the Vine

Join us as we journey through Lent with Henri Nouwen. Every day during Lent there will be a short scripture, an excerpt from one of Henri Nouwen's writings, and a devotional written by Christopher Kloff. Let's lean into this lenten season together.

Unless otherwise noted (or in excerpted text), Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, All rights reserved.

Reflections and prayers by Christopher Kloff.

© 2020 The Henri Nouwen Legacy Trust and Creative Communications for the Parish, a division of Bayard, Inc., 800-325-9414. 1564 Fencorp Dr., Fenton, MO 63026. www.creativecommunications. com. All rights reserved.

Join us as we journey through Lent with Henri Nouwen. Every day during Lent there will be a short scripture, an excerpt from one of Henri Nouwen's writings, and a devotional written by Christopher Kloff. Let's lean into this lenten season together.

Unless otherwise noted (or in excerpted text), Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, All rights reserved.

Reflections and prayers by Christopher Kloff. 

© 2020 The Henri Nouwen Legacy Trust and Creative Communications for the Parish, a division of Bayard, Inc., 800-325-9414. 1564 Fencorp Dr., Fenton, MO 63026. www.creativecommunications. com. All rights reserved.

Lent is a period of time in which we make room for more of God in our souls. Join us here on the podcast as we walk through the devotional, "From Suffering to Salvation" with works inspired by the late Catholic priest and spiritual writer, Henri Nouwen.

When we are stewards who put our God’s gifts to work generously, a whole world of true blessing is opened up to us.

My friends, my prayer for your life, my prayer for this church family, is that we would abound more and more in the kind of stewardship that sets us free, that blesses God, that blesses our neighbors, and that bears “fruit that remains”. That our stewardship will mean that our family and friends and neighbors and strangers encounter the life-changing, love of God.

Our sovereignty is limited but there is One who claims absolute sovereignty over all things. The sovereignty he claims is of the purest form because he created all things. He alone has the authority over all that has been made.

Abraham Kuyper (one of my heroes from Dutch history) said it most poignantly,

Now there are some who upon hearing that cosmic claim of “Mine” feel like little Susie or Jimmy who just got their toy snatched from their hand. “Wait,” they say, “It’s mine! I have the right to claim my life as my own. We, the human race, are surely sovereign over our lives, our possessions, our world"

But to those with eyes to see and ears to hear, we are overjoyed to hear Christ’s claim of “mine” ringing throughout every square inch of the cosmos. We see in it something worthy of our awe and our worship; something worthy of our work, our vocations, our service in society, our love for our neighbor; something worthy of our intentionality at home, of becoming great husbands and great wives, of becoming great parents; something worthy of our generosity, of the giving of ourselves, our time, our abilities, our resources. 

The foundation of the covenant has been made. It isn’t in Israel’s worthiness, it is in God’s mercy.

‌What does mercy look like?

‌When mercy comes it looks like the blessing of God

You can cooperate with grace.

‌You see the same things everyone else does. You see that God has a purpose. You see that He has the authority to accomplish that purpose but instead of responding in fear, you respond in humility. We find this man in Mark 5, not running from Jesus, but sitting with him, not begging him to leave but begging to go with him wherever he goes, not resisting his will but trusting and doing whatever he says. This is what it means to cooperate with grace. 

And this is the time of mercy! Oh how we hold on to so much because we don’t know what kind of God He is and what time it is. If we knew, we would ask. We wouldn’t carry around our needs as if asking Him was some kind of burden or inconvenience to Him. We wouldn’t avoid asking Him because deep in our hearts we don’t feel we deserve it or that others need it more. We don’t ask because we don’t understand who He is. You cannot ask more than what He is able to give. When God gives to you, it does not mean he can’t give that same thing to others. How many loaves and fish were there? How many ate that day? If we know Him, we will ask Him.

That Jesus announced that he had come to bring the "year of Jubilee" is not some obscure, biblical trivia. It means:

Nazareth. Jesus’ hometown southwest of the Sea of Galilee. A little town where nothing good can come from. Nazareth: where skepticism is strong, doubt is good-looking, and the level of condescension is above average. Would you ever want to be in a place like that?

‌What if I said to you that you and I go there more often then you think?

If we are to grow, we have to acknowledge the presence of our skepticism, our doubt and, in some cases, our condescension towards the things of God. I’m not talking about pretending like we don’t have questions or like we have everything figured out. We all have questions. None of us have arrived at the end of our journey of faith.

I’m talking about heart position that accepts at its foundation that Jesus couldn’t possibly be who he said he is, God couldn’t possibly do the things the scriptures say He does, and faith has no other goal than my own personal comfort and inspiration.

None of us have arrived at the end of our journey of faith. But if Nazareth is a place where skepticism is strong, doubt is good-looking, and the level of condescension is above average, We have to leave Nazareth behind if we’re going to follow Jesus into a growing life of faith.