Lent Daybook, 26: Ruthless
A Lent daybook for these 40 days of prayer. Join me, won't you? (see previous Lent daybook 2018 posts here)
Is this your first time to practice Lent? Here's a simple introduction: How we prepare for Lent.
*Note: If you're reading this in email, the formatting usually looks much better at the website. Just click the post title to get there.*
Fence post. Allensworth, CA. by Matt Black #geographyofpoverty
Note:
"Allensworth is an unincorporated community in Tulare County, California, United States. The population was 471 at the 2010 census. Residents have a $7,274 per capita income and 54% live below the poverty level. Founded in 1908 by Lt. Col. Allen Allensworth, an ex-slave and Buffalo Soldier, the self-sufficient community he envisioned foundered for lack of water and protracted land disputes with the Santa Fe Railroad."
music for today: "I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say", Four Girls (lyrics)
from Field Recordings - Volume 13: Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina & Delaware (1933-1943) (Read here for a folk music definition of "field recordings".)
all readings* for today: Exodus 1:6-22, Psalm 69, 1 Corinthians 12:12-26, Mark 8:27--9:1
excerpts:
“And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.”
*
”Save me, O God,
for the waters have come up to my neck.
I sink in the miry depths,
where there is no foothold.
I have come into the deep waters;
the floods engulf me.
I am worn out calling for help;
my throat is parched.
My eyes fail,
looking for my God.
Those who hate me without reason
outnumber the hairs of my head;
many are my enemies without cause,
those who seek to destroy me.
I am forced to restore
what I did not steal.”
*
”But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.”
*
”What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? ...
And [Jesus] said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.’”
* Monday - Thursday Scripture readings are taken from the Book of Common Prayer (Year 2). On Fridays, I'll include the Scripture readings for the upcoming Sunday which are taken from the Revised Common Lectionary (Year B).
prayer for today from The Repentance Project:
“Heavenly Father, You are Holy and Just. You love honesty and fairness and respect Your image embedded in all people. Yet, my culture and economy (including me) has benefitted at the expense of the poor and marginalized — both historically and presently. I don’t know what to do with this except to ask for your mercy and that Your Kingdom come. May Your will be done, Your ways established, Your honesty and generosity and freedom openly exchanged among us — here in my hometown, in our state, and in our nation. Have mercy on me. Have mercy on us”
Spiritual practice for today:
Each week during Lent, we will devote Thursdays to acts of repentance. It's God's kindness that leads us to repentance, and in His kindness and provision for reconciliation, He invites us to make confession and ask for forgiveness on behalf of not only ourselves but our forefathers and mothers. We carry a heavy load of guilt and grief in our nation as a result of centuries of grievous sin and unrelenting injustice against African Americans.
I've added to my personal Lenten reading this year the brief daily posts called An American Lent, a collaboration between Coracle and The Repentance Project. I commend the readings to you, and if nothing else, consider reading and signing the call to action entitled Statement of Repentance.
If you only have time to read one post, read Tuesday's post ("Jim Crow and the God Who Hates") by Darryl Ford. Read and pray through the suggested response: "May God give us a hatred for the things that He hates, and a deep and abiding love for those that He loves."
Take some time to read through a few of the following links from the rest of the week's excellent posts:
Techniques of Direct Disenfranchisement, 1880-1965 & the non-partisan study New Voting Restrictions in America (from the Voting Rights post)
Read the background of the origins of the legalized discrimination of the Jim Crow Laws (from the Mass Incarceration post).
Watch the PBS documentary Slavery By Another Name.
Listen to a 25-minute Q Talk "Restoring the Justice System" with Bryan Stevenson, public interest lawyer who has dedicated his career to helping the poor, the incarcerated and the condemned. (This suggestion is my own addition, having just finished reading Mr. Stevenson's excellent book Just Mercy.)
Pray through the words and consider signing the Statement of Repentance.
(see all Lent daybook posts from 2017 here)