Tending the Vineyard

Ash Wednesday: a special devotional to pray for Ukraine.

From Ash Thursday to Easter (except Sundays),
a daily devotional for Lent and Holy Week.

~ from the Lutherans Connect Facebook page

In these challenging days, we are contemplating so much: holding the pain of brokenness and fear and uncertainty in ever-increasing amounts. How can we mark the journey with Jesus into the wilderness, amid the wildernesses that are confronting us in the world? How can prayer, reading, and quiet reflection, help us to know more vividly the ever-present love of God?

This Lent, we are considering the sixth day of Creation, when human beings were formed alongside the creatures of earth and sea, and given the gift of stewardship of that vast abundance. How do we hear the problematic word ‘dominion’ in an era of profound climate emergency? How can the instruction to ‘subdue’ the earth and its creatures be heard anew in a time when hundreds of species are going extinct every day?

During the next few weeks, we will reckon what has already taken place, the climate and ecological crises that won’t be reversed. We will also travel to places in the world where people are finding ways to work with the earth instead of on it, developing and caring for plants and creatures as if the future of all of us did indeed depend on it.

Join us in Lent, as we reframe ourselves within the story of the sixth day to be prophetic disciples and stewards of God’s ‘very good’ creation. How can we still reclaim God’s deepest hope for us and for the world?

And may the peace of Christ be with you this Lent!

This devotional can be accessed from the Lutherans Connect Facebook page or their blog.