DAY 7

Image by Valerian Guillot

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A GREETING
Have mercy on me, God;
have mercy on me
because I have taken refuge in you.
(Psalm 57:1a)

A READING
“Come to me, all you who are struggling hard and carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Put on my yoke, and learn from me. I’m gentle and humble. And you will find rest for yourselves. My yoke is easy to bear, and my burden is light.”
(Matthew 11:28-30)

MUSIC


A MEDITATIVE VERSE
I stretch out my hands to you;
my whole being is like dry dirt, thirsting for you. Selah
(Psalm 143:6)

TWO POEMS
Love is rest.
Actually, the only rest humans have.
And nothing is as exhausting.
And it is freedom.
And yet, nothing binds us as securely.
Therein lies love's paradox.
Without love, it is as if one carried a burden
All the time and was prisoner to his loneliness,
No matter how free he is in his aloneness.

*********

We should say to one another,
Not, sorry, I bumped into you,
But, thank you, for touching me.
- "Love is a Rest," and "We Should Say to One Another,"
by Eeva Kilpi

VERSE OF THE DAY
I lifted the burden off your shoulders;
your hands are free.
(Psalm 81:6)

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"Hand of God," by Lorenzo Quinn (Shanghai, undated)
In this sculpture, a reflective figure sits on a hand which undergirds and supports it.
The artist includes underneath an image of the sculpture the full story, "Footprints in the Sand,"
by Mary Stevenson. The story is about a person reflecting on footprints he sees in the sand, which
sometimes seem to become only one set. The narrator interprets this as God having left them, but
God replies that the single set of prints represents times when the person was being held by God
through hard times. The sculpture represents that time of being held, and like Monday's sculpture,
the palm is open, the fingers are spread and curling and there is a sense of an unshakable foundation.

Today's short reading is one we may have heard many times: the invitation by Jesus to offer up our burdens into his care, while also entering into the "yoke" of living the work of discipleship. A yoke doesn't sound very inviting when we first hear this image. Being strapped into any obligation can feel limiting and frightening. Having to partner with someone means being tied to their decision making as much as our own. It may seem or feel like being forced along a specific path without freedom of choice. It may even sound like increasing a sense of weariness and burden rather than relieving it, especially when we consider that in the ancient world, yokes were used as part of the apparatus of forced labour with enslaved peoples and animals. A yoke can be a part of an economic system built on the backs of those with no voice.

But Jesus promises that being yoked to him will bring rest. How can that be? In the best agricultural practices of the era, yokes were measured and fashioned to fit the specific body of the animal so it would not strain or wound them. These kinds of yokes were also positioned so that the stronger ox or animal would carry the main part of the load. Jesus is suggesting it is this kind of yoke that allows him to partner with us in all that we do. The yoke we have with Jesus "fits" us, and allows a feeling of comfortably sharing the work of discipleship with him.

One burden we may wish to lift up to Jesus is our relationship to our bodies: the size, shape, condition, and other challenges of our bodies and how our bodies impact our daily lives. If some activities are harder than others due to age or changing capacity, if taking care of children has stressed our limits, if elder care or other responsibilities have caused us to feel weary, how might we imagine Jesus on the other side of that yoke? Or, in the spirit of the sculpture by Lorenzo Quinn, how might we feel ourselves held in his hand, as we pause to regather our energy?

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Image by Matt Binns

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Scripture passages are taken from the Common English Bible.

†

LC† From Dust, Still Holy is a devotional series of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help support the ongoing work. 
Thank you and peace be with you!

DAY 6

Image by Alec Mills

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A GREETING
You are my shelter and my shield—
I wait for your promise.
(Psalm 119:14)

A READING
Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. A woman was there who had been disabled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and couldn’t stand up straight. When he saw her, Jesus called her to him and said, “Woman, you are set free from your sickness.” He placed his hands on her and she straightened up at once and praised God.
(Luke 13:10-13)

MUSIC


A MEDITATIVE VERSE
Because he will order his messengers to help you,
to protect you wherever you go.
They will carry you with their own hands
so you don’t bruise your foot on a stone.
(Psalm 91:11-12)

A POEM
The crevasse
is deep and impenetrable,
its edges defined by sharp rock.

