:33 But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."

8:34 He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

8:35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.

8:36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?

8:37 Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?

8:38 Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."


Return tomorrow ready to read and write about your own story.  

Today is the day to sift your story about your wilderness place and ask yourself the following. 

In that place, what did God reveal to me about God?

In that place, what did God reveal to me about myself? about others? 

How does what I learned in that place relate to how I might be in wilderness places I am in now (or will enter in the future)?  

Angels in Waiting

Today take a look again at the wilderness scene you described at the beginning of the week.  You may be tempted to leave it before you have fully appreciated the way that Love reached out to you while you were there.

What can you say about the way God came to you through chance encounters?  People may have showed up to give you a cup of cool water.  Perhaps you were encouraged by something you read, or a story you heard.  Or maybe there were times or places that served as an oasis for you--a small "break" from the trials you were facing in that wilderness.

If a person new to faith were to ask you: " Is it true?  Does God really stay with you in the dark places of life?" how would your response serve to inspire that person?  

What are some of the words of scripture or hymnody that relate to your wilderness place?  Specifically, as you revisit that place, as if you are really there, are there bible stories, or characters or situations that seem similar to YOUR story?  Or, is there a hymn (total or a portion of it) that you find yourself singing or reciting as you revisit that place? 

Support from Scripture

1 Kings 9:11-13  The Lord was not in the wind or the earthquake, but in silence

Isaiah 40: 1, 6-11   God will gather the lambs

Isaiah 41: 9b-10    Do not be afraid, I am with you

Isaiah 55:1-3, 6-13  Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters

Psalm 4  Answer me when I call

Psalm 121   I look to the hills

Psalm 130  Out of the depths I cry to you

John 15: 7-11   Abide in my love

Romans 8:31-35, 37-39  Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. 

Stories of Jesus’ Temptation

Matthew 4:1-11

Mark 1:9-13

Support from Song (read or sing) from Evangelical Lutheran Worship

Guide Me Ever, Great Redeemer    ELW #618

Jesus, Still Lead On                         ELW #624

We’ve Come This Far By Faith      ELW #633

O God, Our Help in Ages Past        ELW #632

Just a Closer Walk with Thee          ELW #697

Take time to read the words of scripture or song.  Think and pray about why the words are particularly powerful for you.  Record your thoughts to be a reminder to yourself that the words are there for you, at your finger tips, the next time you are in the wilderness. 

Note:   These are only suggestions.  You will have others that speak more clearly to you.  Seek them, write them down, and internalize them.  We all will be taken to wilderness places repeatedly – the longer you live, the more wilderness places you will travel.    It is good, and very wise, to have words of power and comfort in your “travel bag.”

Be Still

So you have developed your scene for the week -- the wilderness that you have experienced at some point in time.  In a wilderness place the only artificial objects are the ones you carry with you (some call it baggage).  What happens if you release what you carry for shelter, self-protection, or control?  What if you stand in the midst of the scene with nothing made by or imposed by humans.  It is just you, the wild beasts, and God.  Try to remember that one of the greatest ploys of the devil is to tell you that the place you are is a place where God isn't.

That is a lie.

Sit with it.  Be still there.  What stirs?

Part of the beauty and terror of Lent is that when we consent to a time that is emptied of our own attempts at comfort or control, our senses are heightened.  We may see and hear things around us or within us that are hidden in the busy-ness that we carry most days.

Look around.  Listen.

What can you say about what you notice?

The Place

Look at your life.  Choose a place (location) where you have been that you see as a wilderness.  It might have been a work place, a geographical location, a community, a school system, a dormitory or fraternity house (you get the idea?)

Write down as much as you possibly can to describe the place:  sights, sounds, colors, temperature, objects including their position and texture.  Focus upon the physical details of your wilderness place. (We will get into people, relationships, feelings later). 

For now, it is as if you are setting a stage or painting scenery.  (Don’t worry about eloquence if it makes you stall.  You can draw a word sketch or a literal sketch, or if you prefer, find a picture of the place and put it in your journal  for you to contemplate).