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View this email in your browser A daily Lenten e-mail with lessons of hope and courage, inspired by a variety of resources to encourage us in these confusing and turbulent times from St. Luke’s Church, Lebanon. Tuesday - Fifth Week in Lent In the gospels, Jesus often teaches in ways that might be hard to understand. He uses, stories, parables, and a kind of veiled language that often frustrates modern listeners. More than likely, this was not so much the case with those who heard Jesus directly. Jesus does not teach like an academic might. Rather, he uses the styles employed by the "teachers" of his day - the rabbis. Rabbinical teaching made liberal use of everyday examples to drive home important points. The focus was to allow the individual to come to their own conclusion. This way people bore the responsibility for their actions, rather than being able to say, "the teacher told me to." Images like the “bread of life,” the “living water,” and the “light of the world,” were all things that an agricultural people living in lands often subject to draughts and famines, without the benefits of artificial light would pick up on pretty quickly. It gets a bit more sticky when Jesus identifies himself with the Father in heaven - this was clearly not a rabbinical teaching. In fact, it was this line of thought that brought Jesus a "heap of hurt."  Jesus speaks profound truths about who he is. Some listeners come to believe in Him, while others become increasingly hostile. The difference between these two groups is simply faith: those who came to believe in Jesus and those who orchestrated and supported His murder heard the same teaching but their reactions differed greatly. The same might be said of us. Just like those who heard these teachings from Jesus’ own lips, we are presented with the same truths. Once we get beyond the limitations of cultural images, we are given the same opportunity to listen to his words and either receive or reject them. Understanding these veiled, mysterious, and deep teachings of Jesus requires grace - the operation of God in our lives - for these words to have impact upon our lives. In other words, faith is a gift. It is not  a blind choice to believe. Rather, it’s a choice based on seeing and believing who Jesus is. It depends on two things - God's revelation of God's self (which is always operative) and our capacity to see (which is not). The core element of that capacity is our willingness to be changed by God. As they saying goes, "there are none so blind as will not see". Lent gives us an opportunity to cultivate this openness to the ways and works of God - ways and works that are always operative, if only we express our willingness to see them. Scripture Lessons appointed for the day (Click on the lesson for the text) Numbers 21:4–9 John 8:21–30 Psalm 102:15–22   “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” ― C.S. Lewis Seeing beyond the words. . . Can I trust in what Jesus says about himself? Is my faith expressed by my trust in God? What am I willing to see about myself? Could God be at work in my life? Truth Be Told Music by Matthew West and Carly Pearce (C) 2021 Provident Label Group LLC, a division of Sony Music Entertainment “None of us knows what might happen even the next minute, yet still we go forward. Because we trust. Because we have Faith.” ― Paulo Coelho Copyright © *|CURRENT_YEAR|* *|LIST:COMPANY|*, All rights reserved. *|IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE|* *|LIST:DESCRIPTION|* Our mailing address is: *|HTML:LIST_ADDRESS_HTML|* *|END:IF|* Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.