Its source,
once fed by glacial melt,
has long since dried up.

Wind-sheared trees
stand off on either side,
disfigured by the elements.

An eagle
riding the currents
across the divide

drops a seed
of hope.
- "Schism" by Emma Walton Hamilton, found in "Door to Door"

VERSE OF THE DAY
In the morning I will shout out loud
about your faithful love
because you have been my stronghold,
my shelter when I was distraught.
(Psalm 59:16)

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"Shelter II," by Lorenzo Quinn (click to enlarge)
In this sculpture, the artist creates hands that provide a shelter, and includes the following,
written in rhyming verse, but presented as a paragraph, written by the artist:
"When the world is too heavy, and silence is sharp, when shadows stretch longer than
the light in your heart -- I will be here. Not as a wall to imprison, nor a cage to confine,
but a haven, a shield, a love intertwined. My hands are the sky that bends to protect,
my strength is the whisper that guards you from wreck. You may bend, you may break,
you may weep in the night, but within these hands, you are held in the light. No storm
shall reach you, no darkness consume, for this in this embrace, there is always room."

Jesus helps a woman stand up who has been bent over for long years. It is another of the healing stories in which an immediate transformation takes place. After Jesus' touch, the woman is able to straighten. Jesus has not only healed her ailment, but has radically shifted her orientation. Now she can see outward and around herself as she could not before. To effect this transition, Jesus lays hands on her.

What does it mean to lay hands on someone? The Greek word for "hand", means both "by the agency or help of any one" and also the particular hand of God. Laying on of hands allows for both a symbolic and formal transmission of the creative and transformative power of God. In Numbers and Deuteronomy, Moses is instructed to "lay hands" on Joshua as a way of commissioning him to carry the agency of God that has been in Moses. We do something similar in our own liturgies of ordination and blessing. Some Christian communities practice laying on of hands for healing, while for others it can be a way of simply upholding someone in their everyday life.

The laying on of hands is a form of blessing, and also a passing of the mantel. It signals a cosmic shift in one's orientation to the world. When we have had hands laid on us, our gaze changes: we are able to straighten into our true selves always and be nearer to God.

There are ways to both carry and receive this life-giving energy. When we go for a walk in the woods, we can enjoy the feeling of rough bark on old trees as it stretches across our palms. When we see a stream, we can run the water through our fingers and watch as the light catches stones below. In these ways, nature takes care of us: it nurtures us and sustains us, allowing us to straighten and see a new world with wonder.

God's desire for our wellbeing encourages us to stretch and grow ourselves. When have you experienced the laying on of hands? How much would you say you still carry it in your body?

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In Minneapolis, members of Haven Watch (in orange vests) meet newly released detainees from the Whipple government facility detention centre. According to the Haven Watch website, detainees are released later at night, often without any money or cell phone. The Watch members greet each one with a blanket or a quilt and walk with them, in an embrace, to meet their families or to a shelter where they can orient. Each detainee is offered a hug. In this video, made on February 21st and with sound removed, the detainee runs their hand along the back of the Watch person in a moment of mutual comfort. Found on the Instagram accounts of the cookiecupcakes and minnesota50501.

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Scripture passages are taken from the Common English Bible.

†

LC† From Dust, Still Holy is a devotional series of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help support the ongoing work. 
Thank you and peace be with you!

DAY 5

Image by Stephen Smith

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Hands

A GREETING
My soul clings to you;
your mighty hand upholds me.
(Psalm 63:8)

A READING
Entering Peter’s house, Jesus found Peter’s mother-in-law in bed with a fever.
Jesus touched her hand and the fever left, and she got up and went about her work.
(Matthew 8:14-15)

MUSIC


A MEDITATIVE VERSE
How great is your constant love for me!
(Psalm 86:13)

