Reflection for March 26, 2021
This week we’re looking at “The Promised Land”, found in Deuteronomy 34. You can read up on it here: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2034&version=NIV
I’m going to be honest. I’m working through Holy Week, and so I have the death of Jesus at the forefront of my mind while I write this. As I think of the death of Moses, the COVID-19 pandemic and Jesus’ dying on the cross, it got me to thinking… what if Moses lived and died in our time and within our traditions and rituals?
What are the traditions and rituals that you hold onto when someone passes away? In general, I think of a family gathering at the funeral home, planning a memorial or funeral service. They’re choosing readings and people to speak, songs, flowers and more. And they have to create an obituary. I wonder who would have wrote Moses’ obituary. I wonder what it would have said about him. In some ways, the stories of the bible could give us insight to seeing what we might have wrote about him if it were a task given to us.
But let’s take this to another level. What if God was to plan all funerals? What important pieces of his life would be included? Where would the recommendations for donations go? Would the service be in a church, the desert, a funeral home? Who would speak? What songs would they sing? What would God write about Moses in the obituary?
It gets me to wondering what God would have written in an obituary about some of our loved ones who have passed away. I also wonder what God would have written about our most faithful Christians who made quite an impact on our faith. I wonder what God will write about us… and what would we want God to write about us. Over Holy Week, I’ll be taking a little time to reflect on this – journalling through what I hope God would write about me at the end of my days assuming I have lots of years left to improve. On another day, what God might write about me if God was to show me what might have been written if it was to be published today. On a third day, I may reflect on the difference between the two and make some goals to do better for God.
Here’s a song for us to sit with today: “Angels Among Us” by Alabama
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_4Xfj2LRSA&feature=youtu.be
Will you pray with me?
Creating God, we thank you for all those who live among us who are living out their callings. Those callings may be lifelong callings or a calling they hear in a moment to help direct or change someone’s life. We thank you for Moses and how he was called to change the lives of the Israelites in what was their darkest hour. Thank you for sharing his story with us so that we can learn from it in many ways through many generations. Help us to hear you calling us. Help us to have the courage to ask you questions, to share our doubts, and to trust you. Surround us with angels who can help us through whatever we go through and to be angels who do the same for others. Bless us in your name. Amen.
This week we’re looking at “The Promised Land”, found in Deuteronomy 34. You can read up on it here: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2034&version=NIV
I’m going to be honest. I’m working through Holy Week, and so I have the death of Jesus at the forefront of my mind while I write this. As I think of the death of Moses, the COVID-19 pandemic and Jesus’ dying on the cross, it got me to thinking… what if Moses lived and died in our time and within our traditions and rituals?
What are the traditions and rituals that you hold onto when someone passes away? In general, I think of a family gathering at the funeral home, planning a memorial or funeral service. They’re choosing readings and people to speak, songs, flowers and more. And they have to create an obituary. I wonder who would have wrote Moses’ obituary. I wonder what it would have said about him. In some ways, the stories of the bible could give us insight to seeing what we might have wrote about him if it were a task given to us.
But let’s take this to another level. What if God was to plan all funerals? What important pieces of his life would be included? Where would the recommendations for donations go? Would the service be in a church, the desert, a funeral home? Who would speak? What songs would they sing? What would God write about Moses in the obituary?
It gets me to wondering what God would have written in an obituary about some of our loved ones who have passed away. I also wonder what God would have written about our most faithful Christians who made quite an impact on our faith. I wonder what God will write about us… and what would we want God to write about us. Over Holy Week, I’ll be taking a little time to reflect on this – journalling through what I hope God would write about me at the end of my days assuming I have lots of years left to improve. On another day, what God might write about me if God was to show me what might have been written if it was to be published today. On a third day, I may reflect on the difference between the two and make some goals to do better for God.
Here’s a song for us to sit with today: “Angels Among Us” by Alabama
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_4Xfj2LRSA&feature=youtu.be
Will you pray with me?
Creating God, we thank you for all those who live among us who are living out their callings. Those callings may be lifelong callings or a calling they hear in a moment to help direct or change someone’s life. We thank you for Moses and how he was called to change the lives of the Israelites in what was their darkest hour. Thank you for sharing his story with us so that we can learn from it in many ways through many generations. Help us to hear you calling us. Help us to have the courage to ask you questions, to share our doubts, and to trust you. Surround us with angels who can help us through whatever we go through and to be angels who do the same for others. Bless us in your name. Amen.
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