Zion Lutheran

Lenten Meditation 40 Days of Community: We’re Commissioned to Reach Out Together February 27, 2008

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Third Sunday in Lent 40 Days of Community: We’re Connected to Grow Together February 24, 2008 GOSPEL John 4:5-42   Jesus defies convention to engage a Samaritan woman in conversation. Her testimony, in turn, leads many others to faith.

  ⁵So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.  ⁶Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.              ⁷A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”  ⁸(His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.)  ⁹The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)  ¹⁰Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”  ¹¹The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?  ¹²Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?”  ¹³Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”  ¹⁵The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”              ¹⁶Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.”  ¹⁷The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’;  ¹⁸for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!”  ¹⁹The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet.  ²⁰Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.”  ²¹Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.  ²²You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.  ²³But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him.  ²⁴God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”  ²⁵The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.”  ²⁶Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”     ²⁷Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?”  ²⁸Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people,  ²⁹Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?  ³⁰They left the city and were on their way to him. I have food to eat that you do not know about.”  ³³So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?”  ³⁴Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work.  ³⁵Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting.  ³⁶The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.  ³⁷For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’  ³⁸I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”              ³⁹Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.”  ⁴⁰So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days.  ⁴¹And many more believed because of his word.  ⁴²They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”

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Lenten Meditation 40 Days of Community: We’re Commissioned to Reach Out Together February 20, 2008

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Second Sunday in Lent 40 Days of Community: We’re Commissioned to Reach Out Together February 17, 2008 GOSPEL John 3:1-17

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Lenten Meditation 40 Days of Community: We’re Commissioned to Reach Out Together February 13, 2008

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First Sunday in Lent 40 Days of Community: We’re Commissioned to Reach Out Together February 10, 2008 GOSPEL Matthew 4:1-11   Jesus experiences anew the temptations that Israel faced in the wilderness. As the Son of God, he endures the testing of the evil one.   Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  ²He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished.  ³The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”  ⁴But he answered, “It is written,             ‘One does not live by bread alone,             but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”   ⁵Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple,  ⁶saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written,             ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’             and ‘On their hands they will bear you up,             so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”   ⁷Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”              ⁸Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor;  ⁹and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”  ¹⁰Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written,             ‘Worship the Lord your God,             and serve only him.’”   ¹¹Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

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Ash Wednesday Wednesday, February 6, 2008 GOSPEL Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21   In this passage Matthew sets forth a vision of genuine righteousness illustrated by three basic acts of Jewish devotion: almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. Jesus does not denounce the acts–in the New Testament they are signs of singular devotion to God. Rather, he criticizes those who perform them in order to have a sense of self-satisfaction or to gain public approval. Care for the poor, intense prayer, and fasting with a joyous countenance are signs of loving dedication to God.

[Jesus said to the disciples:] “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.             ²“So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. ³But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.             ⁵“And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. ⁶But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.             ¹⁶“And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. ¹⁷But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, ¹⁸so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.       ¹⁹“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; ²⁰but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

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Transfiguration of Our Lord 40 Days of Community: We’re Compelled to Love God’s Family February 3, 2008 GOSPEL Matthew 17:1-9   Shortly before he enters Jerusalem, where he will be crucified, Jesus is revealed to his disciples in a mountaintop experience of divine glory called the transfiguration.   Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves.  ²And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.  ³Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.  ⁴Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”  ⁵While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”  ⁶When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear.  ⁷But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.”  ⁸And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.              ⁹As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

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