The Earth Cries Out: First Sunday of Lent
By Rev. Brendolyn Lovette Jenkins Boseman
Today, we enter the first Sunday of Lent with a reflection on care for God’s Creation. The theme of our Lenten devotional series is “The Earth Cries Out: Reflections, Lamentations, and Prayers for the Injustices to Our Earth and Our Communities.”
Each week contains a short reflection, discussion questions, and a prayer. We hope that you can utilize these devotions with your congregation, friends, and family.
Luke 4: 1-8
4 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” 4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’” 5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 If you worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”
Meditation:
Few understand the importance of fasting and praying. Many people think about Lent and how challenging it is to give up anything as an act of humility and love for God. When believers participate in Lent, their assignments become clearer, their ability to hear God becomes sharpened and the ability to transform the world kingdoms into the Kingdom of God is realized. Luke 4 shows that Jesus once affirmed by God after his baptism, was led to the wilderness to pray. While there Jesus did not eat. He recognized that to really understand what God is doing in the life of the believer that believer must have a wilderness experience.
It is in challenging times, wilderness seasons, when it is the believer and God, that God reveals Godself to the believer, and then God reveals the believer to themselves. It is not until one experiences the wilderness that one really becomes clear as to why they exist in the world. It was in the wilderness that Hagar really met a God she could understand and know for herself aside from Abram and Sarai. It was in the wilderness that Moses received the law of God. It was in the wilderness that Elijah saw the glory of God and was able to stand against evil kingdoms such as Jezebel and Ahab.
God does God’s best work in the wilderness. If believers think about the Lenten season as a time to find fresh new things about God and the personality of God and not a time to miss out on their favorite things, these same believers would happily give up a favorite meat or social media. For so long Christians go to Church but they are still unclear of who God is and what the voice of God sounds like. This could change today.
This Lenten season, allow God to reintroduce Godself in your life and watch the ways in which your life transforms into one that is filled with your ability to walk in the purpose of God and thus affect positive change where ever you go.
Reflection Questions:
How will you engage this season of Lent as a wilderness experience?
What do you need to “give up” to make space for God to reintroduce God’s self in your life?
Prayer:
Holy God, guide us this season into new experiences and encounters where we may better know you. Free us from our old habits so that we may create space for reflection and transformation. Lead us into the wilderness, so that we may come back empowered to affect positive change in our world. Amen.
Author of Reflection:
Reverend Brendolyn Lovette Jenkins Boseman was born and raised in Barnwell, South Carolina and presently resides in Aiken, South Carolina. She and Bobby are the proud parents of three beautiful, talented and gifted daughters; Razzie, Remy, and Rozlyn. Tragically, their son, Corey, predeceased them on June 27, 2015. Her prayer is that “they will arise and call her blessed”
On June 25, 2015, she was ordained and appointed as Pastor and Lead Servant of Hudson Memorial Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in Augusta, Georgia at the Annual Conference of the 6th Episcopal District by Bishop Kenneth W. Carter. At twelve years old, she was among the first black students to desegregate the public schools of Barnwell, SC. She attended South Carolina State College; American Academy McAllister Instituteof Funeral Service; New York Institute of Technology; and Erskine College Seminary. She is currently pursuing a Master of Divinity at the Phillips School of Theology at the Interdenominational Theological Center, Atlanta, Georgia.
Reverend Boseman is the Founder and Executive Director of The Imani Group, Inc., a community-based nonprofit organization. She works tirelessly in the areas Criminal Justice, Environmental Justice, Social Justice and Youth Leadership Development. Under her leadership, The Imani Group serves as a Community Partner for the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy. Reverend Boseman is a member of the Board of Directors at Georgia Interfaith Power & Light (GIPL). She also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Harambee House/Citizens for Environmental Justice where she serves as member of the Council of Elders for the Black Youth Leadership Development Institute. A member of the NAACP having served two terms as past president of the Aiken Branch and as an Executive Committee member of the SC Conference. As the first female national co-chair of the African American Ministers Leadership Council and African American Ministers in Action she brings to the consciousness of other faith leaders their duty to be prophetic voices speaking to not only speaking “truth to power” but in speaking “truth with power.” She made a major transformative career and lifestyle change after almost four decades as a funeral service profession in New York and South Carolina. She is the former owner of Morningside Funeral Service in New York City and Jenkins Memorial Chapel in Aiken and Elko SC. Her motto for those she serves is that “we’ve come to wash your feet,” because for her it was a Ministry of Service.