A REFLECTION
An unexpected result of our following Jesus is that he always
follows us, so that we benefit others unintentionally, simply
by our fidelity... What characterizes this healing by Jesus is that
there is no intercession either by the sick person or by a friend. The
love of God enters the presence of human misery, and Jesus' hand
extends without hesitation... God's deft hands are drawing
new life out of nothingness and illness.
- from Fire of Mercy, Heart of the Word: Meditations on the Gospel According to St. Matthew
by Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis

VERSE OF THE DAY
And so I bless you while I live;
in your Name I lift up my hands.
(Psalm 63:4)

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"Trust," by Lorenzo Quinn (2002).
Bronze sculpture on marble pedestal (click to enlarge).
Lorenzo Quinn is a contemporary Italian-American sculptor whose work
is dominated by representations of hands, which he says are the hardest part of the body
for an artist to render in sculpture. Quinn believes the hands to be the most important
and most controversial part of the body, since hands soothe, nurture and care for others
but can also be destructive and violent. This hand, however, cradles the female figure.
How can this sculpture help you imagine how each of us is cared for by God?

For these first few days of the week, we will follow the hands of Jesus, as they become used in his ministry. While we most associate the work of his hands perhaps with healing stories, Jesus also used his hands to bless, to break bread, wash feet, calm the storm, and more. The human hands of Jesus bring about divine healing, and they also participate in ordinary everyday work.

Today's very brief healing story is a bit of both. It is told casually, almost in real time. Jesus enters Peter’s home and sees a suffering woman within Peter’s household. He touches her hand and moves on. In the quiet of his departure, her recovery has occurred. No one has asked for this healing. Jesus has simply responded to what he sees.

As Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis has written, when we follow Jesus, we carry him with us. The story invites us to remember that when we enter into any home of someone who has asked us to pray with them, we bring Jesus with us. We may not have Jesus’ capacity for complete transformation, but we offer our hands and hearts in service, as our way of bringing him in the room. And we can pray into suffering, knowing Jesus is there.

“No simple act of mercy escapes his watchful eye,” we hear in today’s music. Jesus sees Peter’s mother-in-law and he sees the person you care about too. And you yourself. “This you have asked of us: do little things with great love.”

Who will benefit from knowing that Jesus travels with you today?
What will be your small acts of great love?

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Image by Frank Moroni

†

Scripture passages are taken from The Inclusive Bible.

†

LC† From Dust, Still Holy is a devotional series of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help support the ongoing work. 
Thank you and peace be with you!

DAY 4

Image by Rennett Stowe

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A GREETING
I cry aloud to you, O God,
and you answer me from the mountain of your holiness.
(Psalm 3:4)

A READING
“Look at the birds in the sky. They don’t sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet our God in heaven feeds them. Aren’t you more important than they? Which of you by worrying can add a moment to your lifespan? And why be anxious about clothing? Learn a lesson from the way the wildflowers grow. They don’t work; they don’t spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in full splendor was arrayed like one of these. God knows everything you need. If God can clothe in such splendor the grasses of the field, which bloom today and are thrown on the fire tomorrow, won’t God do so much more for you—you who have so little faith? Seek first God’s reign, and God’s justice, and all these things will be given to you besides.
(Matthew 6:26-30;33)

MUSIC


A MEDITATIVE VERSE
The Devil left, and angels came and attended Jesus.
(Matthew 4:11)

REFLECTIVE WISDOM
Know the way of the ones who take care of you, so that you may take care of them.
Introduce yourself. Be accountable to the one who comes asking for life.
Ask permission before taking. Abide by the answer.
Never take the first. Never take the last.
Take only what you need.
Take only that which is given...
Sustain the ones who sustain you and the earth will last forever.
- from "The Honourable Harvest," in Braiding Sweetgrass
by Robin Wall Kimmerer

VERSE OF THE DAY
Now I can lie down and sleep, and then awake again,
for you have hold of me.
(Psalm 3:5)

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"Christ in the Wilderness - Consider the Lilies," by Stanley Spencer (1939).
In another of his paintings which conflate Jesus' ministry and sayings with his
time in the wilderness, Spencer suggests that Jesus is being comforted by Creation.
His body positioning invokes a deep wonder and reflection. The part of Jesus that was
present at the creation of the world would be at home in any part of the wilderness.
But perhaps the angels who come to take care of him take the form of desert daisies.

