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Lent Day 44

28 Mar

Dear God, Maundy Thursday. The Last Supper. The bread/body, wine/blood. The washing of the feet. The betrayal. The blood from sweat. The prayer to take the cup. The anguish. The healing. The prayer for our unity. So much happens. Thank you.

Here are today’s verses from Sacred Invitation: Lenten Devotions Inspired by the Book of Common Prayer. Ironically, I have not hardly read the commentary from the book. Maybe 10% of it. I’ve almost exclusively just used the passages each day. Maybe I’ll go back and read it when I’m done.

  • AM Psalm: 102
  • PM Psalms: 142, 143
  • Jeremiah 20:7-11
  • John 17
  • 1 Corinthians 10:14-17, 11:27-32

Psalm 102 – When I started reading this psalm, which contains the introduction, “A prayer of an afflicted man. When he is faint and pours out his lament before the LORD,” I thought of Jesus praying this psalm. The pain and the anguish. May I never forget the fully human nature of Jesus as he faced this. He didn’t get a divine intervention from this pain. He was fully you, but he was also fully Mary. Oh, Jesus, thank you.

Psalms 142 and 143 – Again, I imagine these words layered over Jesus’s experience nearly 2,000 years ago. The lament. The dread. The fear. The love. The submission. The devotion. The determination. The strength. The self control. The kindness. The goodness. The faithfulness. The patience. The gentleness. All of the fruits of the Spirit on full display that night. Amazing.

Jeremiah 20:7-11 – Jeremiah had moments of feel very rejected. Each day I fill out a 6-question survey on how I’m doing emotionally and physically and share it with a friend. It’s on a scale of 1-5, and the idea is to be able to see how your friend is doing at any given time. It has proved to really bond this friend and me together over the last 18 months. I have a tendency to use “4” as a baseline, bump it to 5 if things are fully engaged at that level in that particularly category, and let it drop to 3 or even 2 if it was a bad day. Most days are 4s and 5s, but sometimes I give a 3, and a few times I’ve given a 2 on some of the questions. I can imagine that Jeremiah had a lot of days that were filled with 2s. The path you had for him was certainly contentious and full of rejection by man. His pain was real. But your presence and comfort to him were real as well. Just as it was to Jesus as we began his final journey to crucifixion.

John 17 – Ah, the prayer at the Last Supper. I knew this chapter even before I opened it. Jesus prays for himself, Jesus prays for the disciples, and then he prays for all of us, including me. He will do more praying later in the garden–anguished prayer–but for now he is covering us in prayer. Father, answer those prayers, even today. Use things in our world that are happening in your Church that concern me, and redeem them for your ultimate glory. Bring us all to repentance for our idols. Help us to look only to you for our path forward.

1 Corinthians 10:14-17, 11:27-32 – I need to be sure to find some time tonight to take your bread and drink your wine. I need to remember the body and the blood you gave for me. And the idols Paul mentions in 10:14. There is all kinds of idolatry. Anything that we look to for our fruits of the Spirit–especially peace (in my opinion)–instead of you. Our government? Our economy? Our spouse/significant other? Our children? Our job? Our reputation? I’ve been guilty of all of these and more. Please help me to be free from idols, look only to you for my peace, and help my friends and your Church to have our eyes opened to its idols, repent, and return to you.

Finally, I want to pray for a couple of friends experiencing the deaths of their mothers and one who lost their spouse, all this week. For the woman who tragically lost her spouse two days ago from an accident, please strongly support her in every way. Support her through this terrible time. Provide every need so that, ultimately, she might find rest in you. And for her children as well. For the two friends who lost their mothers this week, please comfort them. There is no one like Mom. Please help them and comfort them as, even at their older ages, they are motherless for the first time. Help them to find their rest and peace in you.

I pray all of this in Jesus and everything that the next 72 hours represents, and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on March 28, 2024 in 1 Corinthians, Jeremiah, John, Lent 2024, Psalms

 

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Lent Day 38

22 Mar

Dear God, this is a special day because it is a day that you have given to me. Don’t let me waste it. I want to use this day to glorify you. Frankly, I don’t have anything particularly special scheduled. I just have a lot of work to do. And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention what happened 25 years ago today. At this hour 25 years ago, my wife and I were getting ready to head to the hospital for her to be induced to have one of our children. Oh, how I love that child. Tears are in my eyes as I type this. So much love. Thank you for that child and that day. Things got complicated with the delivery and we had a complication, but you kept my wife safe and the child safe. Thank you for that too.

Here are today’s passages from Sacred Invitation: Lenten Devotions Inspired by the Book of Common Prayer.

