Archive for March 2019

March 11, 2019 DAILY READING 1 John 2:1-6This weekend’s reading: Mark 14:43-52 FIELD NOTES “If someone claims, ‘I know him well!’ but doesn’t keep his commandments, he’s obviously a liar. His life doesn’t match his words. But the one who keeps God’s word is the person in whom we see God’s mature love. This is the…

March 9, 2019 DAILY READING John 12:27-36This weekend’s reading: Mark 15:21-24 FIELD NOTES“While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.” On the first day of creation, God created light and then separated the light from the dark.  There’s an old Jewish Midrash saying that goes, “and the…

March 8, 2019 DAILY READING Exodus 6:1-13This weekend’s reading: Mark 15:21-24 FIELD NOTESOur story today opens with God declaring: Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh!  And then in verses 2-8, God reminds Moses: that God has been there with his ancestors in the past, that God currently hears the cries of the…

March 7, 2019 DAILY READING Psalm 91This weekend’s reading: Mark 15:21-24 FIELD NOTESOne of the lessons I learn every Lent is the power of letting God be God. Of course, this requires me to surrender a lot. I must surrender my expectations of timing, my need to have things done in the way I want…

March 6, 2019 DAILY READING Joel 2:1-2, 12-17This weekend’s reading: Mark 15:21-24 FIELD NOTESToday – Ash Wednesday – is the beginning of Lent, which is a penitential season. Penance is a time of confession out of a desire for reconciliation.  As the Israelites gathered at Mount Sinai following 400 years of slavery in Egypt God reveals God’s…

March 5, 2019 DAILY READING Psalm 35:11-28This weekend’s reading: Mark 15:21-24 FIELD NOTESOur Psalm passage begins with: Malicious witness rise up; they ask me about things I do not know.  They repay me evil for god; my soul is forlorn.  And it ends with: Then my tongue shall tell of your righteousness, and of your…

March 4, 2019 DAILY READING Exodus 35:1-29This weekend’s reading: Mark 15:21-24 FIELD NOTESAfter 400 years of slavery in Egypt, the Israelites are being led into freedom and a new kind of living.  God has provided food, guidance, and a leader (Moses) for the journey.  God has met them at the Mountain and provided a code of…

March 2, 2019 DAILY READING Psalm 99Deuteronomy 9:15-24Luke 10:21-24This weekend’s reading: Luke 9:28-36 FIELD NOTESReading Moses’ continuing condemnation of the sins of God’s people (Deut 9:15-24) reminded me of Harry Emerson Fosdick’s great hymn “God of Grace and God of Glory” (UMH 577) with the line, “Lo! the hosts of evil round us.” We think…