In our final day with Jesus in the wilderness, we hear that he is finally at rest from being manipulated by the Tempter. Now instead of being subjected to pressure, he is attended to by angels. He is nearing the end of his sojourn, when he must shift into the work itself and return to the Galilee.

We all have had the experience of going through something challenging in which our adrenalin systems are on high alert and for a stretch of time we have fear or acute anxiety. When the moment subsides, we feel an inner collapse -- gratitude mixed with exhaustion and emotion. Those who meet us in that moment and offer us assistance or companionship become precious shoulders to lean on. They give us a strength we can't generate for ourselves.

Often this begins with care for the body. Friends and neighbours bring us food so that we don't have to worry about providing for ourselves and our families while we recover or regain our normal equilibrium. We have all experienced 'ministering angels' and perhaps we have also all been an angel at one point or another.

In the kindom of God fulfilled, we all can depend on each other with the same kind of certainty as we rely on God. This is what Jesus means as he talks about anxiety and fear in the midst of change. Our concern about scarcity can prevent us from sharing in our own abundance. The reassurance Jesus offers only works if we are helping to create an abundance that benefits all. We are not people of "little faith" in God, but Jesus is cautioning us not to have little faith in what true human generosity can achieve.

The trial of Jesus in the desert is a reckoning with his human body. Over the forty days, he has experienced the changes of the body that can come from hunger and thirst, from weariness and journeying, from oppressive and abusive forces. He can enter his ministry with a deeper knowledge of what it means to be fully human.

Today's final painting by Stanley Spencer shows Jesus on all fours deeply engaged with wildflowers. Spencer imagines that in the midst of his struggles, the very earth itself offers Jesus abundant cause for wonder. In the coming days, as we journey out with Jesus, how can we keep in our hearts his human body? How can our understanding of the sacredness of bodies be transformed?

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Image by Tracey Adams

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Scripture passages are taken from the Inclusive Bible.

The next devotional day is Monday, February 23rd.

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LC† From Dust, Still Holy is a devotional series of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help support the ongoing work. 
Thank you and peace be with you!

DAY 3

Image by Bob Wick

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A GREETING
So many are asking,
“Does good even exist anymore?”
Let the light of your face, O God, shine on us!
(Psalm 4:1)

A READING
Then the Devil took Jesus up higher and showed him all the nations of the world in a single instant. The Devil said, “I’ll give you all the power and the glory of these nations; the power has been given to me and I can give it to whomever I wish. Prostrate yourself in homage before me, and it will all be yours.” In reply, Jesus said, “Scripture has it: ‘You will worship the Most High God; God alone will you adore.’” Then the Devil led Jesus to Jerusalem, set him up on the parapet of the Temple and said, “If you are God’s Own, throw yourself down from here, for scripture has it, ‘God will tell the angels to take care of you; with their hands they’ll support you, that you may never stumble on a stone.’” Jesus said to the Devil in reply, “It also says, ‘Do not put God to the test.’”
(Luke 4:5-12)

MUSIC
Three different dancers respond to the music composed and played by Polish artist Hania Rani --
against an Icelandic landscape. How do our bodies move differently,
alone and set free? How does this contrast how Jesus is handled?


A MEDITATIVE VERSE
Jesus replied, “Foxes have lairs, the birds of the sky have nests,
but the Chosen One has nowhere to rest.”
(Luke 9:57)

A PRAYER
Some days I prefer
to ignore your assurances,
pave my own path, lose my own way,
cross quicksand if I have to --
anything but
relinquish my will.
Remember the blistering, narcissistic desert,
the devil who taunted you there?
You know it well - the desire, the drive
to conceive and control, predict and prevail.
You, too, have wrestled the egoistic impulse,
the credit-hoarding greed of spirit
that flares within and keeps me,
on some days, from offering praise,
stops me from seeking your face
or following your excellent way.
I'm left to my echoing solitude,
murmuring my own name.
Jesus, teach me to pray. Lend me your hand,
Talk to me of forgiveness until
all my dear falsehoods fall way.
Mend the cracked compass of my mind,
and guide me to my true desire.
 - from "All My Dear Falsehoods" in Oblation: Meditations on St. Benedict's Rule
by Rachel M. Srubas

