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Sound & Season is a daily audio devotional designed to connect the routine moments of life to the rhythms of the Church seasons.
This is sound in season. It's Sunday, the sixth week of Lent and the beginning of Holy Week. Our passage this week comes from Paul's letter to the Colossian church chapter four verses two through six. And let us listen carefully for this is God's word. Continue steadfastly in prayer.
Jeffrey Heine:Be watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ on account of which I am in prison, that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak, walk in wisdom with outsiders, making the most of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. This is the word of the lord. Thanks be to god.
Jeffrey Heine:We are reminded in our passage today that time is short. It does not always feel short. In times of suffering or longing, times of enduring or waiting, time can feel so slow. The time of Christ's passion, the week of his triumphal entry, and the crowds shouting Hosanna, the meal with his followers explaining the meaning by which the new covenant must be established, the betrayal by his disciples and arrest in the garden. The spurious trial by those who were to be the shepherds of the people.
Jeffrey Heine:The crowds shouting, crucify him. The beatings, the whippings, the crucifixion, the labored breathing, the giving up his spirit, the silent tomb, and the weeping disciples. It all happened in time, each event made up of moments just like this one. There are moments where we can be overwhelmed with the pain of loss, the hurt of suffering, the confusion of brokenness. And yet, at the same time, these are moments where we can be overwhelmed by mercy, by the grace of forgiveness, the gratitude of thanksgiving, the mystery of Christ.
Jeffrey Heine:It is both a mandate and an invitation to make the most of the time. It isn't a call to suck the marrow from the bone, to smell every flower, to drink to the dregs the cup of experience. It is the mandate and invitation to live the life that is not your own, to know that you have died and that you have been raised to life in him, to see your time as not your own, but a gift to pour out to the glory of Christ. It is to know and to live for everything, whether in word or deed. You do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him because you are hidden in Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:Every moment is a chance to make the most of him, and that is making the most of the time that you have been given. Lord, hear our prayer, and let our cry come to you. Oh, God, strengthen us as we put our trust in Christ today. We can do nothing good apart from you, so bring us close. Bind us in your love and show us the way of your righteousness.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus, by your death, you took away the sting of death so that all who trust in you can awake in your presence and likeness forever. Remind us today of the goodness of your mercy that comes to us through your cross and renew our confidence in the certain hope of eternal life with you. Oh, lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Glory to the father and to the son and to the holy spirit as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Jeffrey Heine:And now our meditation companion from composer Kyle Carpenter and his Lenten instrumental suite, Tenebrae. Here is Morning Hope.