Lent Daybook, 19: Balm
FOURTH WEDNESDAY IN LENT
Welcome to a Lent daybook for these 40 days of prayer. You can see all the previous Lent daybook 2019 posts here.
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Look: The Good Samaritan, after Delacroix, Vincent van Gogh
Listen: “There Is A Balm In Gilead” from In Bright Mansions, The Fisk Jubilee Singers
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“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. I have sworn an oath and confirmed it, to keep your righteous rules. I am severely afflicted; give me life, O Lord, according to your word! Accept my freewill offerings of praise, O Lord, and teach me your rules. I hold my life in my hand continually, but I do not forget your law. The wicked have laid a snare for me, but I do not stray from your precepts. Your testimonies are my heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart. I incline my heart to perform your statutes forever, to the end.”
*
”My joy is gone; grief is upon me; my heart is sick within me. Behold, the cry of the daughter of my people from the length and breadth of the land:
“Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King not in her?”
“Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images and with their foreign idols?”
“The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.”
For the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded; I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.
Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored? Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! Oh that I had in the desert a travelers’ lodging place, that I might leave my people and go away from them!”
*
”For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”
*
”Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
They said to him therefore, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple; but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.”
Sunday Scripture readings are taken from the Revised Common Lectionary (Year C). Daily Scripture readings are taken from the Book of Common Prayer (Year 1) with the Psalm for the Morning Office.
Pray:
Taken from Evening Prayers For Every Day of the Year by Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt
“Now we find that the Law keeps slipping into the picture to point the vast extent of sin. Yet, though sin is shown to be wide and deep, thank God his grace is wider and deeper still!” Romans 5:20, Phillips
”Lord our God, we come into your presence, pleading with you to bring the world what it needs, so that people may be freed from all their pain and enabled to serve you. Let the power of Jesus Christ be revealed in our time. For he has taken on our sin that justice might arise on earth, that all might have life and might see your salvation, which you will bring when the time is fulfilled. Let your power be revealed in the world, and let your will be done, your name be kept holy, and all wrongs be righted in this turbulent and difficult age. O Lord our God, you alone can help. You alone are the Savior of all peoples. In your great mercy you can bring peace. We look to you. And when we consider your Word, we remember the mighty promises you have given, promises which are to be fulfilled in our time. Amen.”
Do:
Fast preconceived notions (judgments).
Feast on a hospitable imagination instead.
This week, ask the Holy Spirit to make you aware of the times throughout the day that you operate out of preconceived notions (judgments) about Him, others, and yourself. Make the time at least once a day to stop what you’re doing and practice a hospitable imagination in one of the following ways:
Make space for divergent opinions
Make space for meaning
Make space for listening
Make space for conversation
Make space for reading outside your tradition
Make space for curiosity
Make space for pausing
Sometime this week, share with us one way you’ve practiced a hospitable imagination and what the experience was like for you. You can leave a comment on the blog, Facebook, Instagram, or reply directly to this email.
(See all Lent daybook posts from 2018 here.)