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March 23, 2025

Seek the Lord

Osheta Moore   |   Read Luke 13:1-9

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Lectionary Week
March 17–23, 2025
Scripture Overview

The passages this week are invitations to know God in our most vulnerable moments. In Isaiah we’re invited to come to God with all our needs—thirst and hunger. In the psalm the psalmist makes room for our wondering and our wandering and invites us to seek God, the source of our confidence and care. Paul’s message reminds us to practice humility, lest our boldness lead to self-righteousness. And Jesus’ parable in the Gospel of Luke calls us not to give up on doing the work of living a life of faith. These invitations honor the questions many of us have around our faith—how does God respond to our real life experiences of need, confusion, and being overwhelmed? The invitations from the scriptures give us an embodied hope in our spiritual formation: God desires for us to tend to our bodies, to pay attention when we are overwhelmed. An embodied faith is a flourishing faith.

Questions and Suggestions for Reflection

• Read Isaiah 55:1-9. How is your soul thirsting for God this season? How can you create time and space to seek God?
• Read Psalm 63:1-8. What is your first memory of experiencing God’s love? How can you pay special attention to God’s presence as you fall asleep tonight?
• Read 1 Corinthians 10:1-13. How can you embrace the good work of humility in your relationships today?
• Read Luke 13:1-9. For what do you need to repent?

Respond by posting a prayer .

Luke 13:1-9

1 Some who were present on that occasion told Jesus about the Galileans whom Pilate had killed while they were offering sacrifices. 2 He replied, “Do you think the suffering of these Galileans proves that they were more sinful than all the other Galileans? 3 No, I tell you, but unless you change your hearts and lives, you will die just as they did. 4 What about those eighteen people who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them? Do you think that they were more guilty of wrongdoing than everyone else who lives in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you, but unless you change your hearts and lives, you will die just as they did.” 6 Jesus told this parable: “A man owned a fig tree planted in his vineyard. He came looking for fruit on it and found none. 7 He said to his gardener, ‘Look, I’ve come looking for fruit on this fig tree for the past three years, and I’ve never found any. Cut it down! Why should it continue depleting the soil’s nutrients?’ 8 The gardener responded, ‘Lord, give it one more year, and I will dig around it and give it fertilizer. 9 Maybe it will produce fruit next year; if not, then you can cut it down.’”

Unless otherwise indicated, scripture quotations are from the Common English Bible. Copyright © 2011 Common English Bible. Used by permission.

Jesus tells the story of a man who planted a fig tree in his vineyard but found it without fruit for three years. Frustrated, he decides to cut it down, but the gardener pleads for one more year, promising to cultivate and fertilize it.
We all experience times of feeling...

Loving God, we respond to your relentless, loving, patient call. Show us where our root systems need care and give us the path toward healing. May we bear fruit that draws others to you. Amen.


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