Southwood Lutheran Church

Grace Changes Everything: 4-8 (Easter Sunday)

Sunday, April 8 (Easter Sunday)
John 20:11-18

You might wonder how in the world Mary didn’t recognize the resurrected Jesus. After all, she’d known Him well during His lifetime and spent countless hours with Him. Now she stood at His very tomb, saw that His body was missing and observed two white-robed angels sitting where His body had been. The signs seem obvious, don’t they? Yet Mary didn’t recognize Jesus, even when he stood before her and spoke to her.

Mary Magdalene was blinded by her circumstances. More specifically, she was blinded by grief, so much that she could not perceive the very real resurrected Jesus standing right in front of her.

Is it not the same for us sometimes?

Any number of circumstances can blind us to God’s very real presence in our lives. Maybe, like Mary, it’s grief. Maybe you are walking through a valley of darkness right now, grieving the loss of a loved one and feeling lonely, isolated and abandoned.

Or perhaps it’s simply busyness that inhibits your ability to see. Have you filled your life so full with obligations, work and socializing that you haven’t allowed yourself the time to sit quietly in His presence?

Maybe, as we talked about earlier this Lent, it’s an idol that’s blinding you. Are you focusing too much attention on a goal or dream, or on a material possession? Or perhaps it’s anger, resentment, guilt, bitterness, ingratitude or an inability to forgive that is serving as a roadblock in your relationship with God.

Or maybe it’s a trust issue. Have you opened your heart fully to Him? Have you actually allowed Him to work in your life, or are you holding Him at a distance, unwilling to let Him lead the way?

So many variables have the potential to influence our ability to connect with God. We need to be aware of what might be obscuring our ability to see and hear God—we need to ask ourselves these hard questions and stay on guard against these powerful influences.

God makes Himself available to you always. He is right here—standing in front of you, calling your name. It’s your job to clear the way for Him to shine His love and light directly into your life.

Lord, You come to me today on Easter Sunday and every day. Yet like Mary, I don’t always see You, even when You are so obviously present. Help me see clearly the impediments that block my ability to connect with You. Help me make a straight path to You. Amen.

Grace Changes Everything: 4-7

Saturday, April 7
John 19:38-42

Both Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus hid their belief while Jesus was alive. They were afraid to follow Him publicly because they didn’t want to risk their positions of authority in the community. Yet after Jesus’ death, it was Joseph and Nicodemus who came out of hiding to perform the dangerous task of taking Jesus’ body from the cross and lovingly preparing it for burial. Joseph and Nicodemus could have worried or despaired that they’d come to faith too late. They could have kept quiet, assuming, “Why bother now? Just forget it…it’s too late.” But they didn’t—instead they boldly and bravely put their faith into action for all to witness.

Lord, please give me the courage to act boldly in faith. Help me overcome my fear of sharing my faith and provide opportunities for me to proclaim my love for You. Amen.

Grace Changes Everything: 4-6 (Good Friday)

Friday, April 6 (Good Friday)
John 18:33-37

While the true Kingdom awaits us in Heaven, we are mistaken if we assume Jesus wants us to set our sights only on attaining eternal life. Jesus wants us to live out the Kingdom in the here and now, so that others may glimpse a hint of the glories that are to come. As the Son of God, Jesus knew what awaited Him after death; He knew His time on earth was limited. Yet in His 33 years on Earth, He lived and breathed Kingdom truths and values into His every action and interaction, and He expects us to do the same. As Richard Stearns writes in The Hole in Our Gospel: “The gospel—the whole gospel—means much more than the personal salvation of individuals…The whole gospel is a vision for ushering in God’s kingdom—now, not in some future time, and here, on earth, not in some distant heaven.”

Are you ready to broaden your vision of Heaven to encompass the here and now?

Grace Changes Everything: 4-5 (Maundy Thursday)

Thursday, April 5 (Maundy Thursday)
John 13:1-17 & 31-35

Jesus was serious when he instructed that we love our neighbor; so serious, in fact, that He added it to God’s list of the original Ten Commandments. “I am giving you a new commandment,” Jesus tells the disciples after He washes their feet. “Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.” It’s a tall order, isn’t it: to love each other just as Jesus loves each one of us? How can we possibly live up to that? After all, while Jesus was infallible, we are human—sinful and flawed at our core. Jesus knew that about His disciples, just as He knows that about us, yet He loves us despite our myriad flaws. We don’t always succeed in loving others, but when we do, we serve as a shining example of Jesus Christ.

Jesus considered loving others so important that he made it a commandment. What’s one tangible action you might take to live up to that commandment this week? How might you “wash another’s feet?”

Grace Changes Everything: 4-4

Wednesday, April 4
Micah 6:6-8

In the passage preceding this verse, the Israelites ponder the best way to worship God. Yet they miss the whole point in their focus on material things: yearling calves, thousands of rams, ten thousand rivers of olive oil and even the sacrifice of their first-born children. They are blind to the fact that God is not interested in material gifts. God doesn’t want our money if our heart isn’t invested in the gift. He doesn’t want us to try to earn His favor or win Him over with promises of adoration and worship. He simply wants our genuine, faith-inspired action to compel us to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with Him.

For the rest of this week, keep these three requirements at the top of your mind, and then check in with yourself periodically throughout each day to see if you are doing what is right, loving mercy and walking humbly with God.

