Prayer: Dear Jesus, near the end of your ministry on earth and the end of a particularly long week, you gave the commandment to love one another just as you loved us. May everyone know, by the love that we show, that we are your disciples and your story is not over. Amen
Reading: John 13: 1-35 (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: Our text today is rather long; almost all of the 13th chapter of John. It covers Jesus washing the disciples' feet to Jesus foretelling his betrayal to Jesus' foretelling Peter's denial. Many of us might be able to fill in the details of these events; retelling the stories we have heard many times over and over. This is what happened. The end. Or is it? One section in the middle is open-ended - a story which is given a beginning but meant to continue - (Jesus said,) "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another." That is what continues - in the role of a servant as Jesus showed us by washing feet; in admitting the Lord knows our ways yet loves us as Jesus broke bread with even his betrayer; in realizing our faith tends to fall short like Peter's denial yet that is not the end of the story either. --Ruth Gates
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