Milwaukee Mennonite Monday Morning Devotionals

On this last episode of the season, Peter reflects on the M4D project.

Rachel Eash-Scott considers God and parenthood, and shares two poems.

Poems Rachel shares this week:

On Children, by Khalil Gibran

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, Speak to us of Children.

  And he said:

  Your children are not your children.

  They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.

  They come through you but not from you,

  And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

  You may give them your love but not your thoughts,

  For they have their own thoughts.

  You may house their bodies but not their souls,

  For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

  You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.

  For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

  You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

  The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.

  Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;

  For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Looking at them Asleep, by Sharon Olds

When I come home late at night and go in to kiss them,

I see my girl with her arm curled around her head,

her mouth a little puffed, like one sated, but

slightly pouted like one who hasn't had enough,

her eyes so closed you would think they have rolled the

iris around to face the back of her head,

the eyeball marble-naked under that

thick satisfied desiring lid,

she lies on her back in abandon and sealed completion,

and the son in his room, oh the son he is sideways in his bed,

one knee up as if he is climbing

sharp stairs, up into the night,

and under his thin quivering eyelids you

know his eyes are wide open and

staring and glazed, the blue in them so

anxious and crystally in all this darkness, and his

mouth is open, he is breathing hard from the climb

and panting a bit, his brow is crumpled

and pale, his fine fingers curved,

his hand open, and in the center of each hand

the dry dirty boyish palm

resting like a cookie. I look at him in his

quest, the thin muscles of his arms

passionate and tense, I look at her with her

face like the face of a snake who has swallowed a deer,

content, content—and I know if I wake her she'll

smile and turn her face toward me though

half asleep and open her eyes and I

know if I wake him he'll jerk and say Don't and sit

up and stare about him in blue

unrecognition, oh my Lord how I

know these two. When love comes to me and says

What do you know, I say This girl, this boy.

Previously this spring, Sarah Mast has shared her thoughts on Instincts and Expectations. This week, she focuses on Wonder.

This week Ray Gingerich shares his thoughts on why he’s chosen to stay and embrace the Mennonite faith.

Scriptures related to this week’s devotional:

1 Corinthians 3:11

For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ.

Matthew 6:33

But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

This week Wendy Lehman shares visions of new normal in light of our current Apocalypse.

Links related to this week’s episode:

• https://cac.org/this-is-an-apocalypse-2021-04-26/

• https://cac.org/a-time-of-unveiling-2021-04-25/
  

This week Sarah MacDonald encourages us to consider prayer, truth telling, and exorcisms.

Scripture associated with today’s devotional:

Mark 5:1-20

They came to the other side of the lake, to the country of the Gerasenes. And when he had stepped out of the boat, immediately a man out of the tombs with an unclean spirit met him. He lived among the tombs; and no one could restrain him any more, even with a chain; for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces; and no one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down before him; and he shouted at the top of his voice, ‘What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.’ For he had said to him, ‘Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!’ Then Jesus asked him, ‘What is your name?’ He replied, ‘My name is Legion; for we are many.’ He begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now there on the hillside a great herd of swine was feeding; and the unclean spirits begged him, ‘Send us into the swine; let us enter them.’ So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the lake, and were drowned in the lake.

The swineherds ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came to see what it was that had happened. They came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the legion; and they were afraid. Those who had seen what had happened to the demoniac and to the swine reported it. Then they began to beg Jesus to leave their neighbourhood. As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him. But Jesus refused, and said to him, ‘Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.’ And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.

This week Liz Regier considers who Christ calls us to love.

Scripture for today’s podcast:

Luke 10: 25-37

Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus.[a] “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” 27 He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”

29 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii,[b] gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

This week on the podcast, Sarah Mast shares about Expectations.

Biblical passages referenced this week:

Jeremiah 29:11

For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.

2 Corinthians 8:5

and this, not merely as we expected; they gave themselves first to the Lord and, by the will of God, to us,

This week Matt LaWall-Shane reflects on his experience with the seasons of Lent and Easter as a young teenager, and how he sees them a bit differently today.

As the Easter season begins, we take this week to hear the words of the Psalmist and Easter story through the words of the Gospel, shared with us by many in our MMC family.