Lent Daybook, 10: You'll Never Walk Alone
SECOND SATURDAY IN LENT
Welcome to a Lent daybook for these 40 days of prayer. You can see all the previous Lent daybook 2019 posts here.
Is this your first time to practice Lent? Here's a simple introduction.
Look: And the Darkness Has Not Overcome Us, 2017, Shin Maeng
![(Source) [H/T]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5700118059827e84008212d2/1550613948758-RXZ94V1SQJ5JZ7TZL0QE/maeng-shin_and-the-darkness-has-not-overcome-us.jpg)
Listen: “You’ll Never Walk Alone” from Amazing Grace, Aretha Franklin
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Read: Psalm 55; Deuteronomy 11:18-28; Hebrews 5:1-10; John 4:1-26
Excerpts:
“But I call to God, and the Lord will save me. Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he hears my voice. He redeems my soul in safety from the battle that I wage, for many are arrayed against me. God will give ear and humble them, he who is enthroned from of old, because they do not change and do not fear God. Selah.”
*
”‘See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known’.”
*
”For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. Because of this he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people. And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was.
So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him,
“You are my Son,
today I have begotten you”;
as he says also in another place,
“You are a priest forever,
after the order of Melchizedek.”
*
”So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.’”
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 & Do:
Each week during Lent, we will devote Saturdays to connecting with An American Lent from The Repentance Project. 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.
Go here to download a PDF or subscribe to receive daily reflections from An American Lent.
Read, reflect, and repent with An American Lent.
Begin with prayer:
“Lord Jesus, I draw near to you today. Through the noise of the crowd, through the tyranny of my task lists, I press in to touch the hem of your garment. By the power of your Holy Spirit, transform me. Renew my mind with your truth. Open my eyes to see where I am still bound in my thinking and actions, and come set me free. I want to walk in alignment with you. Make me attentive to the leading of your Spirit in my every step today. Amen.”
Spend time today reading through the reflections for Week 2 (March 11-17): Founded in Slavery. I especially noticed Tuesday’s reflection, “The International story of Slavery” by Rev. Bill Haley and Friday’s reflection, “Women and Slavery” by Rev. Erin Clifford.
From Bill Haley’s reflection:
“Watch the 2-minute video: The Atlantic Slave Trade in Two Minutes.
Watch this five-minute TED Talk on the Atlantic Slave Trade.
Click through the links in Rev. Erin Clifford’s reflection and respond:
“As male and female, we are all given our gender as a gift and as a reflection of the Divine. As we acknowledge the isolation and prejudice that so many black women still experience today, let us take a moment to confess our own conscious or unconscious assumptions about gender. Where have we sought to dehumanize or objectify another because of their gender or race? Where have we contributed to the theft of another’s dignity or respect by our thoughts, words, or actions? Let us invite God to give us his eyes for one another that we might see one another as the glorious creations he has made.”
Close with prayer:
“Lord, I’m overwhelmed by what I’ve seen, by what you’ve led my heart to imagine in considering how one of these slaves could have been me. It is only by your grace that I have been born free. Let your gift of freedom produce good fruit in me. My heart breaks and wants to disengage from the pain of injustice that seems beyond resolving. But, “I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint.” (Habakkuk 2:1). Amen.”
Additional recommendations for your weekend:
Read “What’ll Become of Me? Finding the Real Patsey of 12 Years A Slave” via Vanity Fair
Read “Harriet Tubman Followed the Voice of God” and “Harriet Tubman: Saving Hundreds of Lives Would Not Have Been Possible Without God”.
(See all Lent daybook posts from 2018 here.)