Grace Changes Everything: 4-3

Tuesday, April 3
Hosea 6:4-6

God does not want forced love. God does not want obligated love. God desires love that flows naturally out of our faith in and worship of Him, which in turn flows from His gift of grace to us. Merely going through the motions of religion—following the commandments, tithing, attending Sunday worship—isn’t nearly enough for God. He wants our hearts, minds and souls in relationship with Him. This kind of love, this kind of relationship, begins to flourish once we open ourselves fully to God and allow His grace and love to seep into our hearts.

Are you simply practicing religion? Know that God wants more from you. The first step is to accept His ever-present love for you. Immersing yourself in His love will unleash your love for Him and enable that love to flow back to Him.

Grace Changes Everything: 4-2

Monday, April 2
Luke 10:25-37

Jesus intentionally followed the commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27) with the story of the Good Samaritan to demonstrate the breadth and depth of His definition of the words “neighbor” and “love.” We, on the other hand, want to keep these definitions as small and limiting as possible. After all, it’s relatively easy for us to love our families and friends—to care for them, to serve them, to offer them mercy. But what about the irritating co-worker? The neighbor who drives us insane? The person who practices a religion or custom we consider foreign or even wrong? The person who leads a radically different lifestyle than we do? The drug addict or the person imprisoned for murder? Are we expected to love these people, too? Are we expected to show them mercy and compassion? Are we expected to serve them, too? People we don’t like? People we don’t respect? People we don’t understand? People we fear? Jesus’ has a simple answer for us: Yes.

Today, think honestly about a person you would least like to serve. And then pray to God not only to fill you with compassion, mercy and love but also to find a demonstrable way to serve that person.

Grace Changes Everything: 4-1 (Palm Sunday)

Sunday, April 1 (Palm Sunday)
Mark 11:1-11

Have you ever felt jarred or unnerved by the disparity between the jubilant celebration and expectation of this scene and the abuse and rejection that follows so quickly after? Jesus rides into Jerusalem so triumphantly, to a chorus of praise, cheers and worship, only to have the tables turned against Him dramatically and violently not long after. Why? How could that possibly have happened, we wonder? How could the people have turned against Him so quickly?

It all came down to expectations that first Palm Sunday. The people had very clear expectations of what their Savior would look like, how He would act and how He would reestablish the kingdom and the reign of the Jews over the Romans. And when Jesus didn’t live up to those expectations, when He didn’t act as the type of King and Savior they had envisioned, the people abandoned Him.

We’d like to think we wouldn’t have reacted the same way, had we been the people who’d stood on the side of the road to welcome Jesus to Jerusalem. We’d like to think we would have remained loyal followers of Jesus to the end. Yet many of us are guilty of similar betrayal, even today, two thousand years later—and even when we know how the story ends. We, too, are capable of turning from praise to protest. We, too, are capable of abandoning Jesus.

Have you ever hoped or even expected Jesus to solve a problem in a particular way? Have you ever prayed for a certain resolution or outcome, only to find yourself discouraged that God didn’t seem to hear you or come through for you? Have you ever turned away from God in anger or disappointment because it seemed like He didn’t show up or provide the remedy that you desired?

Most of us have felt this way at some point in our lives. Most of us have experienced disappointment, discouragement, frustration, anger, sorrow or hopelessness when our prayers or hopes weren’t answered by God the way we wanted or expected. And we may not want to see it this way, but those feelings, that turn from God, is not unlike the way the early followers turned from Jesus.

The point of Palm Sunday for us is that we do know the glorious end of the story, which is exactly what we need to remember during times of anguish, suffering and darkness. Jesus is with us always—even when we can’t sense His presence, even when it seems like He’s not there. And He is always working in our best interest, paving our way toward His light. He may not work in the ways we expect, or even in the ways we’d prefer, but He is working indeed.

Lord, help me rely not on my own expectations of You, but simply on You. Help me trust You, Lord, Amen.

Grace Changes Everything: 3-31

Saturday, March 31
Matthew 11:28-30

There are times when living life is work. It may be that you are suffering through an illness, the death of a loved one, or the loss of your job. You may be struggling with parenting or another strained relationship. Or you may simply feel burned out, exhausted and depleted by your day-to-day existence. Jesus reminds us that there is a time for work and a time for rest. Most of us neglect the rest part, yet there are occasions in our lives when we need to hand ourselves over to Him, to unburden ourselves of anxieties and fears. Jesus will take your heavy burdens in exchange for lightness and hope. Your job is to let Him do exactly that.

Jesus, You alone know the weight of this burden I bear. Help me relinquish this struggle and hand it over to You. Release me from this weight and let me rest in You. Amen.

Grace Changes Everything: 3-30

Friday, March 30
Psalm 90:13-17

Sometimes we forget that God delights in our successes. We forget that it’s not an inherently bad thing to be successful in our efforts and endeavors. Sure, God wants us to serve others generously, but he also wants to see us be successful in our jobs, in our parenting and in our home life and relationships. He wants us to persevere, to achieve our ambitions and dreams. God knows that as human beings, we have a drive to achieve and to succeed. He created us that way; He blessed us with that drive. And He delights when we use our God-given ambition to further His kingdom on Earth.

Today, pray to God that He will make your efforts successful, and ask Him to keep you focused on using your ambition and success to bless others.