Lent: Day 26 – In a very busy waiting room of a hospital located in an urban city, a man impatiently makes his way to the medical station and rather authoritatively says to the woman sitting at the desk, “How long is this going to take? Don’t you know who I am?” The nurse immediately moves to the desk microphone and announces over the intercom “I have a man here in the waiting room who doesn’t know who he is can someone please help him find out?” Very cleverly, the nurse helps this man to understand that it is not her job to know who he believes himself to be. What she does know is that he is one of many in the waiting room in need of attention. As the body of Christ we are one of many who believe, one of many with different gifts, one of many in need of God’s love. God has enough grace for each of us, enough to heal our mind, soul and body all in his time. We have only to be patient and trust that he does know who we are, even when we forget and just as faithfully, when others against us, forget who they are.

Exodus 1:6-22 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us…But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel.

Mark 8:27-9:1 And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.”

1 Corinthians 12:12-26 But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

Psalm 69: 1-23

 For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach,

     that dishonor has covered my face.

I have become a stranger to my brothers,

     an alien to my mother’s sons.