Lent Meditation: Day 21 - March 10, 2026

📖 Scripture Verse

[Jesus] called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits….So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them. — Mark 6:7,12-13

🕯️Meditation

In the Nicene Creed we affirm four marks of the church: that it is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.  In this passage in Mark, Jesus empowers the twelve and sends them out [apostello in Greek] to preach his message and do the same kind of work he had been doing.  He sends them out in pairs, reflecting that the apostolic authority is vested individuals, but in a community.  The church is apostolic in that, in community, we understand ourselves to be sent out to do the work of Christ: to preach repentance (that lives can be changed and transformed through God in Christ); to cast out demons (to dispel the spiritual powers that grind down on humankind, powers of oppression, addiction, and despair.); to heal the sick.  This is the work of the church in the world.  We are apostolic because as followers of Jesus we have been commissioned and sent out—and as we do the work we have been called to do, we find ourselves learning how to truly repent, our own lives changed, ourselves liberated from all sorts of chains, and we experience inner healings.  The call of discipleship in Christ is a call to embrace the grace given to us and offer grace to the world.

🙏 Prayer

Lord Jesus, you send out your church just as you sent your first disciples in mission.  Give us courage to answer when we are called and go where we are sent, for the love of your world.  Amen.

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