DEVOTIONAL:
Throughout our Lenten devotionals we have been considering what it means to “become human.” As Philip Newell suggests in his book, Christ of the Celts, in Christ, we have a witness to the truth of who God created us to be. Christ shows us not only the face of God but also “the true face of the human soul.”
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DEVOTIONAL:
I’ve often wondered what that first Holy Saturday was like for the followers of Jesus in Jerusalem. The Gospels are mostly silent when it comes to this final day in our Lenten journey; the detailed narratives skip from the anguish and despair of Good Friday to the hopeful wonder of the Easter morning discovery. And perhaps this is an understandable omission. Would we not also, in our remembrance of this Holy Week, and in our own personal journeys of suffering and loss, prefer to move directly from despair and death into hope and rebirth?

We don’t really know what the followers of Jesus did on this day all those centuries ago. Bound by the Sabbath guidelines to refrain from the busywork that might have numbed the pain of Calvary’s horrors, I imagine the disciples were burdened with the dead weight of raw grief, images of death’s cruel reality still seared in their minds. The Scriptures tell us that darkness fell over the whole land on the afternoon of Good Friday, as Jesus hung dying on the cross. I think that for the first disciples, that next day must have felt like a time of great darkness, as well – the darkness of fear, of crushed hopes, of broken dreams.

In the late 1980s, the poet Brian Wren wrote the hymn text “Joyful is the Dark” in an attempt to celebrate the usually neglected positive implications of darkness in the biblical tradition. The poem’s fourth verse describes the great darkness at the end of Passion Week, but it ends with a striking phrase: “Never was that midnight touched by dread and gloom; darkness was the cradle of the dawning.” I love the idea that the darkness we so often associate with our pain, our fear, our own metaphorical deaths – this “hopeless” darkness cradles in its pitch-black arms the new life that is about to be born in us. The sorrow and anguish of that first Holy Saturday were not some cruel interlude between death and rebirth; God was preparing in this darkness the miracle of the morning.

In today’s Scripture passage, the Apostle Peter testifies to this miraculous resurrection as he speaks to a crowd at Caesarea. We hear again in his words the promise of a new life that is for all people – even those previously thought to be lost in darkness. This Holy Saturday, may we hold onto the confident hope of Peter’s words, trusting, as we await the dawn of Christ’s resurrection, that the darkness cradles our new life, as well.

DEVOTIONAL:
“April is the cruelest month,” T. S. Eliot wrote. This is certainly true in Northern Indiana where the promise of spring is often packed in freezing rain and blasts of cold wind. A few weeks ago a serendipitously warm day coaxed tulip leaves from the ground. I itched to work in the garden. But when I finally found an hour to spare, wintry temperatures had returned. I put my Crocs back in the closet and stepped back into boots. If I hadn’t already lived through many a Northern Indiana spring, I would have given up hope by now of ever seeing new leaves and flowers. Yet even in this chill, daffodils have emerged. They trust the nourishing soil, sense the changing temperatures and increased sunlight enough to put out their early blooms. It is time.
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DEVOTIONAL:
Being tired makes me grumpy; not seeing the sun for several weeks only makes my mood worse. I didn’t realize how lucky I had it, coming from a place with 300 days of sunshine a year. A hectic schedule and bleak sunless days have been my “wilderness” as of late. When the sun shone and the temperature rose just recently, I suddenly realized that I had been irritable for weeks.
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DEVOTIONAL:
After reading this passage I decided to take a few days to reflect on this question in my own life. “Whom is it that I persecute?” Persecution in our lives may not seem as obvious or as harsh as it did in the Bible. I’ve found that as humans, we tend to get an idea about someone, and immediately draw conclusions about who they are. It frightens me to think about how quick we are to judge.
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DEVOTIONAL:
When I was a child growing up at Mt. Zion Baptist Church, music was a key component of the worship experience. On any given Sunday at Mt. Zion, you could hear the following lyrics of this traditional spiritual being supported by drums and an organ with a gospel flair: “I woke up this morning with my mind stayed on Jesus. I woke up this morning with my mind stayed on Jesus. Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelujah.” With much clapping, swaying and dancing, the congregation excitedly engaged in worship and praise.
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DEVOTIONAL:

Mary Magdalene, previously shocked and grieved by Jesus’ death, suddenly appears to the disciples and declares, “I have seen the Lord” (John 20:18). She had seen Jesus – alive, standing outside of his tomb, talking to her.
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DEVOTIONAL:
As they near Jerusalem, Jesus gives his disciples clear instructions: Go, find, untie, bring to me…
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DEVOTIONAL:
The theme for this year’s Lenten Devotions asks the question, what does it mean for us to be the created and recreated images of God? How may we become authentically human?
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DEVOTIONAL:
For the past three summers I have worked as a camp counselor. This was simultaneously the most flattering experience and the most humbling experience I’ve ever had.
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DEVOTIONAL:
I remember a Palm Sunday celebration in Guatemala several years ago, where the worship was filled with festivity. The marimba music was playing as we arrived, the dirt floor was covered with pine needles that filled the room with a sweet aroma, and bright colors of woven cloth draped the front of the church.
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DEVOTIONAL:
HOSANNA!

