Occasionally, we will reprint prior devotions that now reflect on the coming lectionary texts. This is a reprint from a devotion originally published on February 14, 2014.
Prayer: Most merciful God, we confess that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves. Amen. Reading: 1 John 1:1 - 2:5 (Click to read text) Stop and GROW: After reading the text, discuss/ponder the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Book of Faith questions, which are part of Camp Mount Luther's GROW Time with campers. QUESTION 1: What scares, confuses, challenges, or doesn’t make sense to me in this text? QUESTION 2: What delights me in this text or is my favorite part of the story? QUESTION 3: What stories or memories does this text stir in me? QUESTION 4: What is God up to in this text? Reflection: Darkness in this text is described as being in fellowship with neither God nor the Christian community. Walking in the light brings us into fellowship with God and the community. And in that fellowship “the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” Then there is this statement that might be familiar to us. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” It is familiar to me because as a Lutheran pastor I read that line in the Brief Order for Confession and Forgiveness in the Lutheran Book of Worship many Sunday mornings. It is a striking statement that confronts us all and forces us to walk in the light of truth and reality, no matter how much we would like to stay in the darkness and not admit our short comings. The world we live in wants to stay in the darkness. Seldom do we hear confession from our world. Like, “that is my fault.” “I take full responsibility for that.” “I’m sorry.” We hear neither personal nor corporate confession. It’s always somebody else’s fault. John’s community wanted to pass on to us what it knew to be the truth. Perhaps we, too, could at least in a small way pass on the truth to our world by publicly acknowledging our own mess-ups. If we walk in the light, perhaps others will, too. --Jim Bricker, Camp Mount Luther Summer Chaplain to the Staff
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