Lenten Devotional – March 15, 2023

Wednesday, March 15, 2023
Keeping the Sabbath Wholly by Marva Dawn
Lenten Devotional by Michaela Eskew

Marva Dawn’s concludes her book, Keeping the Sabbath Wholly, with an emphasis on the bounty that can be enjoyed on the Sabbath. This section of the book is entitled, Feasting. Dawn gives many ways for us to feast on the Sabbath day, to be filled with the nourishment that will take us through the next week. She speaks of music, of art and literature, and of food.

What are the things that feed your soul? What is so beautiful that it takes your breath away or transports you to a different level of thinking and imagining? How do these things, environments, or experiences help you to see your Creator is a new way? How do these things, environments, or experiences help you to see yourself as a part of that creation with belonging and purpose?

One example that Dawn gives in her many examples of feasting is food. She recognizes not just the Lord’s Supper that we take each week, but the special foods that are truly a treat. She recommends making something special on the Sabbath. Maybe it’s making eggs instead of pulling out the cereal box. Maybe it’s adding some hot cocoa to your afternoon rather than a decaf coffee or a tea. Maybe it is treating yourself to a cookie or pastry at coffee hour.

What is a food that you treasure? How can you make that food treasured again? Maybe it doesn’t take much other than pulling out an old recipe card and shopping for ingredients on Saturday. Maybe it takes restraint in not eating it during the rest of the week, to make that treat even more special on Sunday. Maybe it’s sharing that food with someone else, either by inviting them over for a meal or gifting it away.

First Lutheran is offering two meals on Sunday this Lent, a potluck on Palm Sunday and a full breakfast in the Peel House on Easter Sunday. Both are intended to be a great celebration of community and feasting. I hope you come and eat with us and take on a much-underappreciated spiritual discipline: celebration!

Prayer thoughts:
Lord of the Sabbath, remind us of the feast you have set before us. While we wait to experience your heavenly banquet, help us to build small spaces of celebration here on earth. Amen.