Do you ever wonder what that really means? We sing it in praise songs, we read it in the Gospels. But do we live it? Do we know it? Do we know Him?
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DEVOTIONAL:
While reading today’s Scripture, I find myself asking, why is Jesus so disturbed? The word “disturbed” in v.33 and v.38 is embrimáomai, which can be literally translated to something like, “to snort with anger.”
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DEVOTIONAL:
Recently, the local Goshen community was shocked by the tragic death of Karlee, a 7-year-old girl who was killed when her father’s gun accidentally fell and fired. Karlee was a member of the church I attend and her death deeply affected our congregation. We grieved with her family and grasped for answers to the unsettling questions.
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DEVOTIONAL:
I imagine the psalmist crying out from a crevasse, wide and deep, seemingly without bottom. Standing precariously on a ledge, the psalmist’s voice goes out – loud and desperate – and returns in a multiplicity of echoes, having bounced off the surrounding walls.
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DEVOTIONAL:
One of my classes this semester is structured as a discussion and research class that is situated at an academic crossroads between the fields of science and religion. In the class discussions, we probe questions of human existence, validity of philosophical arguments and challenge each other to think ‘more deeply’ on abstract topics and theories.
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DEVOTIONAL:
The theme for this week’s devotionals is “I wait for the Lord.” It strikes me that we spend much of our time finding the most efficient ways to accomplish daily tasks and avoid waiting. We hope the red light turns green; we choose self-checkout at the supermarket; we use instant foods to shorten meal prep time. Modern life does not teach us how to wait.
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DEVOTIONAL:
When I read today’s passage, I think of the beautiful song written by John Newton. Amazing Grace has been sung in churches all over the world since it was penned in the 1760s. The particular line that stands out is “how precious did that grace appear, the hour I first believed.” Do you remember the hour that you first believed? Do you remember when you first understood the need for a savior and found hope and love in Jesus Christ? I know when I first believed I could not handle it. I couldn’t hold it in. I wanted everyone to know. Why does it seem so easy to share what Christ has done for us when we first believe, but as we grow “closer” to God, we seem to lose that fire that we had to share what Christ has done?
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DEVOTIONAL:
We often think that being in darkness means being involved with legal trouble, drugs, pre-marital relationships or unsafe parties. The list goes on. But I believe that being in darkness is beyond these obvious concepts we consider to be bad. Rather, it narrows down to one question: how often do we fall into negative secular understandings and approaches to the world that may even seem normal, but are actually dark and un-Christlike? Are we willing to give them up completely to be closer to God?
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DEVOTIONAL:
I first remember reading Psalm 23 as a child looking out my Sunday school class window of my country church. The rolling green pastures right by the grove of trees and ravine along the church property provided my imagination the earliest canvas for this psalm. Completing my imagination of this psalm were calm and obedient sheep which populated the hillside.
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DEVOTIONAL:
The main problem with winter for a lot of us is the lack of sunshine. That glorious light gives us energy as well as power to the earth. Have you noticed maple tree buds waiting to burst and daffodils pleading with the sun to give them more vigor so they can rise up and give God the glory, glory?!
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DEVOTIONAL:
Both our lives and the entire environment are filled with opposites. Light… dark. Spring…winter. Warm…cold. This week’s Lenten theme of encouraging us to live as children of light echoes many opposites we experience. Beyond these, we are also reminded that the mere physical ability to see does not necessarily guarantee belief, understanding, compassion or entitlement to the gift of God’s enlightenment.
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DEVOTIONAL:
Jesus met a Samaritan woman at a well and asked for a drink of water. Public interaction between men and women, and Jews and Samaritans, were usually avoided in his day. He could have gotten his own water or waited to ask for a drink from his disciples. Instead, in his radical way, he chose to spread the Gospel by stretching the cultural norms. The Samaritan women openly questions Jesus’ proclamation of his “living water.” It is only when he names the things that have alienated her from participation in her community that she believes in the Gospel.
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DEVOTIONAL:
Once when I arrived at the airport in Washington, D.C., to attend a professional conference, I had plenty of time and decided to get to my hotel via the city transit system. I had been to this conference many times and felt confident that I could navigate my way around. So, I asked which bus I should take to get to the Fairmont Hotel and as I boarded I was pleased that I had chosen this route because I could save the extra cost of a cab or a shuttle.
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DEVOTIONAL:
I was 15 years old hiking with my youth group to the summit of Cerro Pedernal, a flat-top butte-like mountain that lords over the desert plains of northern New Mexico. The journey to the summit was quite like wandering in the wilderness for us – and we recalled for our excursion leaders the stories of Moses leading the Israelites in the desert. Our leaders didn’t know us well, and we “quarreled” with them as they tried to reassure us that we would not starve or die of thirst. We complained bitterly about the August heat, the rocky trails and the surprise vertical climb just before making the summit. All they could say to us was “you’ll see… when we get to the top, you won’t want to say anything — you’ll just want to listen for God’s voice.”   » Read more…

