Lent: March 14, 2006

Old Testament Lesson

Genesis 42:1-17

God forgives sin, but sin still has consequences. Today, we see that Joseph's brothers are facing some of the consequences for their action. While God used their actions to eventually save their lives, at this point, they do not know that. They do not recognize their brother Joseph, all they know is that the Egyptian leader is holding them in prison unlit the younger brother comes.

We could say, Joseph should have forgiven them right then and their, and yes, he should have. But, quite often, forgiveness does not come easy. It is hard to forgive those that have done wrong by you. It is hard to forgiven those that have harmed your family and your children. We cannot forgive by ourselves; we can only forgive through God's grace. We can only forgive through the power that He gives. Today, Joseph is on the road to forgiveness. We will see the end result a couple of chapters down the road. He is not there yet. Is there someone today that you need to forgive? Can you do it today? If so, do that. IF not, pray for the grace that tomorrow you may be able to do. We are called to forgive each other. It is hard, but by God's grace we can.

New Testament Lesson

1 Corinthians 5:1-8

In this passage, we see that one person's sin is so great that it brings shame to the entire church. Part of the reason why their is shame is because the church doesn't care. Too often, their is sin done in the name of the church. As a proud United Methodist, there are sometimes things in the name of my church that I am not proud of. We must not be content with sin. We cannot be content with sin in our own lives, or in the life of our church.

Before we can go about the hard and necessary work of striving against sin in our church or in our denomination or even in our family, we must go about the hard work of looking within our own lives for sin. For a sinful group only comes from sinful people. As we go about the hard work of calling others tor righteousness, we must make sure that we are striving after righteousness ourselves. Now, I'm not saying that we have to be perfect to speak, but we must be hypocrites when it comes to righteousness. Brennan Manning once said "The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians that acknowledge Jesus with their lips, but deny Him with their lives. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable." We must call our church and our world to righteousness. We must call ourselves to righteousness as well, and hold ourselves to the same standards.

Gospel Lesson

Mark 3:19b-35

Jesus says that whoever does the will of His father is His family. We are part of a family. Those that believe, those that obey the will of God, we are part of the family of God. Remember how happy you were when a family member had a baby? That is how happy we should be when when someone is saved; when someone comes home. For in this family, you aren't born through natural means, but rather by the power of the spirit. Today, don't look at fellow Christians as strangers, but rather seem them as part of the family. There's an old hymn, "The Family of God," and the lyrics read:

I'm so glad I'm a part of the Family of God,
I've been washed in the fountain, cleansed by His Blood!
Joint heirs with Jesus as we travel this sod,
For I'm part of the family,
The Family of God

You will notice we say "brother and sister" 'round here,
It's because we're a family and these are so near;
When one has a heartache, we all share the tears,
And rejoice in each victory in this family so dear.

May this words remind us today that are part of a great family.