by Evon O. Flesberg

I began my Lenten meditation last August. My contemplation of Jesus’ death and resurrection, the cross and empty tomb started well before Advent and the celebration of our Lord’s birth at Christmas. The green days of Pentecost still prevailed. In the heat and humidity of a summer’s day, a story in our local newspaper plunged me into the heart of the Lenten mystery.

Gina’s lamb
I read about 11–year–old Gina Locke. Her older brother’s friend, a former neighbor who was as welcome in her home as a member of the family, had been seriously injured. To help him, Gina decided to sell her lamb, Champ, at the local fair. She used her creativity, making a leaflet that told about the friend and her decision to sell Champ, and asked for additional donations.

Champ was sold twice. The first company paid for Champ and gave him back to Gina to sell again. Then another company paid for the lamb. Gina’s gift of Champ raised $4,691.25. I tried to imagine being the one receiving Gina’s generosity, knowing that the sacrifice of her beloved friend with his woolly coat was for me. I would be humbled, awe-struck, overwhelmed.

The boldly kind and generous Gina said, "I’ll give my lamb for you." Could you — would you — do the same?

The Lenten Lamb of God
Gina’s action led me to ponder the Lamb of our Lenten journey. Jesus is the Lamb of God, the one given to us in love by the Lord of the universe.

Ask some people, "What’s your favorite Bible verse?" and John 3:16 is bound to surface. "For God so loved the world..." God so loves the world, is passionate about the world, is ever blessing and sustaining the world: the world — you, me, the neighbors, our enemies, those unknown to us.

God so loved the world that God gave God’s only Son. I have a hard time comprehending giving a child, let alone an only child. Yet, God gave Jesus to the world to love the world, to bind the world to God’s own being. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life" (John 3:16). Out of God’s loving generosity, we are given life with God now and in eternity.

The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world
The death of Gina’s lamb yielded money for the healing of a friend. The death and resurrection of the Lamb of God are for the life and healing of the world.

When John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him, he announced, "Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29) The next day John was still excited about Jesus. When he watched Jesus walk by, John exclaimed, "Look, here is the Lamb of God!"(1:35–36) Notice the exclamation points in the Scripture quotations. John was charged up about Jesus for the world’s sake.

What are we to make of this introduction of Jesus? The writers of the notes of the New Interpreter’s Study Bible offer these insights:
 

The Lamb’s gift is deliverance out of alienation from God and one another. Recall the Exodus story of the Israelites’ deliverance out of slavery in Egypt. For 430 years they had been enslaved. God heard their plea and gave them instructions on how to prepare to leave. Imagine the intensity of the situation when someone is issuing orders for an evacuation. God instructed Moses and Aaron to tell the people how to select a lamb, swab the doorposts and lintels of their houses with the blood of this unblemished lamb, and how to cook the lamb. The people were to be ready to move — "your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the Passover of the Lord" (Exodus 12:11).

The blood marked the houses of the Israelites. The angel of death passed over and the firstborn of the Israelites were not killed. The Egyptians begged them to leave. The Israelites were free. Jesus is the Lamb of God for us. He delivers us from our bondage by his death. His willingness to love unto death itself sets us free. Our sin, our alienation from God, is overcome.

The Lamb sets us free
Lent is the time for "coming to Jesus," as they say here in the South; which means, as I understand it, being clear and honest about ourselves in relationship to God in Jesus Christ. It is a time for giving up all that we have set between ourselves and God as well as between ourselves and others.

What is between God and yourself? What occupies your mind? Are you worried about your health? Will you have enough money? Are you accumulating "things"? Are you worried about what will become of the kids and grandkids? Will the stepchildren call when you’re old? Worry and anxiety isolate us and deplete our joy in knowing that God sustains us every day; and most importantly, cause us to forget that even death will not separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

Maybe you think your sinfulness is larger than God’s ability to forgive in Jesus Christ. Is there shame or guilt in your life that you need to confess and have forgiven this Lenten season? Seek out your pastor for private confession and forgiveness.

How are your relationships? Do others know the love of God through you? If a relationship is harming you, now is the time for you to find a pastoral counselor, pastor, or friend to help you.

Lent calls us to God’s mercy, to renewal, to hope for ourselves and the world. The loving God gives the Lamb to set you free.

The Lamb makes God known
Gina’s action of giving her lamb gives us a sense of who she is as a person. We know her courage and compassion. The giving of Jesus makes God known. In the first chapter of John it is written, "No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known" (1:18). God gave Jesus to reveal the heart of God.

Consider all that Jesus did. He healed the sick, restored the demon–possessed, fed the hungry, offered living water, raised the dead, blessed caregivers. The list goes on. In all his loving actions, including giving his own life, Jesus makes God known to us. We sing with joy, "Yes, Jesus Loves Me" and "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" and know that God cares about each of us and the world.

And we are called to make God known — to the hungry, the thirsty, the poor, the stranger, the sick, and the imprisoned. The vulnerable are everywhere. Wars rage. Natural disasters destroy. Millions are dying of AIDS. Will the world be able to sing because of your kindness and generosity? Will you be bold?

Lamb of God — I give of my abundance
Oscar and Clarence Engen farmed in South Dakota. With the money they earned from their land, they established a seminary scholarship. The summer after my first year at Wartburg Seminary, I did my clinical pastoral education at a state hospital for people with developmental disabilities. This experience blessed me profoundly, but the stipend it paid and the money I earned preaching on weekends was meager. Therefore I had applied for the Engen Scholarship.

It was my birthday. In among the cards that came was a letter from South Dakota. My heart raced. I opened the letter, only to read that I had not been selected. My heart sank. A couple more cards. Another letter from South Dakota! Isn’t one rejection enough? This letter said that my need had been placed before the body of Christ and I would be receiving some money. I wrote back telling them that this part of the body of Christ was delighted!

Even though the Engen brothers are deceased, their land generates income that still funds the scholarship some 27 years later. Could you — would you — give like that?

You might be saying, "I don’t have anything valuable to give, I don’t have any land or a trust fund." There are many ways to be generous. Open your heart and mind. Let God fill your imagination.

Lamb of God — I give what I do not yet have 
Sister Eileen Pistor, RSM, gave what she did not yet have. She had a client about whom she said, "The single mother was struggling with an addiction, had a minimum–wage position, and was in despair as to where she could get help. There was no such place." Sister Eileen set to work. She gathered financial and community support, collaborated with other agencies, and assembled, as Sister Eileen has said, a board of directors that "worked."

On November 23, 1998, the House of Mercy in Nashville welcomed its first residents. Its mission is to provide a home and services for homeless mothers and their children. Everything from substance abuse recovery and training in financial planning and saving, to training in parenting skills and spiritual enrichment is offered to help these families toward stability and self–sufficiency.

Now there are three houses. Sister Eileen had the vision to go where she had not yet been. She was not wealthy, was no longer young, was not an expert on addictions, and had not borne children. But Sister Eileen trusted that God would bless her dream. She gave her vision and faithfully worked to bring it into reality. Could you — would you — give like that?

God so loved the world that God gave Jesus — the Lamb of God. Gina gave her lamb. Oscar and Clarence gave from the abundance of their land. Sister Eileen gave what she did not yet possess. Could you — would you — give like that?

Dr. Evon O. Flesberg is a Lutheran pastor under call in the Southeastern Synod of the ELCA, serving as a pastoral counselor. She is also an adjunct professor at the Divinity School at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.