Rhythm and Word - March 25, 2026

0:00Welcome. I'm Nancy Benson, a call from the pastoral staff of fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago, and this is Rhythm and Word, our weekly video devotional. Throughout these six weeks of Lent, I am honored to amplify a mosaic of voices as the center of our series. Inspired by the vision and work of the mosaic project initiated by member Richard Knorr, we journey through Lent gifted with the inspiring and moving perspectives of members of our faith community in their own words. Each responds to these two questions. First, how did you learn about or experience the season of Lent? And second, as you enter the season of Lent, what truth about yourself is Lent asking you to face. And each week, I'll consider a particular Lent and motif rooted in the

1:04gospel of Matthew and Jesus encounter in the wilderness to invite you into ongoing contemplation. When I remember my first experiences of Lent, or even having an idea of what a Lent was, it really wasn't a cohesive narrative, so to speak, because I was a little girl, I was weird in the Presbyterian Church. And so I grew up attending Doyle's Town Presbyterian Church. And in Sunday school, really the first tangible relationship to Lent was the little paper cardboard fish bank, colorful fish bank that had one great hour of sharing written on it. And so throughout the

2:06season of Lent, the one great hour of sharing was that one opportunity that little kids, and I was probably about four or five when I first had my little one great hour of sharing Lent in box, was given to me in Sunday school. And every week throughout Lent, I would collect my pennies and nickels and quarters and dimes and maybe even a dollar somewhere, although this was the early 80s. So probably that would have been too extravagant, but would have all those little coins that I would put in the box. And I would be told that we are collecting this for Lent to honor Lent. And then as I got older and as the themes in Sunday school got more sophisticated, I learned what Lent was, was introduced to the story of Jesus' temptation in the wilderness, was aware of what was actually

3:09happening when Ash Wednesday, we would receive the ashes on our forehead. I remember being a little girl and looking around and seeing usually Catholic friends that had those marks, but it would be a little bit later on in my own home church that we would embrace some of those other traditions that had traditionally been associated with Catholics or more liturgically high church traditions, so to speak. But I embraced the ashes and became to, was brought to learn more about what it means to have been formed by dust and to return to dust. I remember Palm Sunday and of course folding the palm branches into crosses that we would carry through us, with us through Holy Week. And so it was really a

4:14formational aspect in my upbringing that Lent as a follower as a Christian was important to me in my life. So that was my introduction to Lent. When I then lean into the question of what is it this year that Lent is asking me to face? I think it continues to be the nature of my own vulnerability in relationship to the vulnerability that surrounds us as so many people are facing a variety of challenges both writ large and also in small ways as people are suffering with serious diagnoses as people face the rupture of their own personal

5:21relationships, going no contact with family members or ending friendships and the pain and loss of that of people who have lost through death, friends or family members or others and are deeply impacted by that as people grapple with addictions or diseases and our culture that focuses so much on food for example those who struggle with disordered eating. So many different ways in which everyone's lived experiences remind them that they are vulnerable and that to be human is to experience brokenness and that in contrast to the pressures that we have to be perfect that we have to project and to be our own

6:25social media influencers if you will or to have perfect houses or to wear perfect clothing and knowing that so much of our lives and our commerce is driven by us, buying and believing that we are broken then that our solutions are what we can consume and what we can buy and the identities that we can craft and project versus connecting with the essence of who we are which is dust and to dust we shall return and that our suffering doesn't have to be and is not a marker of failure that failure actually can be failure that shortcomings can be shortcomings that temptations are real and can be acknowledged but

7:32that's not the only aspect of who we are and we have the opportunity to connect with Jesus in his struggles and temptations but to find triumphant sources of hope as we journey with him and so now we move onward and as this series draws to a close we are drawn to the foot of the cross with Jesus we anticipate next entering into holy week and then being faced with good Friday and then being hopeful for what is to come but we're not there yet and the question one question that I would have for all of us and for me is to what end to what end is the sacrifice

8:50to what end is what I am being asked to give up to the glory of God and to what end do we embrace what Jesus asked us to give to the glory of God how is our connection with Jesus' sacrifice meaningful for us and so I lift up this extended passage from Matthew's gospel it's the 27th chapter beginning with the 27th verse where we are reminded of this familiar story Matthew says then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters and they gathered the whole cohort around him they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him and

9:53after twisting some thorns into a crown they put it on his head and they put a reed in his right hand and knelt before him and mocked him saying hail king of the Jews and they spat on him and took the reed and struck him on the head and after mocking him they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and then they let him away to crucify him and it is he went out he came upon a man from sireen named Simon they compelled this Simon to carry his cross and when they came to a place called golgatha which means place of the skull they offered him wine to drink mixed with gol but when he tasted it he would not drink it and when they had crucified him they divided his clothes among themselves by

10:53casting lots and then they sat down there and they kept watch over him and over his head they put a charge against him that read this is Jesus the king of the Jews then two rebels were crucified with him one on his right and one on his left those who passed by derided him shaking their heads and saying you who would destroy the temple and build it in three days save yourself if you are the son of god come down from the cross and in the same way the chief priests also along with the scribes and the elders were mocking him saying he saved others he cannot save himself he's the king of Israel let him come down from the cross now when we will believe in him he trusts in God

11:54let him save himself if he wants to for he said I am God's son the rebels who were crucified with him also taunted him in this same way from noon on darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon and about three o'clock Jesus cried with a loud voice Elie Elima Sabak tonight which is my god my god why have you forsaken me and when some of the bystanders heard it they said this man is calling for Elijah and at once one of them ran and got him a sponge filled with sour wine and put it on a stick and gave it to him to drink but the other said wait let us see whether Elijah will come down to

12:56save him and then Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last with Simon with Jesus throughout this season we've been called to take up our cross may we value the cost and may it draw us closer into the center of the heart of God keep the faith this is not the end amen