2023 Lent Devotional- Week 6
Love will win!
By Deaconess M. Garlinda Burton
When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.”
The Lord has done great thigs for us, and we rejoiced.
Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the watercourses in the Negeb.
May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy.
Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of
job, carrying their sheaves.
--Psalm 126 (NRSV)
The writer of this Psalm is celebrating God’s deliverance of God’s people after their exile in Babylon. Their return to Jerusalem marked a return to covenant relationship with one another, a return to their homes and family relationships, and a return to community where flourishing—not merely strife and survival—was their reason for being, loving, and living. And, although as the Psalmist knows, full restoration had not been achieved, these followers of the God who has delivered them for generations were grounded in the faith that what had been lost would be revived and returned.
Lent is time of wandering for Jesus and his followers. This is still true today. The current conflicts between rich and poor, the struggles by Black, Indigenous, and People of color, and our LGBTQIA people to have their stories told and experiences honored, and the battles in many Christian communities about who should and should not be fully embraced by the church have sent many of us into exile.
We dedicate our lives and ministries to foster justice, equity, God’s love, and abundance in our world. Yet, in this season we find ourselves in spaces—even in church spaces--where white Christian nationalism, militant xenophobia, neocolonialism, and resurgent global racialism assail our sensibilities and garner our impatience with our institutions, those who disagree with our views, and even one another.
So, we find ourselves wandering spiritually, theologically, ideologically, and socially, looking for a place that says, “Welcome home.” Just like Jesus, who trekked in the wilderness these 40 days.
But this psalm is a reminder that a day is coming when God will restore the kin-dom. That there are siblings marching, singing, pushing, and defying, even when we step away in our frustration for refreshment and recalibration. The writer of this psalm is speaking to people who are leaving the wilderness for home, even though the full restoration has not yet happened. The promise, though, is that re-creation, reparation, renewal, and re-membering are coming. Because God has done great things, our faith reminds us that God’s great-thing-doing is always with us, even during our worst wilderness days.
Take heart, family. Take courage. Prepare for joy. Because God is doing great things in us, through us, and even when we are lost in the wilderness. The Divine Love knows our frustrations and sorrow and offers us the balm-promise that our mourning is not in vain. Jesus referenced this in his Sermon on the Mount, when he promised that those who mourn will be comforted. Jesus showed us with his very life that we who answer the call to sow the seeds of God’s mercy, justice, love, and equity will come home rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.
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M. Garlinda Burton, a United Methodist deaconess in the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference, is director of resource development for the denomination’s General Commission on Religion and Race in Nashville, Tenn.