March 28: The Family of Faith Begins at the Foot of the Cross
♫ Music:
Day 24 - Friday, March 28
Title: The Family of Faith Begins at the Foot of the Cross
Scripture #1: 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (NKJV)
Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.
Scripture #2: Acts 1:14 (NKJV)
These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.
Scripture #3: Ephesians 2:19–22 (NKJV)
Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Poetry & Poet:
“Seafarers”
by Olugbenga Adeoba
The refrain of this water
says something is imminent,
says loss is upon us.
Bordered by kelp—
brown murals supple as wool—
and a cloud of winged witnesses,
our boat is somewhere
in the middle of the Mediterranean,
miles and miles from the coast
near Tobruk in Libya,
where we had camped
until the smugglers and the sea
spoke of its fidelity.
It was a soft, fluid tune:
the tender draw of water—
the sea, keen, humming
a promise of calm,
urging us to draw closer,
to unlearn all we thought we knew
about the posture of water.
There are dismembered boat parts,
whole dinghies, too,
shooting out from somewhere
beneath this expanse,
yielding us to catalogs
of told and untold mishaps;
the sea's unfulfilled promises
to those who had knocked on its door,
those who sought to know its ways:
the Nigerian boy
comforting his sister,
after they lost their mother
miles away from Sabratha,
and those with whom
we had camped at the coast,
the ones who drowned overnight
some hundred miles
south of the island of Lampedusa.
What binds us,
in this boat, is a known fear,
a kinship of likely loss,
the understanding that we, too,
could become a band of unnamed migrants
found floating on the face of the sea.
THE FAMILY FORMED AT THE FOOT OF THE CROSS
Mary doesn’t join the family of faith because of her blood connection to Jesus, or because she nursed him and raised him. Mary joins the way all of us do, by standing at the foot of the cross, keeping vigil over the death of the Messiah, turning her tear-stained face toward his agony. She is there by faith.
The right family for Mary would be the one who shared her sense of deep grief over the loss of her son. No glib replacement would do—no attempt to cheer her with some cheap distraction. Her new family must hold a place for her enormous sorrow and carry it together, knowing the sharp pain of separation and yet clinging to the delicious ache of having loved and having been loved by the Messiah. Theirs is “a kinship of (likely) loss.”
The new family of faith is formed through shared trauma. They had entrusted their futures to this Jesus, allowed themselves to hope wildly that he would heal the fractures of the world and make all things new. Instead, they watched in agony as his own life ebbed away, his blood running down his tortured body and dripping to the cursed earth.
Fears known and unknown loom large in this scene, like the specter of dismembered boats at sea, haunting the passengers of flimsy raft. Even so, in Jesus’ moment of anguish, he finds his mother and his devoted friend John and commends them to each other. He blesses a new bond. One son relinquished and one gained in a shuddering moment.
A loss as shattering as this drives you to find others who understand, who have been broken by what breaks you. Mary doesn’t seek distraction. She lingers here at the cross with John looking her son full in the face until the end. Her devotion draws her and will not let her go. So does his. They are the beginning of something new, though they don’t yet understand it to be so. They will gather with all their tear-stained friends waiting for whatever’s next.
Do they realize that they are what’s next? The family forged through suffering is being “built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (Eph. 2:22). The profound catastrophe of the cross thrusts them together to cling to grief in the absence of hope. The joyous ending they imagined is capsized like a dinghy in stormy waters. Everything depended on this. They had no plan B. Would they make it to shore?
Unsure, they cling to each other, discovering that “beneath the cross of Jesus, his family is my own.” Bound together with dashed hopes, they wait.
Prayer:
Lord, we have not always recognized what you were doing, connecting us to each other and helping us to become a new family. Thank you for the gift of others who have thrown in their lot with you. May we learn to live like the new family we are.
Amen.
Dr. Carmen Joy Imes
Associate Professor of Old Testament
Talbot School of Theology
Biola University
For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.
About the Art:
Mother Mary and Saint John
An illustration from the book entitled Imagine the Passion
Barbara Jean Alger
Artist Barbara Alger gives us an intimate portrait of Mary, mother of Jesus, and the Apostle John, who comforts her at their shared time of deepest sadness. One can only imagine the affliction and grief that would have filled Mary’s heart as she helplessly watched her firstborn son be beaten, flogged, and crucified before her eyes. Though Jesus’s closest friends and followers had forsaken Him, there was one who remained—John. It is to this beloved disciple that Jesus entrusts the care of His mother when He is gone. This selfless act of compassion is often interpreted as a representation of the church's responsibility to care for its members. Alger's stunning full-color illustrations were created exclusively for her devotional book entitled Imagine the Passion, which features poetry and her artwork—inviting readers to reflect, meditate, and connect with the profound story of redemption.
