Clever Words: A Lenten Devotional

A Clever Word for the Season of Lent
στέφανος (stephanos)
crown
A Clever Verse for Context
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown (stephanos), stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved. (Philippians 4:1)

Clever Reflections

Spiritual
Paul refers to the Philippians, as his joy and his crown (stephanos).  All of his work, suffering, and sacrifice for the sake of the gospel is realized in them.  They are his prize, the reward for his labors.  Sometimes the best indication of our own success is not points, praise, or personal glory, but the way our actions change those around us.  For Christians success is relational.  Faith lived out in acts of service and words of encouragement builds up the community.  What is the reward for a faithful life? Perhaps just and simply, the community in which that life is lived.     

​Literary
In Archaic Greece, a crown or garland (stephanos) was presented to the victor in an athletic contest. At Olympia, for examples, victors received crowns of wild olive, while victors at the Pythian Games (located at Delphi) received crowns of laurel. In a victory song for a wrestler named Epharmostus, the Greek poet Pindar praises Olympia as the source of the “most choice crowns” (stephanos) (see further Pindar, Olympian 9).

Clever Questions for Further Reflection
What are the things you work hard at?  How do you measure your success?
When has your impact on someone else been rewarding and encouraging?

A Clever Prayer to Close
A Blessing Called Sanctuary

You hardly knew
how hungry you were
to be gathered in,
to receive the welcome
​that invited you to enter
entirely--
nothing of you
found foreign or strange,
nothing of your life
that you were asked
to leave behind
or to carry in silence
or in shame.

Tentative steps
became settling in,
leaning into the blessing
that enfolded you,
taking your place
in the circle
that stunned you
with its unimagined grace.

You began to breathe again,
to move without fear,
to speak with abandon
the words you carried
in your bones,
that echoed in your being.

You learned to sing.

But the deal with this blessing
is that it will not leave you alone,
will not let you linger
in safety,
in stasis.

The time will come
when this blessing
will ask you to leave,
not because it has tired of you
but because it desires for you
to become the sanctuary
that you have found--
to speak your word
into the world,
to tell what you have heard
with your own ears,
seen with your own eyes,
known in your own heart:

that you are beloved,
precious child of God,
beautiful to behold,*
and you are welcome
and more than welcome
here.

—Jan Richardson
from Circle of Grace
http://adventdoor.com/2015/12/14/advent-4-a-blessing-called-sanctuary/