VERSE OF THE DAY
Happiness comes to those
who reject the path of violence.
(Psalm 1:1)

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"Christ in the Wilderness -- Foxes Have Holes," by Stanley Spencer (1939).
Quoting Matthew 8 and Luke 9, this painting captures the essence
of Jesus' response to would-be followers who might have thought that following him would bring 
them glory by association. Instead, he says, foxes and birds have places where they can
rest, but if you hang your hat with Jesus, you live a life of transience. Spencer's painting was made in
 1939 when, even in England, people had become gravely concerned about the rise of Hitler and the
 expulsion and forced relocation of many Jewish people, as well as Catholics, queer folks
and artists whose work was believed to be degenerate. In Spencer's painting, the foxes are both playful
and slightly menacing: they hem him in, a contrast to yesterday's painting with the hen and chicks.
The positioning of Jesus' body foreshadows the Cross.

Having failed to get Jesus to demonstrate his power in the small way of turning stone to bread, the Tempter now forcibly moves Jesus around. The body of Jesus is made airborne to a place where a vast view of surrounding kingdoms and nations is on offer. When this is not enough to convert Jesus, the Tempter moves him again, now to the pinnacle of the Temple, the highest point of the Temple's structure. He is being suspended physically between heaven and earth. From here he is being pressured to throw his physical body downward, to demonstrate in a presumed spectacle to all who may see it, that God intervenes and prevents him from harm.

The physicality of these encounters is the first evidence of how Jesus will be treated by actual human authorities. He is being bullied and coerced, just as he will be when he is before Herod and Pilate. The Tempter is giving him a glimpse of his own future -- which is perhaps one of the ways that it is a trial for Jesus. He has no interest in the actual deal being presented, but what he must endure is the physical manipulations. There is a vulnerability in the way he is pushed around. For now he is able to prevent himself from becoming a spectacle at the hands of corrupt leaders. That will change when he is crucified.

In our own time, we live in an era when powerful people are increasingly trying to shore up their power, through the physical coercion of other people. The capture and forced imprisonment of those who are innocent is playing out all over the world, and also close to home. It is before us in our news feeds, in North American cities and in the conflicts taking place in other lands. At the same time, we are also seeing resistance, the heroic efforts of those who seek justice and put their own bodies on the line for it. This is something we will explore in the coming days.

What the Tempter doesn't know is that Jesus doesn't need the power being offered. Jesus is already a part of something greater than any kind of human power. And yet, as a human being, Jesus is being forced to see such decision making through a human lens. It is an encounter with evil and with power that is at the heart of his commitment to preaching the need to release all captives. As a Galilean Jewish man in a Roman-occupied territory, and as someone who is committed to changing the way the world works, he knows that his body will be very much at risk always.

How can Jesus' strength inspire courage in us? If we believe that a spark of the Divine rests in each one of us, what is the role that spark plays in the decisions we make? We can choose to help shore up the power of others through our indifference or unwillingness to act. We can also resist, with our bodies and our words, so that others may thrive. There are also many nuanced moments of decision making inbetween. The Jesus who dwells with us and within us encourages us to be brave in the face of our wilderness devils.

What are the ways that your faith has fostered courage in you and in members of your community? Who do you know who could use support today in overcoming injustice?

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Image by Kandukuru Nagarjan

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Scripture passages are taken from the Inclusive Bible.

†

LC† From Dust, Still Holy is a devotional series of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help support the ongoing work. 
Thank you and peace be with you!

