Read: 1 Peter 3:18-22

“He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.” – 1 Peter 3:18b

The time of God appearing in burning bushes and pillars of fire was over. God now chose to reach out to his rebellious creatures in a way they could easily relate to. He took on their bodily form. Through it, he walked among them, lived and ate with them, spoke to and touched them. He lived out what he preached, hoping the people would understand and follow him, not just to be healed and fed, but to learn to heal and feed others. To his people, he gave hope for a better world. And then he was gone, a victim of hate, fear, and ignorance. But only the body was lost to his faithful followers. The Spirit was born as the body gave way. The Spirit was in the world, but not of it. It was present not in one body, but in all who took Jesus’s words into their hearts. His Spirit walked in the world with the faithful who continued his work after his ascension. It is still walking today, in the faithful who refuse to give way to the hate and fear mongers of this world, who refuse to give in to discouraging words. It enlivens those who persevere in living out Jesus’s teachings and ministries, sharing love and compassion with a distressed world, healing those who are hurt, and feeding those who are hungry. Knowing this gives me hope.

Gracious God, who has spoken to humanity across the ages and called us into a loving relationship with you, I give you thanks for your constant and faithful presence among us. Grant that I may be faithful to you and your vision of this life. In Jesus’s name, I pray. Amen.
-Carol Treston

Read: 1 Peter 3:18-22

“In which he proclaimed to the spirit in prison” – 1 Peter 3:19

On Saturday, January 20, 2024, Carol Boss, Sandy McDougall, and I attended a mini OPOP, One Parish One Prisoner seminar at First United Methodist Church in Olympia, Washington with Chris Hoke, Alvin Shim, and members of their awesome and dedicated OPOP staff to facilitate the meeting. This was of interest to us as St.Paul’s has sponsored Paul Fuentes and we wanted to hear and share information with other teams with dreams, hopes, stories, and ideas.

After a blessing from Rev. Jonathan Weldon, part of our morning session included a panel of men and women who had been released from prison and had been placed with an OPOP team. The OPOP teams were from different churches, mostly around the Olympia area and there was a lively question and answer with sharing their stories, heartaches, hopes, fears, and successes with lots of tears, laughter, and smiles. After a lunch of pizza, tacos, and salad, we settled down for an afternoon of sharing information with other teams, networking, and sharing updates from Chris and Alvin. An informative report from Candice Baughman let us know about criminal legal and policing bills being introduced in the Washington legislative this 2024 session.

Hope rippled around the room, hope for more inmates to find a team, hope for teams waiting for their new person to be able to start a new life, hope for reconciliation between the released and their families, and hope for “walking alongside just one neighbor leaving the tombs of incarceration”.

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11) Amen.
-Mary Ann Taylor

Read: 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10

Having spent a few years in Iran, I got to know the works of the Sufi poet Rumi. My Farsi was never good enough to read his poetry in the original, but inasmuch as Farsi is celebrated as “the language of the nightingale,” and knowing its beauty as a spoken language, I can only imagine its power. It is certainly beautiful as rendered in my mother tongue. There is a section of 2 Corinthians that reminds me of Rumi in both spirit and cadence: “…genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.” I think Rumi would have related to these dualities.

Lord, grant me the wisdom and grace to live gracefully into the duality of the flesh and the spirit. Amen.
-Michael Boss

Read: 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10

Here is 2 Corinthians 5:20b, times three versions. Circle the words that jump out at you:

One: We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. (NIV)

Two: We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. (RSV)

Now, three. This one makes my heart leap, then ache:

We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God, he’s already a friend with you. (Msg)

Reconcile: In Christ, we are restored to right relationship with God. God is the reconciler, we are the beneficiaries.

Is there anything more intertwined with hope than this idea of reconciliation? We hope for relationships to be reconciled. We hope our statement reconciles with the bank! Sometimes we cannot accept something — cannot reconcile it with what is good and just — and hope for change.

Did you happen to circle either of the ‘begging’ words in the verses above? Implore. Beseech. In other places, this same word is translated as urge, beg, encourage, and plead. God’s heart sounds very desperate here – God so desires that we have real hope (not as the world gives) and pleads with us to accept his friendship. We are reconciled because God really, really wants us. He doesn’t begrudge the effort. You are wanted, beloved.

Lord, today we see that you hope. You hope that people will not put you off any longer. We pause to thank you for Jesus, who makes this possible and for the Spirit who pleads with our spirits to accept. We pause to consider how you pursue us and so desire things to be right between us. Please keep calling to those who resist: neighbors, family, ourselves. You have readied the path, help us to walk in it. Amen.
-Nicole Smith

Read: 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10

“We entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” – 2 Corinthians 5:20b

God is love, or so we’re told / God seeks us out, like precious gold / A lost little lamb, to God we be / God won’t rest ‘til God finds us, She / And if we make a mess of life / God sees right through our every strife / and though we hide our wounds from God / God finds the effort so very odd / for the only desire of God for we / is to live with God in eternity / and though we may feel quite frail – at odds / we learn, regardless, that we are God’s.

“We entreat you – be reconciled to God!” The days at the start of Lent are short, the nights still long. I find it hard to whip up much enthusiasm for much of anything. And yet, when I open those sleepy little peepers of mine, I spy the light of One divine. “Be reconciled,” shouts Paul. Yes, I’m sure he’s shouting. I’m getting old and hard of hearing. “What’s that you say?” I ask of him. “Be reconciled to God, I said,” says he. In other words, God’s looking for me. God wants me. God expects me to come in for dinner. Of course! The street lights are on. That’s the sign to come home.

I come a-runnin’, or a-hobbling as the case may be. I come running, because I’ve got hope. It ain’t no wish. I’m hoping for a tasty meal. Dinner’s on, the bell’s a-ringin’, and God ain’t ne’er let me down yet. That gives me hope to carry on.

Lord God, I look to you when I cannot see. Show me your Light; illuminate my path. The way looks dark and scary, and my energy reserves are low, so I place myself in your hands. Filled with hope, I can now go. Amen.
-Fr. Keith Axberg

Read: 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10

“As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says, ’In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.’ I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.” – 2 Corinthians 6:1-2

I usually love Lent and Ash Wednesday, but I am having a really hard time getting excited about them this year. As I am writing this reflection in late January, Lent feels more like an imposition than a season of spiritual preparation. Eating, for example, is already hard enough for me with food sensitivities, and the thought of having to restrict it even further on Ash Wednesday and Fridays during Lent (as is the practice of most of my friends) is not making me happy. Giving something up for Lent this year? Yeah, not happening. I’m already suffering enough with other things going on in my life. Taking something else on? Lord, I’m busy enough as it is!

It is probably a good thing that Lent is not about me. It is about growing close to Jesus, and that is a journey. There are going to be days when I make progress on that journey, and there are going to be other times when I feel like I cannot take another step. Today is the day of salvation because today we take that first step on that journey toward God. It might be just one step, or it might be a mile on the journey, and it gives me hope that God gives us credit for making progress on the journey no matter how small that distance is.

Lord, please help me to remember that you meet us where we are, not where we “should” be. Amen.
–Jen McCabe