Christ the King Lutheran Church - Gladwin, Mi.
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  • Home
    • Pictorial Directory
    • Contact Us
    • Links
  • Who are We
    • Mission and Vision
    • Staff and Office Hours
    • Church Council
    • History
    • Newsletter
    • Calendar
  • COVID 19 WORSHIP VIDEOS
    • Lenten Madness Monologues
    • Matins with Noodle
    • For the Kids
    • Bulletins
    • Sermon 9-16-19 The Sheep
    • Maria Skobtsova
    • Isidor
    • Elisha
  • Faith Formation
    • Sunday School
    • Christ the King Youth
    • Camping Ministry
    • Kids Club
    • Confirmation
    • Thursday Adult Bible Study
    • Vacation Bible School
  • Ministries
    • Stephen Ministry
    • God's Work Our Hands
    • Quilting
    • Food Distribution
    • Backpacks for kids
    • Prayer Shawl Ministry
    • Parish Nurse
    • Columbarium
  • Worship
    • Schedule of Worship
    • How we worship
    • Children
    • Choir
  • Special Events
    • Pumpkin Farm
    • Christmas Tea
  • Budget
  • Blog
  • Letter from Pastor
  • Masks
  • sermon
  • Audry
  • Rick McCoy
  • Ballot for Church council
  • Holden Prayer 12-23
  • Dec 20 Children's Program
  • Christmas Eve
  • Lenten Service
  • Ash Wednesday
  • Week One February 25, 2021

Clever Words for the Apocalypse

Clever Words: A Lenten Devotional

3/15/2019

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A Clever Word for the Season of Lent
ἐρῆμος (erēmos)
Desolate, lonely, empty; used substantively to mean “the wilderness”

A Clever Verse for Context
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness (erēmos), where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. (Luke 4:1-2)

Clever Reflections

Spiritual
Wilderness (erēmos) is a potent concept throughout the Bible.  After being delivered from slavery under the Egyptians, the Israelites flee into the wilderness and receive divine guidance.  Prophets go to the wilderness both to escape persecution (1 Kings 19) and come out of the wilderness bringing revelations from God (1 Kings 19, Mark 1).  The wilderness then is both a place of safety and formation.  It is the place God’s people flee when they have nowhere else to go, and the place from which they emerge restored and transformed.  As the Israelites spent 40 years in the wilderness and Jesus 40 days, we also spend 40 days in the spiritual wilderness that is Lent.  This is a time when we withdraw from a world misoriented in regards to God.  It is a time when we seek spiritual renewal and even, if we’re lucky, a vision of our own.

Literary

In Trojan Women (415 BCE), the Greek playwright Euripides describes the aftermath of the brutal war between the Trojans and the Achaeans. He frequently uses the word “desolate” (erēmos) to describe the post-war Trojan landscape, as at the opening of the play, when the god Poseidon observes that Troy’s “groves are desolate (erēmos), and the temples of the gods drip with blood and gore” (see Trojan Women, lines 15-16). Poseidon goes on to explain that the gods, too, tend to abandon cities that have been seized by such “evil desolation (erēmos)” (see Trojan Women, lines 25-27).

Clever Reflections
Wilderness can mean a place that is desolate, safe, revelatory, or all three at the same time.  How would you describe the wilderness?

The wilderness can be both an internal experience as well as an external place.  When have you felt like you were in the wilderness?  


A Clever Prayer to Close


18 Do not remember the former things,
   or consider the things of old.
19 I am about to do a new thing;
   now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
   and rivers in the desert.
20 The wild animals will honor me,
   the jackals and the ostriches;
for I give water in the wilderness,
   rivers in the desert,
to give drink to my chosen people,
21     the people whom I formed for myself
so that they might declare my praise.

Isaiah 43:18-21


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    In this season of plague, flood, fire, hungry cats, and Advent, we invite you to reflect on the words (such clever words!) of the Prophet John in the book of Revelation.
    Join the Liturgisaur on Tuesdays and Thursdays in Advent for devotions based on the first three chapters of Revelation
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      Perhaps you have encountered the #Liturgisaur on Instagram or Facebook.  He is a small, green, pants wearing, one armed dinosaur who makes the rounds in Gladwin County and beyond, highlighting the various ministries of Christ the King Lutheran Church.   
         The word dinosaur is Greek in origin, a combination of the words  δεινός (terrible or clever) and σαύρα (lizard).  You may have heard about how dinosaur means "terrible lizard," but you probably didn't realize that it can also mean "terribly clever lizard."   And the Litrugisaur is quite clever.  
         This Advent you invited to check into this blog for theological reflections (some clever) and insights from the Liturgisaur and his minder, Pastor Emily Olsen.  We will be focusing on the first few chapters of Revelation, or as they call it in Greek, The Apocalypse. 

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Christ the King Lutheran Church
600 S. M 18 
Gladwin, Mi. 48624
989-426-1659
Pastor Emily Olsen
pastor.ctkinggladwin@gmail.com


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