DAY 2

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A GREETING
My soul aches with thirst for God, for a god that lives!
When can I go and see God face to face?
(Psalm 42:2)

A READING
Jesus returned from the Jordan filled with the Holy Spirit, and she led him into the desert for forty days, where he was tempted by the Devil. Jesus ate nothing during that time, at the end of which he was famished. The Devil said to Jesus, “If you are God’s Own, command this stone to turn into bread.” Jesus answered, “Scripture has it, ‘We don’t live on bread alone.’"
(Luke 4:1-4)

MUSIC


A MEDITATIVE VERSE
Oh, how often have I yearned to gather you together, 
like a hen gathering her chicks under her wings!
(Matthew 23:37)

A REFLECTION
What I heard and continue to hear, is a voice that can crack religious and political convictions open, that advocates for the least qualified, least official, least likely; that upsets the established order and makes a joke of certainty. It proclaims against reason that the hungry will be fed, that those cast down will be raised up, and that all things, including my own failures, are being made new... And it insists that by opening ourselves to strangers, the despised or frightening or unintelligible other, we will see more and more of the holy, since, without exception, all people are one body: God's.
from Take this Bread: A Radical Conversion, by Sara Miles

VERSE OF THE DAY
For God has satisfied the thirsty
and filled the hungry with good things.
(Psalm 107:9)

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"Christ in the Wilderness - The Hen," by Stanley Spencer (1954)
In Matthew 23, Jesus grieves over Jerusalem and expresses (in the midst of rebuke) 
a deep longing for its restoration. His compassion takes the image of a mother hen and her brood. 
In Spencer's painting, his body encloses the hen and her chicks in a protective circle. 
Although he is conflating scriptural events to put the hen in the desert, the image gains in 
meaning when we consder that Jesus is "famished" in the wilderness. Rather than 
consider the hen as food, his desire is to hold it close to his body.

How does the Tempter invoke the needs of the body to taunt Jesus? The longer version of the story of Jesus' time in the wilderness in both Matthew and Luke unfolds as a conversation about power and what it means. In both versions, we hear that Jesus was hungry at the end of his fast. The Tempter starts here with that basic body need: food. Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 8:3 in a verse that summarizes the exile: God did indeed feed people in the wilderness with manna, to show that faith in God's promise is food for the soul. In Holy Week, the two will become entwined when Jesus says, "this is my body" as he breaks bread with his friends.

In our own world, we know only too well how much food can become a pawn in the welfare of those who are hungry. The blockade of aid to Gaza and the cancellation of food programs in many parts of Africa (just in this past year alone) pit human hunger against the need to express or retain geopolitical power. It is possible for Jesus to resist the needs of his body, but it is not possible for the rest of us to survive without basic nutrition. This is why Jesus calls us often in the gospels to feed the hungry.

Jesus refuses the temptation to turn stones into bread, because the kind of power that the Tempter envisions is not real or desirable to Jesus and he has no need to prove who he is. In time it will become clear through a different encounter with food: when Jesus transforms a single loaf of bread into enough to feed many. And after the Resurrection, Jesus will be known to his friends in Emmaus through the breaking of bread.

When we work to feed people, we are helping to restore the wellness anyone requires in order to thrive. Many church communities provide regular meals and food distribution as part of living out their faith. How are you and/or your faith community working to combat hunger in your neighbourhood? How can you see such work as a resistance to empire, and a way of meeting the "famished" Jesus in the wilderness?


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Image by Jonathan Cook-Fisher

†

Scripture passages are taken from The Inclusive Bible. Note: In both Greek and Hebrew the pronoun for the Holy Spirit is feminine. Its presence in this translation is a faithfulness to the text rather than a symbolic gesture of inclusion.

†

LC† From Dust, Still Holy is a devotional series of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help support the ongoing work. 
Thank you and peace be with you!

DAY 1 - ASH WEDNESDAY

Image by PhotoArt Images

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A GREETING
God! My God! It’s you—
I search for you!
My whole being thirsts for you!
My body desires you
in a dry and tired land,
no water anywhere.
(Psalm 63:1)

A READING
At once the Spirit forced Jesus out into the wilderness.
He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan.
(Mark 1:12-13)

MUSIC


A MEDITATIVE VERSE
Strengthen the weak hands,
and support the unsteady knees.
(Isaiah 35:3)

