Lent Daybook, 29: Naked As We Came
FIFTH MONDAY 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: Pennsylvania Coal Town, Edward Hopper
![Source [H/T]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5700118059827e84008212d2/1550621647415-Z5WCAT05LG1HN98G65P5/pennsylvania-coal-town-edward-hopper-american-1947.jpg)
Listen: “Naked as We Came” from Our Endless Numbered Days, Iron & Wine
Spotify | YouTube | Lyrics
Listen to my entire playlist on Spotify - Lent: Songs for Everybody 2019. Add it to your account by clicking ‘Follow.’
Read: Psalm 31; Jeremiah 24:1-10; Romans 9:19-33; John 9:1-17
Excerpts:
“Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eye is wasted from grief; my soul and my body also. For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away.
But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, ‘You are my God’. My times are in your hand;”
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”And the Lord said to me, ‘What do you see, Jeremiah?’ I said, ‘Figs, the good figs very good, and the bad figs very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.’”
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”What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written,
’Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.’”
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”As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.’ Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam’ (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.”
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:
Each Monday, we’ll pray from the Sunday collect (prayer said by the congregation in Sunday worship) as given in the Book of Common Prayer.
“Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.”
Do:
Fast from spending money.
Feast on giving alms.
This week, fast from spending money, and feast on giving alms instead. Let each necessary purchase remind you of the reality of our complete poverty and helplessness before God and without the work of Christ.
Instead of spending practice giving. Almsgiving is a traditional Lenten practice. This week pray that the Lord would show you his face in the most distressing of your neighbors, and lead you to ways that you can show compassionate mercy.
(See all Lent daybook posts from 2018 here.)