  • AM Psalm: 22
  • PM Psalms: 141, 143
  • Jeremiah 29:1, 4-13
  • John 11:1-27
  • Romans 11:13-24

Psalm 22 – This is one of those great songs of lament. Of course, the opening words are familiar to the Passion and Easter stories: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” I have a friend with whom I check in each day through the WeTree app. Frankly, his check-ins are usually more upbeat than mine. Not that mine are doom and gloom, but sometimes I start to worry that I don’t see enough positive and focus on it. Then I read a lot of these psalms and remember there is always a place for lament. For me, through these prayers and different forms of self-reflection, I think I have a healthy amount of access to and working through those feelings. They don’t dominate me, but they are certainly part of the cocktail that makes up who I am as a person. So this psalm is a good reminder that it’s okay to lament. It’s okay to have sorrow. It’s the sorrow that sometimes motivates me into 1.) prayer, 2.) action, and 3.) empathy for others.

Psalm 141, 143 – Playing off of what I just said about Psalm 22, here is David exploring his heart through writing poetry and then laying it before you. And it’s not all pretty. Some of his psalms are very worshipful, but some of his psalms express agony, fear, sorrow, or any list of other negative (and I hate to say negative because that doesn’t mean they are bad to have) emotions. It makes me think of the movie Inside Out. The emotion of Sadness had its part to play in the little girl too.

Jeremiah 29:1, 4-13 – Oh, how this passage (especially verse 11) is taken out of context, but in its correct context it is still such a beautiful thing, if not also being a tough pill to swallow for those receiving it. For me, it is counterintuitive what we read about yesterday that you were with those who were being sent into exile, but not the remnant left behind. It will be 70 years before this prophecy is fulfilled. Every adult hearing it will be dead when the time comes for Israel’s return. But they are given instructions to follow that will make it possible for their children, their children’s children, and so forth to live the fulfillment of the prophecy. They are to do everything they can to live for you–even live for the land they are in–so that you might bring their descendants to a new place. Father, right now, I don’t know that anything I am doing will benefit me personally, but I pray that the words of my mouth, the actions of my hands, and the thoughts of my heart will glorify you and set up your plan to be lived out through the world around me.

John 11:1-27 – As we move closer to the Passion and ultimately the resurrection, this story is an interesting precursor to it: Lazarus. But the sisters don’t even know what to ask you for. Jesus, you tell Martha that he will rise again, but she can’t think that big. She doesn’t know your real plan. I can’t think that big either. Help me to think that big.

Romans 11:13-24 – This seems like a lot of words to say that I, as a Gentile, am part of your plan, but I also have the opportunity to reject you and remove myself from that plan. Oh, Father, I want my branch connected to your vine. Thank you for grafting me into your Kingdom.

I offer all of this to you in Jesus, my Savior, and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on March 22, 2024 in Jeremiah, John, Lent 2024, Psalms, Romans

 

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Lent Day 30

14 Mar

Dear God, I was just telling a friend through the WeTree app on my daily check-in that I feel glum today. The woman I prayed about yesterday who was dying passed yesterday. Between the crying I did on Tuesday over my personal situation and then the crying I did yesterday over her loss and for her family, I am pretty emotionally wrung out. I decided a few weeks ago that I really wanted to dig into this Lenten season with you. I wanted to consider the life, suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus in an intentional way. I wanted to hear from you in a new way. Now, as I sit here about 2/3 of the way through Lent, I can’t help but wonder if this wasn’t about making sure my branch was securely fastened to your vine when these storms came. Either way, I am incredibly grateful for you while I go through this valley of the shadow of death.

With that said, here are the passages from Sacred Invitation: Lenten Devotions Inspired by the Book of Common Prayer for today.

  • AM Psalm: 69
  • PM Psalm: 73
  • Jeremiah 22:13-23
  • John 6:41-51
  • Romans 8:12-27

Psalm 69 – Verst 1: Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. This reminds me of a line from the TV show The West Wing. One of the characters is cryptically telling someone that something confidential that is bad is happening and the person asks the character, “Friend to friend, is the water over your head?” She replies, “No, the water is right at my head.” From a functional standpoint, I don’t think the water is that high in my life, but emotionally I feel like the water is getting up to my neck. Oh, how I am grateful that it is okay to feel that. I don’t have to deny it and always be “happy all the day” as the hymn “At the Cross” suggests. There is room in your plan for me for me to mourn, even for my own sin and mistakes. I am grateful that David shows me that even as I sit here this morning praying to you in my sadness, it’s okay. The man after your own heart was sad sometimes too and prayed to you out of that pain.

Psalm 73 – Verses 25 and 26: “Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Yes. This whole psalm is worth a read for anyone who is envious of the godless who are successful, but, at least at this moment, I do not have that envy. But I am getting closer and closer to the real belief that even though my heart and flesh may fail, you are the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Jeremiah 22:13-23 – “Does it make you a king to have more and more cedar?” Oh, Lord, please keep me from envying that which is not of you. Give me your eyes to see. I’m not saying that wealth is a bad thing. I depend upon the excess wealth and generosity of others to do the work I do for your people. But I also don’t want to envy any other life. The one you gave me to live is more than enough.

Romans 8:12-27 – “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for , but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches out hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.” Holy Spirit, pray for me. Pray for those I love. Pray for the family that lost their wife, mother, daughter, sister yesterday. Thank you for searching out our hearts.

I offer all of this to you in Jesus and with the Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on March 14, 2024 in Jeremiah, John, Psalms, Romans

 

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