Come To Our Help: Lent Daybook 6

Look: Carved Conversations, SaraNoa Mark - Source

Statement about this project: “‘Carved Conversations’ by SaraNoa Mark, is a multitude of interior landscapes carved into an enigmatic sculptural piece. Words from conversations between friends and community members move the artists hand through stone and pieces of asphalt found by the artist at Chicago’s Promontory Point. It is a collaborative piece between the community, the artist and the lake. Inscribed rocks shaped by the churning and turning of the lake listen, speak and read parts of an oral history project built by Hyde Park native, DD Klionsky, who befriended Mark by the south side of the Point. Mark’s interest in stone carving as one of the first forms of communication and means of marking place traveled the artist to Turkey on a Fulbright fellowship. At the beginning of the pandemic, their travels were cut short, but not before they had the opportunity to study the living rock monuments in Anatolia. Returning to Chicago, Mark was drawn to creating place-based, collaborative and locally specific work. While centering themselves in the midst of the pandemic through the act of swimming, they formed a small but strong community of swimmers from varying walks of life. Their conversations as a community grew, interspersed by Mark collecting and individually transporting each rock and fragment, replete with detail, back in their studio. Like talismans for the artist's psyche, the artist carved each rock through the process of deep listening, conversing and collecting stories in oft unspoken words. Conversational mannerisms, ‘umm’s’, ‘ah’s’ and sudden pauses reified within the piece, juxtaposing motifs of empathy, practical living, and survival. Two years since their carved paper clay series shown at Chicago Artists Coalition, Mark is interested in the synchronicity between historical, land based, collaborative, community-driven and place sensitive work, and the work of the contemporary artist. “

Listen: Psalm 44, Streetlights - Spotify | YouTube

Read: Psalm 41, 52; Psalm 44; Genesis 37:1-11; 1 Corinthians 1:1-19; Mark 1:1-13

Excerpts:

“Happy are those who consider the poor; the Lord delivers them in the day of trouble. The Lord protects them and keeps them alive; they are called happy in the land. You do not give them up to the will of their enemies. The Lord sustains them on their sickbed; in their illness you heal all their infirmities.

As for me, I said, “O Lord, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against you. My enemies wonder in malice when I will die, and my name perish. And when they come to see me, they utter empty words, while their hearts gather mischief; when they go out, they tell it abroad. All who hate me whisper together about me; they imagine the worst for me.”

*

“Why do you boast, O mighty one, of mischief done against the godly? All day long you are plotting destruction. Your tongue is like a sharp razor, you worker of treachery. You love evil more than good, and lying more than speaking the truth.

Selah

… But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever. I will thank you forever, because of what you have done. In the presence of the faithful I will proclaim your name, for it is good.”

*

“Jacob settled in the land where his father had lived as an alien, the land of Canaan. This is the story of the family of Jacob…

Joseph, being seventeen years old, was shepherding the flock with his brothers … and Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he had made him a long robe with sleeves. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him.

Once Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more….

He had another dream, and told it to his brothers, saying, “Look, I have had another dream: the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him, and said to him, “What kind of dream is this that you have had? Shall we indeed come, I and your mother and your brothers, and bow to the ground before you?” So his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.”

*

“We have heard with our ears, O God, our ancestors have told us, what deeds you performed in their days, in the days of old: you with your own hand drove out the nations, but them you planted; you afflicted the peoples, but them you set free; for not by their own sword did they win the land, nor did their own arm give them victory; but your right hand, and your arm, and the light of your countenance, for you delighted in them.

You are my King and my God; you command victories for Jacob. Through you we push down our foes; through your name we tread down our assailants. For not in my bow do I trust, nor can my sword save me. But you have saved us from our foes, and have put to confusion those who hate us. In God we have boasted continually, and we will give thanks to your name forever.

Selah

*

“Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,

To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind— just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you— so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? … For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power.

For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
    and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

*

“The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,

“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’”

… In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

*

“If we had forgotten the name of our God, or spread out our hands to a strange god, would not God discover this? For he knows the secrets of the heart. Because of you we are being killed all day long, and accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

Rouse yourself! Why do you sleep, O Lord? Awake, do not cast us off forever! Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and oppression? For we sink down to the dust; our bodies cling to the ground. Rise up, come to our help. Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love.”

Pray & Do: The Lord's Prayer - Adapted from this source.

On Mondays during Lent, we'll use the Lord's Prayer as our guide for praying for ourselves and the world. One of the ways to pray the Lord's prayer is by dividing it into six sections and pausing between each section to offer prayer on that theme. This week, as we consider how honesty helps us express lament to God, notice the places you feel disconnected from your heart and mind as you pray the Lord’s Prayer. Journal those responses.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name

Thank God for who God is and for God's abundant faithfulness. Contemplate
God's many attributes and offer praise for the blessings in your life, community, and the world: ____________________.

Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven

Pray for God's rule and reign to become a reality in your life, city, nation, and
world. Ask for God to bring miracles and salvation: ____________________.

Give us this day our daily bread.

Pray for God's daily provision in your life and for those around the world who
the Holy Spirit brings to your heart and mind: ____________________.

Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us.

Engage in a few moments of silence to allow space for the Holy Spirit to bring
specific acts of sin to your attention. Confess those sins to the Lord. Also, be still
and allow the Holy Spirit to bring to mind those that have sinned against you so
that you can name them to God, ask for healing and strength to forgive. Forgive
those who have wronged you: ____________________.

Lead us not into temptation.

Ask for God to guide you in ‘paths of righteousness for God's name sake'. Pray that
God will give you the discernment and knowledge of God's will in the specific
decisions, known and unknown, ahead of you today: ____________________.

Deliver us from evil.

Pray for God's protection against any of the strategies of Satan. The Devil wants
to kill, steal, and destroy. Ask God to mightily deliver you and others the Holy
Spirit brings to your heart and mind: ____________________.

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

*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).