April 26 -  Ps 88; Job 19:21-27; Heb. 4:1-16

Psalm 88. How bleak… How desolate… How lonely…  How utterly hopeless. A life full of woe. On death’s doorstep. Hated. Friendless. Forgotten.

What an absolutely apropos psalm to close out Lent, one that speaks of hitting rock bottom emotionally, physically, and spiritually.

But then there’s truth to the old cliché, “It’s always darkest before the dawn.”  And for those of faith, what a wicked dawn it ‘s going to be!!

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Ps. 118: "O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever!"

Good Friday - It is late April but it is very cold and grey outside. Will Spring ever come? Psalm 118 reminds us that we are planted and rooted in the soil of God’s nourishing love. When life’s difficulties surround us, when the day is dark with rain, when unexpected storms lash with fury, it may feel like God has abandoned us. This is the difficult part of a spiritual spring that tries our patience, our faith. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Jesus called out from the cross. By taking on a human body, experiencing the worst kind of betrayal and misunderstanding, Jesus shows us that no form of human suffering is beyond God’s knowledge. Thus even as we remember on Good Friday the astonishing compassion of Christ – to suffer with us – we have also been rehearsing the songs for Easter Sunday, gathering treats for the children’s Easter baskets, living our lives in the light of the Resurrection and sharing that light with others.

Perhaps it is indeed very right that today is cold and grey. It's Good Friday. The reservoir of God’s love, the compassion of Christ’s suffering, are always present when we remember God is with us. “Into your hands I commend my spirit,” Jesus said in his final moments, taking refuge in the Lord. As he embodied God’s love, Jesus became the “cornerstone” that persists beneath the rain and winds, sun and heat, outlasting our hopes and fears. Let us give thanks to the Lord whose love endures forever.

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Tuesday in Holy Week:  Isaiah 49:1-7, I Corinthians 1:18-21; John 12:20-36, Psalm 71

Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress, to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.

Psalm 71 is an older person’s prayer for help in times of distress.  Anyone who has lived a few years has undoubtedly experienced some form of distress whether illness, broken relationships, the loss of a loved one, or just moments of feeling alone and lonely.  The psalmist is reaching out to God with a reminder that you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth.  This does not appear to be a person whining to God or feeling victimized by his/her enemies; rather, the Psalmist shares his hope and trust that just as God has provided refuge in his youth, so as he ages, will God continue to be his rock.

Jesus expressed that same trust in the Father during his last public conversation in the Gospel for today.  The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.  He reminds listeners that it was for this purpose that he was sent and reminds us all that unless we die to our self, we cannot live.  Jesus cautions us to walk in the light, not in the darkness.

As we journey through this Holy Week, let us pray that God will hold our feet to the fire of His grace and make us attentive to our mortality that we may begin to die now to those things that keep us from walking in the light with Christ and our neighbors on this earth.  Let us pray with the Psalmist (regardless of our age) O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to all the generations to come.

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Today’s psalm is, by tradition, a psalm of David associated with David’s repentance for his great sin of adultery with Bathsheba, which the prophet Nathan challenged him to face up to and take responsibility for.  For David, facing the ugly truth about himself was a step in his spiritual maturation.  It seems fitting that we read this as we head into Holy Week, remembering the terrible betrayals of Jesus by the crowds who welcomed him as he entered Jerusalem, and by his own disciples during his arrest, trial, and crucifixion.  It is a time for us to face up to our own failings, to the ways in which we fall short of being the disciples we could be. 

Create in me a pure heart, O God,
   and renew a steadfast spirit within me….

My sacrifice, O God, is^[b] a broken spirit;
   a broken and contrite heart
   you, God, will not despise.

At first glance it seems odd that God would want us to have a broken spirit and heart – it doesn’t seem like the God of compassion and forgiveness, who Jesus so consistently teaches about, would take joy in our distress.  I suspect that God “will not despise” our brokenness because it is in our brokenness, when the walls of our defenses come down, that we are most open to God’s presence.  I know that it is when I am most in touch with my own powerlessness that I most know my own need of God.

Today, and throughout this sacred week, I pray that I can be honest with myself about my own failings – God already knows them – so that I can more completely commit myself to the One who was willing to take up the cross for my sake.