DEVOTIONAL:
When our first child was almost two years old, she developed severe diarrhea. Pediasure® didn’t yet exist, and I was an inexperienced parent who didn’t know how to feed a child in her condition. She grew lethargic and pale. Our pediatrician examined her briefly and diagnosed dehydration. “Take her to the hospital right away,” he said. “She will need to stay there at least overnight.”
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DEVOTIONAL:
Nicodemus is like us. He doesn’t understand. “Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can these things be?’” We are like Nicodemus, confused by Jesus’ talk of the Spirit blowing and second birth from above. And yet Jesus the patient Teacher, tries to rephrase his answers. But still, nothing. Nicodemus has no idea what Jesus is trying to say.

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DEVOTIONAL:
In the season of Lent, the Christian church liturgically reminds itself who it is and what is important. This annual ritual may include a combination of reflection, introspection, self-sacrifice, service, study and remembering the ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus – all edifying and appropriate.
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DEVOTIONAL:
In elementary school, I memorized Psalm 121 in our girls club at church. I still remember the motions that we made to this passage, especially verses 3-4, which say that God will not let your foot be moved, and that God neither slumbers nor sleeps. While doing these motions as a child, sliding my foot and pretending to fall, I always pictured myself slipping down a muddy hill, but God protecting me from the fall. God is my Creator, my Maker, and he wants to protect me and keep me safe, because he cares about me. My Creator will not strike me down, but watches over me always. The Lord is my Keeper, and when I lift my eyes up to him, I can seek and receive help.
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DEVOTIONAL:
Last year, my sister and her husband received a phone call on April Fools’ Day that turned their lives upside down. Fortunately it wasn’t a joke: the twin boys they sought to adopt had been born…almost two months early!
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DEVOTIONAL:

Opening the lid on the beehive was always an awe-inspiring experience. After gently sending a few wisps of smoke into the entrance of the hive, I could open the box and peer inside. Each bee had a role: queen, worker, guards and drones. For a few moments I was part of their world. Some bees would fly around me checking to see if I was minding my business, while I examined the colony for health, rearranged frames and periodically removed honey. I always found this time to be a relaxing, reflective, holy moment.
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DEVOTIONAL:
I have recently started to take the time to bake my own bread, and there are few things I like more than the feel of the bread dough as I knead it, or the smell of the hot fresh bread as it comes out of the oven. I love eating bread, and that’s even when I’ve had plenty to eat for the last 40 days. Bread is a wonderful thing. Is it so awful to want to eat bread?
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DEVOTIONAL:
It’s not every day that someone says to me, “Don’t be such a mule!” or some even more blunt version. And yet, here, in Scripture, the Psalmist says just that (v. 9). Got my attention! And so I sit up and listen. Just what is it that I do or do not do that reflects such stubbornness to warrant being called a “donkey” or worse by the Psalmist?
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WELCOME:
Welcome to Goshen College’s online devotional series for the 2011 Lenten season! “Becoming Human: Called and Shaped by Jesus” is this year’s theme taken from Mennonite Church USA worship resources. Lent is the season of the church year in which we focus particular attention on foundational questions of our existence. This Lenten season we ask: What does it mean for us to be created and recreated images of God? How may we become authentically human?
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What does it mean for us to be the created and recreated images of God? How may we become authentically human?

Goshen College again offers an online resource to help believers make time and space in their hearts and minds to reflect during the season of Lent. Beginning March 9 (Ash Wednesday) and culminating on April 24  (Easter), Goshen College students, faculty and staff will provide weekday reflections based on lectionary Scripture passages. Many writers will reflect on the Lenten theme: “Becoming Human: Called and Shaped by Jesus.” (Our Lenten theme is based on the worship resources developed in Leader Magazine, a quarterly publication of Mennonite Publishing Network. For further information go to www.leaderonline.org.)

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The devotions will reflect honestly on the Scriptures and offer words of assurances of faith. The spiritual offerings will include poetry, personal stories, reflections and prayers, all intended to more closely examine the call to change and follow Christ.

Since 2001, Goshen College annually celebrates special seasons of the church calendar, particularly Advent and Lent, with online devotions. The popularity of the devotions continues to grow each year and there are now more than 9,000 online subscribers, representing many different denominational backgrounds and countries.