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Lenten Reflection for Monday, March 2 
Emily Hursh 

Genesis 37:1-11 
Jacob settled in the land where his father had lived as an alien, the land of Canaan. ²This is the story of the family of Jacob.

Joseph, being seventeen years old, was shepherding the flock with his brothers; he was a helper to the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. ³Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he had made him a long robe with sleeves.^*4But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him.

⁵ Once Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. ⁶He said to them, ‘Listen to this dream that I dreamed. ⁷There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright; then your sheaves gathered around it, and bowed down to my sheaf.’ ⁸His brothers said to him, ‘Are you indeed to reign over us? Are you indeed to have dominion over us?’ So they hated him even more because of his dreams and his words.

⁹ He had another dream, and told it to his brothers, saying, ‘Look, I have had another dream: the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.’ ¹⁰But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him, and said to him, ‘What kind of dream is this that you have had? Shall we indeed come, I and your mother and your brothers, and bow to the ground before you?’ ¹¹So his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

Family drama!! Who can’t relate? Reading this passage at this time, I really felt for and related to Joseph. He was just sharing his dreams with his family; he didn’t tell them he thought they’d bow down to him one day. They jumped to that conclusion all by themselves! They turned out to be right, of course, but when the full picture came into focus, his family was happy to bow down to Joseph, who saved them and their whole community from famine! 
 
I had some family drama this Christmas when I showed up as my authentic self, speaking my truth as a queer woman. I had been letting my family erase this part of my identity for years to keep the peace, but circumstances have changed, and that wasn’t possible anymore. It wasn’t easy for me to spend a week with that much tension between me and my loved ones. It was tempting to somehow downplay the facts and smooth things over, but I don’t think that would have been serving anyone, and I couldn’t bring myself to do it anymore. I didn’t save anyone from a famine, but my example did create space for my youngest sister to more proudly be who she is as well, and that’s enough for me.
 
Of course, I can relate to Joseph’s brothers, too. I’ve definitely heard an uncomfortable truth, jumped to several conclusions, and gotten myself all bent out of shape when I would have been far better off following Israel’s approach, and just sitting with this new information and the discomfort it brings. Often, things that feel world-ending when we first hear them turn out to be no big deal, or even wonderful news! 
 
As I search my heart for what stands between me and a closer relationship with God this Lent, I’m considering how being my most authentic self, even when that means going decidedly against religious ideas I grew up with, can give me the freedom to show up for God as well. People aren’t always going to understand how I can be a queer Christian, anymore than Joseph’s brothers understood his dreams, but God is the one I have to answer to.

Lenten Reflection for Saturday, February 29 
Carrie Thomas-Carlson 

John 17: 20-26

20 ‘I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, ²¹that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us,^* so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²²The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, ²³I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. ²⁴Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

25 ‘Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. ²⁶I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.’  

The piece from the passage that first resonates with me most is the idea that God's glory shines through us because he made us and allows us to demonstrate and be seen in this glory. John reminds himself of this when he says: " ...Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world." --What better gift we can give back to God than for others to know him through us?

Secondly, I make direct parallels to a New Testament verse Isaiah 6:8 that I memorized as a child. The first time I heard it, I felt God was truly calling me: "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' And I said, 'Here am I. Send me!' ” New International Version (NIV) Hearing Isaiah's ecstatic rejoinder to the Lord's invitation helps us imagine what spiritual awakening looks like. 

We see John now responding in a similar way to the way Isaiah did, with wholehearted conviction when he says, "²⁶I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.’ " We can imagine that both a prophet and disciple would follow the ebbs and flows of belief in all their days, but from these moments on they would both be committed to serving the Lord in action. We might waver in our everyday feeling but it is in our decision to follow Jesus's way that we truly become one with others and demonstrate the same love that he has shown for us.

Lenten Reflection for Friday, February 28 
Asa Swain 

John 17: 9-19

⁹I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. ¹⁰All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.¹¹And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. ¹²While I was with them, I protected them in your name that^* you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost,^*so that the scripture might be fulfilled. ¹³But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves.^* 14I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. ¹⁵I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one.^* 16They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. ¹⁷Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. ¹⁸As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. ¹⁹And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth. 

This reading is from when Jesus is praying in the Garden at Gethsemanee. In his last moments alone before Jesus is to be arrested and crucified, I am struck that he prays to God not for himself, but for his fellow disciples that he is leaving behind. I am particularly struck by the explanation that “the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world”. I don’t think Jesus means that his disciples are divine, like himself, but instead as a reminder that the Christians the followed him were different than the other people who lived in the Roman world. 

I think we still struggle with this difference between Christians and non-Christians today. I went to a Listening Session on Sunday where one question was: “how should I be a Christian in this secular world?” It’s especially difficult when it feels like we live in a capitalist society where wealth equals happiness, and where all too often pop culture and mass media attack the behavior espoused by Jesus, loving the stranger, turning the other cheek, helping the needy. Coming to Holy Apostles reminds me that the value system taught by Jesus is not the same as the value system of the rest of the world. And maybe that is what Jesus means when he says “they do not belong in the world”. 

But I note that Jesus doesn’t ask God to take his disciples out of the world, to transport them to some heavenly paradise, but instead to protect them from the devil, while they speak the truth. And whether or not you believe in Satan, I think we can agree that there are many influences in the world that tempt us to sin, to be selfish, and to corrupt us with small transgressions. So while Jesus is not with us anymore, I am comforted that God is still watching over us, protecting us. And as Jesus loved us, even in his final days, I hope we can love each other. I am reminded of the quote from the poet Henri-Frédéric Amiel, "Life is short and we have too little time to gladden the hearts of those who travel the way with us."