O lord, I live in a world of angry men and women.

I am often angry with myself at threats to my values,

at brutal disregard for the institutions I hold dear.

Where do I belong in such a world?

Where does the Lord Jesus belong?

Is love weak,

                too weak to be creative?

Is compassion sheer sentiment?

Is this a time to be hard and tough?

My emotions tell me so some of the time.

Then at other times, I see him moving

                amid the shadows of history.

I see him angry, too,

                at evidences of injustice

      and mistreatment of his fellow men.

I hear him lash out

                at self-righteousness and complacency.

I watched him at last,

                when the anger is done and the sharp words said,

      stake his life on love and self-sacrifice.

I behold him die and hear him say,

                “Father, forgive them

                for they don’t know what they are doing.”

And, somehow, O God,

                deep inside me, I know love is not weak;

                                it is I who am weak.

Love is indomitable and irresistible.

Hate is weakness.

Vengeance is futile,

                and violence is self-defeating.

Help me, for it is hard

                to stand by what I do know deep inside.

It is so much easier to curse

than to bless

It is easier to pronounce maledictions

                than to pronounce benedictions.

It is easier to shout others down                                                                                                              

                than to sit down with others.

It is easier to be loud

                than to listen.

O God of all people,

                who does not separate us into good and bad

                                but into loving and unloving,

  I need your help lest I tear things up.

You have offered to help me, I know,

                and I hold back.

Can you push a little harder?

I want to be more loving,

                and I am afraid.

Hear my prayer.

Make my commitments to love

                more than good intentions.  Amen                                                                                Kenneth G. Phifer                                                                “A book of Uncommon Prayer” 

Kenneth Phifer talks about his struggle to really love others and asks that his commitment to love be “more than good intentions”. What is one way you can turn an inner commitment to love someone into action this week?

All of the above reproduced from“Readings for Lent and Easter”From The Upper Room

Crux:  Latin for cross;

now means the point of decision.

(Didn’t it always?)

Also appearing in words like

Crucify,                                

Crucifer,              

Crucible,

Excruciating.                      

He wants me to take up one of those?

And follow him there?

Crucial decision

-Lois Duffield

“Alive Now”

Reproduced from “Readings for Lent and Easter”, from The Upper Room 

Do not despair, never give up hope for yourself

or for one another. Bitter enemies and lost friends

can become friends again. Love that has grown cold

can kindle and burst into flame…

Rejoice in the impossibilities,

the incompletions,

from within which alone the future is shaped

and given meaning.

Listen to the whisper of the thunder on a different shore…

Be in love with life,

Wrestle with the chaos and the pain,

with yourself and with others,

spirit echoing Spirit,

trusting in the victory of the vulnerable,

glimpsing the peace,

the wholeness,

the spaciousness,

the justice,

and the joy

that comes from following the Pioneer

made perfect in suffering,

striving and yearning and crying out

from the very depths and heights

of the world’s anguish and the world’s bliss,

and so becoming friends and partners of God

in the divine creating…

 Jesus, carpenter of Nazareth, risen Lord,help us yield to the amazing, inviting truththat those who hold on to their life will lose it,but those who let go of their life will find it. 

Amen.

Reproduced from ”Be our freedom Lord”Terry C Falla 

For the choir director: A psalm of David, regarding the time Nathan the prophet came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.

 1 Have mercy on me, O God,
      because of your unfailing love.
   Because of your great compassion,
      blot out the stain of my sins.
 2 Wash me clean from my guilt.
      Purify me from my sin.
 3 For I recognize my rebellion;
      it haunts me day and night.
 4 Against you, and you alone, have I sinned;
      I have done what is evil in your sight.
   You will be proved right in what you say,
      and your judgment against me is just.
 5 For I was born a sinner—
      yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.
 6 But you desire honesty from the womb,
      teaching me wisdom even there. 

7 Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean;
      wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
 8 Oh, give me back my joy again;
      you have broken me—
      now let me rejoice.
 9 Don’t keep looking at my sins.
      Remove the stain of my guilt.
 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God.
      Renew a loyal spirit within me.
 11 Do not banish me from your presence,
      and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.

 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
      and make me willing to obey you.
 13 Then I will teach your ways to rebels,
      and they will return to you.
 14 Forgive me for shedding blood, O God who saves;
      then I will joyfully sing of your forgiveness.
 15 Unseal my lips, O Lord,
      that my mouth may praise you.

 16 You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one.
      You do not want a burnt offering.
 17 The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit.
      You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.
 18 Look with favor on Zion and help her;
      rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
 19 Then you will be pleased with sacrifices offered in the right spirit—
      with burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings.
      Then bulls will again be sacrificed on your altar.

We confess the sins of the younger son

We confess that we take all you have to give while denying that you were ever our father.

We confess that we hoped you were dead.

We confess that we declared ourselves masters of our own destiny, free from the superstitious rules of humanity’s childhood; and now find that we only have ourselves to blame for things that go wrong.

We confess that we prefer the identities we can buy, wear, and discard to the vulnerable robes of sonship and daughterhood.

We confess that we paint our faces and neglect our souls.

We confess that we are willing victims of those who tell us who to be because it is in their financial interest to do so.

We confess we are in rags in the pigsty, trying to remember who we once thought we were.

We confess our emptiness; our inability to live on what the system gives us, or the machine that the system wants us to be.

We confess that we are to others the system that does not feed; we are to others the system that dehumanises.

We confess that what we find unbearable when it is asked of us, is what we ask of others.

We confess the sins of the older son

We confess that we do our duty while hiding our resentment, saying thank you with our lips while saying ‘is that it’ in our thoughts.

We confess that we insist on our rights rather than waiting for your gifts.

We confess that we judge the younger son harshly and pride ourselves on our superiority; forgetting that pride is the deadliest sin.

We confess that we think it rather weak of you to welcome and forgive so readily; we wish you would live up to our moral standards.

We confess that we do in our hearts what the younger son did in a foreign country; our hearts have become a foreign country to you.

We ask to be forgiven and to be helped to live new lives, both those who went away and those who stayed but went away in their hearts. We want to return home to your embracing welcome, and celebrate with you the feast for a son who was dead and is alive again.

Look at us, Lord

Our hands are empty

Our hearts are hungry

What do we want?

We are hungry for you, God our maker

We are hungry for a world where people are loved and affirmed

We are hungry for you Holy Spirit

We are hungry for justice

We are hungry for community

We are hungry for celebration

We are hungry for you, Jesus Christ

We are hungry for change

                                           -          Doug Gay

                                                “Alternative Worship”

This year,  Lent begins in the first week of February. Lent encompasses a period of 40 days, originally inspired by the 40 days that Jesus spent in the wilderness. (See Matt. 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, Luke 4:1-13).

In exploring and engaging in Lent, we have no desire to lock into a religious, obligation-based ritual. We rather see this time of Lent as an opportunity to rethink how we live out the mission of Jesus Christ as we prepare for Easter. When we build our Lent reflections around the idea of ‘making right’ activities, some really clear themes begin to emerge. Themes such as reconciliation, sacrifice, rethinking, grace, self-examination, renewal are just a beginning.

Join with us! We would love to share in your discoveries and how you are beginning to rethink what it means to outwork the mission of Jesus.

Sal