An Elemental Offering

 I.        Vow of Affirmation

“We devote our daily life to God, and to serving our neighbors as images of God:”

1. I will daily offer my life to God with reverence and a living faith; I will daily pray to be used as a servant by God for the good of my neighbors near and far.

(Photo by justin tippins via Flickr)

During the opening to Lent, we may sound like a recording from the first week of the New Year: “I resolve to eat less and healthier, to be a nicer person, to turn this resolution into a new habit.” How many of us really make it through more than a few weeks of our resolutions? But the commitments we make at the beginning of Lent are of a different nature. Unlike most New Year’s resolutions, Lenten vows are made as a covenant between us and our God (and hopefully our faith community). The focus shifts toward serving God and others more than just our own self-improvement.  And rightly focused, God—more than our human initiative and willpower—becomes the source of our resolve and strength to carry out our Lenten vows.

As we make this Covenant of Christian Nonviolence and strive toward its twenty vows, we are grounded in today’s first Vow of Affirmation:  I will daily offer my life to God with reverence and a living faith; I will daily pray to be used as a servant by God for the good of my neighbors near and far. This vow may seem elementary to Christian discipleship. It is. Spend your day situating your covenanting toward nonviolence in this most basic commitment to love God and love neighbor.

For Reflection:

• Listen to your own voice reading Mark 12:28-34. Name daily ways in which you offer love to God with your strength, your mind, your heart, your soul. How, in this day, is God calling you to offer even more of your being?
• In Luke 10:25-37, Jesus follows this with the Parable of the Samaritan neighbor. To whom have you shown mercy recently? Who has shown it to you? What opportunities might you have today to “go and do likewise” for the good of your neighbors near and far?

Prayer Focus:

God of the neighborly kingdom, we seek to love you daily with each element of our being; 

in your grace empower us to more fully be your servants.

God, we confess that we have thought of your own as our enemies 

and failed to protect the vulnerable people with whom we share your earth.

Forgive and transform us, so that when we experience your kingdom of heaven on earth today and encounter our neighbor, we will follow in your way of peace. Amen.