Lent 6, April 10, 2022: Embody Sacrifice 

Blessings this Holy Week to you!

Yesterday, on Palm Sunday, as our children led the palm processional, we begin the final week of Lent which is also known as Holy Week. Do everything you can to make this week a priority. Let yourself focus on spiritual practices, take time to be quiet, to feel the sadness of the week, and make plans to attend a Maundy Thursday service, Good Friday service, and/or Easter Vigil service as we sit in the heaviness of the death of Jesus, our Lord. 

Though our lectionary scripture takes us to Luke’s version of the Last Supper, we know from John’s version that during this final supper Jesus had with his friends, he bent down and washed their feet. This act of service took a lot of sacrifice on Jesus’ part; he sacrificed his ‘power over’ and embraced a ‘power with’ in order to serve his friends. In Luke’s version, we see the disciples arguing at dinner about who is the greatest of them. Jesus corrects them saying, the greatest one among you serves and then says, “But I am among you as one who serves.” Wow.

When we serve others, we are hopefully motivated by love (though other motives are certainly possible). If motivated by love, we are sacrificing our time and energy, redirecting it from being spent on ourselves to spending it on others. When we admit we don’t actually know the best ways to serve others at times, we can be open to sacrificing a need to control and embrace learning. When we choose to live in contrast to the insatiable greed that our society operates within, that may lead us to sacrifice in certain ways. These sacrifices, though they can be uncomfortable, can become the soil where abundant life grows.

Scripture: Luke 19:28-40, Luke 22:14-27

Song: Listen to Lean on Me by Bill Withers 

Write or draw a prayer that embodies what sacrifice feels or looks like for you