Our Lenten theme this year is “Seeking.”  Each week we’ll hear from characters in our sacred texts that are seeking something.  We’re all seeking something...

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     In Genesis we hear of two who are seeking the fruit of the garden.  Adam and Eve allow the snake’s manipulative voice to become louder than God’s voice. In the wilderness, Jesus will defy the deception of the tempter by listening intuitively—to God, to his inner moral compass, to the teachings of his faith. And so, who will we listen to? What sources do we seek out for news, information, for meaning and direction?  Whose voices—and what messages—take up too much space in our heads? Within the onslaught of messaging we receive, we are invited to choose carefully.

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     Nicodemus comes to Jesus under the veil of night to ask him big faith questions. Jesus invites him to begin again, to learn a new way of knowing and living out his faith. In Genesis, God commands Abram and Sarai to leave everything—their home, their family, their land—to seek the land of Canaan and begin again. Like Nicodemus, what are the questions we ask in the dark? Like Abram and Sarai, how do we follow God’s calling to begin again?

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     In the heat of midday, Jesus seeks out a Samaritan woman drawing water from a well. His command to her is also a question and an invitation into a new way of life: “Will you give me a drink?” This question creates a dialogue between them in which Jesus sees the woman fully; she leaves the well transformed. In the wilderness, the Israelites essentially ask: “Will you give us a drink, God? Will you take care of us, even now?” Perhaps, we might imagine ourselves at the well or in the wilderness. Are we willing to care for our neighbors, seeking to not just quench thirst, but to find living waters that sustain us all?

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     When Jesus and the disciples encounter a blind man along the way, the disciples immediately ask, “Teacher, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" (John 9:2). They ask a really bad question, filled with assumptions and harmful theology. Unfortunately, the crowd continues to interrogate the man and dissect the miracle of his healing. Let us pay attention to the questions we ask. What assumptions do we carry? What is our intent? When seeking clarity or understanding, what are better questions we can ask?

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      These questions and more will guide us through this Lenten Journey of Seeking.  In the meantime, the God who created us and knows us better than we know ourselves will find us in our seeking, and we will be found in God’s grace. 

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Blessings on this Journey we make together,

 

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