Although We Are Weeping: Lent Daybook 35
Take a few deep breaths, settle your body, mind, and heart into a quiet space, and let’s begin with prayer.
Opening prayer: Heavenly Father, make me more like Jesus and more like the true self you’ve created as I savor your loving presence today. Please guide my thoughts and impressions by your Holy Spirit. Amen.
Look: Cabeza de Cristo, Paulo Medina - Source
Listen: Psalm 126, Bifrost Arts, feat. Molly Parden - Lyrics | Spotify | YouTube
Read: Psalm 121-126; Exodus 5:1-6:1; 1 Corinthians 14:20-33a, 39-40; Mark 9:42-50
Excerpts:
"I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore."
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Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! "May they be secure who love you! Peace be within your walls and security within your towers!” For my brothers and companions' sake I will say, “Peace be within you!” For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good.
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To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens! Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till he has mercy upon us.
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Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’” But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.” Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.” But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get back to your burdens.” And Pharaoh said, “Behold, the people of the land are now many, and you make them rest from their burdens!” The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen, “You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as in the past; let them go and gather straw for themselves. But the number of bricks that they made in the past you shall impose on them, you shall by no means reduce it, for they are idle. Therefore they cry, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.’ Let heavier work be laid on the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words.
... Then Moses turned to the Lord and said, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.”
But the Lord said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.”
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Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature. In the Law it is written, “By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.” Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers. If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds? But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.
... For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.
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Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.
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When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.” The Lord has done great things for us; we are glad.
Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the watercourses in the Negeb! May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy! He that goes forth weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.”
Pray: A prayer for honesty about my acceptance of grief. Let this be a place you share your honest thoughts and feelings with God. Speak plainly and without qualification.
Knowing that God loves me unconditionally, I can afford to be honest about how I am. How has the last day been, and how do I feel now? I share my feelings openly with the Lord. (Sacred Space for Lent)
Do: Keep vigil with Jesus and 7 storytellers through Holy Week. Sign up below (it’s free) to receive the Zoom link for April 7 and one story each day of Holy Week to your email inbox.
The series will be posted on my public blog, but the Zoom link and the daily emails will only go to those who sign up for them here.Spend some time journaling in response to today’s meditation.
Each year during Holy Week I invite 7 friends to share a personal story of grief or lament on my blog (inspired, in part, by our church's unique Good Friday services).
2022 marks the tenth year I will be curating this blog series for Holy Week, centered around the "Seven Words of Christ from the Cross". Each year seven guests share personal reflections on how they've walked with Christ through challenges in life, within the context of Christ's own suffering on the cross. That’s 70 stories, soon to include this year’s guest storytellers, that have invited us to bring Christ's dying lament into our present, lived experiences of grief and loss.
The tradition of speaking to the Seven Words on Good Friday goes back centuries, but it is a unique tradition we've experienced in our current and former church to invite members of the congregation to speak on them. That unique experience is what I'm trying to extend, gently and with care, to the readers who've followed my blog for so many years. In order to add to that circle of care, this year I'm inviting storytellers from the series to a conversation I'm facilitating on Zoom where those who follow the blog can listen in and ask their own questions.
Our conversation will include some moments of contemplative prayer and space for the Holy Spirit to minister to each one of us.
On Thursday, April 7 at noon - 1:15 pm ET, simply show up on Zoom to receive:
time for guided silence and Scripture reading to prepare our hearts for Holy Week
an opportunity to hear from this year’s guest storytellers
a place to ask questions about the spiritual practice of lament and the liturgical practices for Holy Week
a quiet, safe space to prayerfully listen for and respond to God’s invitation to you this Holy Week.
Sign up above to receive the Zoom link for April 7 and one story each day of Holy Week to your email inbox.
*Sunday Scripture readings are taken from Year C of the Book of Common Prayer 2019 (Anglican Church of North America). Daily Scripture readings are taken from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer and include both Morning and Evening Psalms (Year 2)