Lent Devotional 2021 - Pittsburg - Flipbook - Page 34
world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. 16
They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to
the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
18 As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them
into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so
that they also may be sanctified in truth. 20 I ask not only on
behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe
in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one. As
you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in
us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22
The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that
they may be one, as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me,
that they may become completely one, so that the world may
know that you have sent me and have loved them even as
you have loved me. 24 Father, I desire that those also, whom
you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my
glory, which you have given me because you loved me before
the foundation of the world. 25 Righteous Father, the world
does not know you, but I know you; and these know that
you have sent me. 26 I made your name known to them, and
I will make it known, so that the love with which you have
loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
DEVOTIONAL
“I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those
who will believe in me through their word, that they may all
be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they
also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have
sent me” (vv. 20-21). Jesus’ prayer in John 17 expresses Jesus’
care, love, and compassion not only for his current disciples
but also for all who will believe in him.
Other than Jesus, few creatures can express compassion as
well as dogs can. And dogs have played an important role
in my ministry. Because dogs express compassion so well, I
have used several of them as therapy dogs in homes, nursing
homes, and hospitals to visit members of my congregation.
Case in point: Russ and Shirley had been married for
more than 40 years and were incredibly close. Shirley was
hospitalized with an unknown medical condition. Russ was
terribly worried. The next morning he showed up at my front
door in tears. “I don’t know what I will do without her,” he
sobbed. I invited him in. He sat sobbing away in a desk chair
as I fixed him some coffee. Purves, my Golden Retriever,
immediately came to Russ, placed his paws on the chair,
stood on his hind legs, then placed a paw on each of Russ’s
shoulders and, with deep compassion, looked Russ in the eye.
Russ stopped crying as he looked into Purves’s eyes, laughed,
and said, “I needed that.” No pastoral words of mine were
needed.
While watching a five-year-old boy play with a large yellow
Labrador Retriever, Luther Seminary professor Andrew Root
observed: “This boy was experiencing the [message] we long
for most as humans . . . You are loved. You are mine. You
are beautifully and wonderfully made” (The Grace of Dogs
34 Lent Devotional 2021
[2017], p. 76). I know that’s what Russ experienced as Purves
looked into his eyes.
PRAYER
God of all grace, love, and compassion, we thank you for
your enduring presence among us as you remind us so often,
and in unexpected ways, that we are loved and cared for. You
make it easy to say with the psalmist, “Light, space, zest—
that’s God! So, with God on my side I’m fearless, afraid of no
one and nothing” (Ps. 27:1, The Message). Amen.
FRIDAY, APRIL 2, 2021
The Rev. Dr. Cynthia L. Parker ’10
SCRIPTURE
John 19:38-42
38 After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a
disciple of Jesus, though a secret one because of his fear of
the Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus.
Pilate gave him permission; so he came and removed his
body. 39 Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night,
also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing
about a hundred pounds. 40 They took the body of Jesus and
wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the
burial custom of the Jews. 41 Now there was a garden in the
place where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a
new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. 42 And so,
because it was the Jewish day of Preparation, and the tomb
was nearby, they laid Jesus there.
DEVOTIONAL
My husband was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma
when he was 29 years old. We had two beautiful daughters
who were 5 and 3 and we’d just found out we were
expecting our third child when the surgeon delivered the
news. I’m sure the shock was evident on both our faces. Who
expects to receive a diagnosis of cancer in their twenties? I’m
embarrassed to admit that the first thought that came into
my mind was a selfish one, “How would I take care of three
kids if he died?” I threw myself into caring for my daughters,
afraid to get too close to my husband, afraid of what the
chemo might do to our unborn child, afraid of being a single
parent, afraid of losing him. Fear makes us do crazy things,
doesn’t it?
Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were afraid too. They
were afraid of losing their positions of power, they were
afraid of what people would say, they were afraid of what
happens to people who follow Jesus. Fear makes us do crazy
things, doesn’t it?