https://www.amazon.com/Imagine-Passion-Barbara-J-Alger/dp/B0CZV7VKB5/
About the Artist:
Barbara J. Alger is an American artist. After spending many years working with special needs individuals, she now resides in New London, Wisconsin, where she pursues her lifelong passion for writing and creativity. Barbara taught portrait drawing for many years at the Brown County Shelter Care, where she worked with troubled adolescents, some of whom went on to become successful artists. While she has self-published multiple books over the years, Barbara's true passion has always been poetry. Recently, Barbara decided to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a children's book writer. Drawing on her experiences working with young people, she is dedicated to creating books that inspire and delight children of all ages.
https://www.wondervilleroad.com/
About the Music: “Beneath the Cross of Jesus” from the album Closer
Lyrics:
Upon that cross of Jesus,
Mine eye at times can see,
The very dying form of One,
Who suffered there for me;
Beneath the cross of Jesus,
I find a place to stand.
And wonder at such mercy,
That calls me as I am.
For hands that should discard me,
Hold wounds which tell me come.
Beneath the cross of Jesus,
My unworthy soul is won.
Beneath the cross of Jesus,
His family is my own.
Once strangers chasing selfish dreams;
Now, one through grace alone.
How could I now dishonor
The ones that You have loved?
Beneath the cross of Jesus,
See the children called by God.
Beneath the cross of Jesus
The path before the crown,
We follow in His footsteps
Where promised hope is found.
How great the joy before us
To be His perfect bride.
Beneath the cross of Jesus,
We will gladly live our lives.
About the Composer:
Elizabeth Cecilia Douglas Clephane (1830–1869) was a Scottish songwriter, who wrote the hymns "The Ninety and Nine" and "Beneath the Cross of Jesus.” Eight hymns by Clephane were published posthumously in The Family Treasury, a Presbyterian magazine, between 1872 and 1874. Her hymn "Beneath the Cross of Jesus” is often heard at Easter and is usually sung to the tune "St Christopher" by English organist Frederick Charles Maker. In this version of the song, by the ZOE Group, the first stanza of her song is used and the remaining lyrics have been modified by Keith Getty.
https://hymnary.org/person/Clephane_EC
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Clephane
About the Composer:
Julian Keith Getty OBE (b. 1974) is a Christian singer-songwriter, best known for writing the song "In Christ Alone" (2001) with veteran songwriter and worship leader Stuart Townend. Getty and his wife, Kristyn, also release music under the musical duo of Keith & Kristyn Getty. In addition, Getty has also orchestrated or produced music for a number of projects. These include orchestrations for Michael W. Smith's 2004 Healing Rain album, McDonald's television commercials, and movie soundtrack recordings of Music from the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and Once upon a Time: The Essential Ennio Morricone. He wrote and produced the music for the 1998 C. S. Lewis International Centenary Celebrations. In 2001, Stuart Townend and Getty wrote the song "In Christ Alone" with the purpose of creating a modern hymn that would explain the life of Christ. The song gained popularity, and by 2005 it was named by a BBC Songs of Praise survey as the ninth best-loved hymn of all time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Getty
https://www.gettymusic.com/
About the Performers:
The ZOE Group is a division of Christian Music Resources, Inc., a not-for-profit Christian ministry dedicated to worship renewal in the lives of individuals and the churches to which they belong. This goal is accomplished primarily through the creation and distribution of worship resources, such as a cappella musical recordings and printed sheet music, and through live events and worship conferences. In 1995, a small group gathered for a weekly study, searching the Scriptures to find meaningful and intentional ways of sharing a passion for worship with the church. A nonprofit organization was soon established to help implement and share innovative worship ideas with others. In 1997, as a part of this new organization, a group of singers was formed to help introduce new/contemporary songs into churches. This group is known as The ZOE Group. Zoe, a Greek word used throughout the New Testament, means "the absolute fullness of life.”
http://www.zoegroup.org/
About the Poetry and Poet:
Olugbenga Adeoba recently graduated from the M.F.A. in creative writing program at the University of Iowa. Olugbenga is an award-winning poet, whose poems address topics such as migration, slavery, war, and natural disasters. During his two-year course at the University of Iowa, Olugbenga hosted several poetry workshops for refugees and asylum seekers to help them express their experience through creative writing. He adopted a participatory-observatory approach to study the experience of asylum seekers and resettled refugees in the Iowa City area. At the University of Oxford, Olugbenga intends to examine the impact of displacement on young people in North-Eastern Nigeria.
https://www.afox.ox.ac.uk/node/51
About the Devotion Writer:
Dr. Carmen Joy Imes
Associate Professor of Old Testament
Talbot School of Theology
Biola University
Carmen is in her fourth year at Biola University, where she loves helping students fall in love with the Old Testament Scriptures. She is the author of Being God’s Image: Why Creation Still Matters and Bearing God’s Name: Why Sinai Still Matters. She had no idea she’d become a YouTuber when she grew up!