A PRAYER
Let yourself receive the one
who is opening to you so deeply.
For if we genuinely love Him
we wake up inside Christ's body

where all our body, all over,
every most hidden part of it,
is realized in joy as Him,
and He makes us, utterly, real,

and everything that is hurt, everything
that seemed to us dark, harsh, shameful,
maimed, ugly, irreparably
damaged, is in Him transformed.
- from "We awaken in Christ's body", by Symeon the New Theologian.
English version by Stephen Mitchell, found in The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry

VERSE OF THE DAY
My whole being clings to you;
your strong hand upholds me.
(Psalm 63:7)

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"Driven by the Spirit into the Wilderness," by Stanley Spencer (1943)
Throughout his life, Spencer, a British visual artist of the 20th century,
made paintings featuring the figure of Jesus in the wilderness as he encounters creatures
and botanical life that will become significant in his ministry. The fullness of the
Christ body represented here is a counterpoint to the often slim figure that 
appears in paintings and sculpture, and which often seems meant to emphasize Jesus' suffering.
How does it challenge us to see Jesus full of strength and size and full-bodied health? 
Here, he is as robust and strong as the surrounding wilderness.
For these first four days, we will reflect on Spencer's Jesus.

"I've been holding something heavy."

Those sung words of Jacob Collier may capture how many of us are feeling in these days. As Canada grieves with the people of Tumbler Ridge BC, as we stand in solidarity with those fighting to hold on to essential freedoms, as we watch our planet's climate and ecological systems become less and less protected, as wars continue to rage and ceasefires fail, we may feel heavy with sadness, grief and fear. And then there is all that is going on in our own lives.

We carry all of our anxiety and grief in our hearts and minds, but our "heaviness" also takes its toll on our bodies. We can feel less energized, more listless, unable to sleep. It can be hard in the thick of winter, when temperatures plummet and snow seems perpetual, to make ourselves move. Our new year's resolutions may have begun to fade and spring feels hard to imagine.

How can Lent help us reorient? How can walking with Jesus in the wilderness help us to renew our discipleship while taking better care of ourselves and of each other?

Symeon the New Theologian was a tenth century monk. His prayer is a cry for the restoration of the body so that all might participate in the body of Christ. Restoration and renewal can be ours regardless of the age or lived realities of our bodies. Jesus sees, loves and dwells with us in the wildernesses of our lives, while also holding up the wholeness of who we really are.

In these first few days, we will reflect on the human body of Jesus in the wilderness. Over the next weeks, we will explore how human beings use their bodies in service to the world and to each other. We will also lift up aging bodies, the bodies that are struggling to escape oppression and poverty, and the bodies that express artistic and athletic gifts.

As we journey forward together, how can we learn to hold our "heaviness" while renewing our capacity to build God's kindom? Where will we find the sacred in the midst?

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Image by PhotoArt Images

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Scripture passages are taken from the Common English Bible.

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LC† From Dust, Still Holy is a devotional series of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help support the ongoing work. 
Thank you and peace be with you!

WELCOME

"This is my body," by Antonio Sicurezza (1969)

LC† From Dust, Still Holy
February 18 - April 8, 2026
Daily, except Sundays

Many people find the season of Lent a helpful time for reflecting on their own journeys of faith. For over fifteen years, Lutherans Connect has assisted in this practice by offering daily devotions with music, scripture, poetry and reflective writing. Once again, we invite you to join us daily (except Sundays) for a time of meditation and renewal.

This season, we look at "the body as sacred space,” how each of us is made in God’s image. How much do we idealize what bodies should look like or be capable of? How can we challenge those preconceptions to see the sacred that lies within each human being?

As Christians in Lent, we can reflect on the word “body” in several ways: the "body" of Christ is the corporeal body of Jesus that will be hung on the Cross. The body is also a real presence we experience during Holy Communion, as we remember the body and blood sacrificed by Jesus. And the "body of Christ" can be the universal community of followers of Jesus.

We will also explore how our bodies hold our diverse identities. Our physical, emotional and spiritual experiences are all a part of being embodied. They help to make up who we are. How do our cultural histories impact how we think about the body?

Join us as we walk in faith together. And may the peace of Christ bless you on your Lenten journey.