After listening and meditating on the Living Word of God for the last two days, we now seek to respond to the stirring of the Spirit in our lives.

Today we will take time as a community to meditate on the Living Word of God. This is the second step in our weekly Lectio Divina prayer as we continue to hear the Word of God and allow the Holy Spirit to stir our hearts.

The focus of Lectio Divina is to listen to the Word of God, to allow the Holy Spirit to speak through the text and rest in our hearts. Lectio Divina causes us to slow down and to listen, as opposed to seeking practical application of the Scripture or devotional reading—we simply listen, meditate, respond, and rest in the truth that the Word of God imparts to us.

We begin our practice of Lectio Divina, or divine reading, the practice of praying Scripture and listening to the Holy Spirit, with the first and most important step—listening.

In this time of racial, ethnic, and political division, there's a massive opportunity for the church to reconcile people to Christ if we’re willing to be inconvenienced. But this will take commitment to couple our faith and our actions.

In ancient Hebrew, there weren’t separate words for listening and doing. Shema meant both.

My mother created a beloved community for the isolated. This is a lesson I’ve never forgotten. Though I am not as bold as my mother in her invites, our family has adopted the idea of consistently hosting the beloved community around our table.

What truth have you missed because you haven’t been filled with the Spirit to hear? The fact is, the onlookers in this passage didn’t just hear sounds being spoken, they understood exactly what was being said. Most of us stop talking long enough to hear the other person, the other side, the other people group, but we stop short of seeking understanding.

This Sunday, we will celebrate the central event of Christianity — the resurrection of Jesus. Now, traditionally, Easter is not a standalone day. It serves as the climax of a week of days, including Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, that invites us to journey with Jesus through his suffering, death, and resurrection.

Each Monday throughout Lent, various voices have offered a reading or a prayer. Today our reading comes from The Book of Common Prayer, a collection of liturgical recitations originally intended to bring unity in the midst of division, to offer Christians who disagreed with one another common practices of worship and prayer and belief about God.

Jesus knew that one of the twelve was about to betray Him but, nevertheless, He proceeded to wash their feet. This is the ultimate act of servant leadership. We will look at five things that will enable any one of us to demonstrate what a servant leadership heart is.