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Today as I listen to the passion, I imagine myself on the journey with Jesus to Calvary. Some years ago I walked the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem. Someone said to me before my travels: “I couldn’t do that, it would just be too sad.” I thought … “isn’t that the point – the sadness?” And it was sad and powerful. But the longest journey I will ever take is within my deepest depths, toward integration and holiness. The end is not significant. What is significant is the process of attaining consciousness of myself in relationship to Jesus.

Through various stages, fraught with challenges and growth, I have come to know my true self and draw closer to God. Lord of my journey, you are my way, my truth, and my life. I will spend time in prayer with Jesus’ passion as the story of my life. I have been through immeasurable sadness. Haven't we all? And I have come to learn that God is in the middle of and at the end of the sadness – God is below bottom and above top – God is waiting to embrace us as we walk through the sadness life may deal us.

This week I will spend time in prayer with Jesus’ passion as the story of my life. Like Jesus I have my own part to play in the divine plan of redemption. I pray for strength and courage to embrace the world and its suffering as Jesus did by loving and forgiving from the cross. I pray to embrace the reality of the cross as life-giving for me. And for everyone.

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John 11:11:28-44

At every beginning of the year, I pray to God to help me keep my friendship with the people I love and care for.  It is important to me that I keep genuine friends.  My friends and I have a close relationship.  One of them we have known each other for over 30 years.  Whenever I call them, I do not need to get myself prepared as to how I am going to talk to them.  I do not prepare my conversations with them, we just talk freely. We laugh together, sometimes we cry together.  Martha, Mary and Lazarus had Jesus for a friend. When they needed help, they sent for him because they knew him as a friend who cares for them.  Though he did not come at once, but still he came.  He mourned with them and a miracle took place.  He called out their brother from the grave to life.  In this season of Lent, all Christians are checking themselves to find out who they are with Christ.  Some know him as a friend; others know him as a regular person who was a son of carpenter.  Some people have thousands of friends at their face book, they communicate through daily writings and everyone gets to know what is going on with their friends all over the world.  As we go on making friends, let us not forget the one who will be there for us in the time of need and despair. He rejoices with us and mourn with us.   The one who will cry with us; the one who will calls us by name and set us free from the bondages of this world.  The one who intercedes for us.  We only have to believe the rest is on his shoulders, and his cry will be heard by his heavenly father.

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Psalm 121A Song of Ascents. 1 I lift up my eyes to the hills—
from where will my help come?
2 My help comes from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.

3 He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps you will not slumber.
4 He who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The LORD is your keeper;
the LORD is your shade at your right hand.
6 The sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.

7 The LORD will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
8 The LORD will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time on and forevermore.

It seems to me that Psalm 121 and the other psalms for today are just in
time. As these psalms are part of the psalms of ascent, they would have been sung
by pilgrims on the road to Jerusalem for any of the three major festivals in
the Jewish liturgical calendar.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in his book "Prayerbook of the Bible" of the
Psalms: "the psalms unique place in scripture as both personal prayer of
real people and Scripture provides us a chance to pray these prayers with
Jesus." Bonhoeffer reminds us that Jesus would have prayed these prayers as
he made his faithful and finally fateful journey to Jerusalem for every
Passover he attending in the Holy City.

It stands to reason then, that praying these psalms at this stage in Lent is
for us to truly enter into the path of Jesus' Passion. Further, in that we
are praying these psalms alongside Jesus, the suffering God, we can boldly
lay claim to the Church's role in giving up ourselves for the sake of the
world precisely because we are the 'Body of Christ' in the world.

As we continue to travel the Lenten road toward the passion and resurrection
of Jesus, let us consider well what in us is begging for a chance to be
resurrected into the New Creation. Then, let us be courageous in allowing
those things to die. Which is, after all, the prerequisite for resurrection.

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DISTURB US, Adonai, ruffle us from our complacency;
Make us dissatisfied. Dissatisfied with the peace of ignorance, the quietude which arises from a shunning of the horror, the defeat, the bitterness and the poverty, physical and spiritual, of humans.

Shock us, Adonai, deny to us the false Shabbat which gives us the delusions of satisfaction amid a world of war and hatred;

Wake us, O God, and shake us from the sweet and sad poignancies rendered by half forgotten melodies and rubric prayers of yesteryears;

Make us know that the border of the sanctuary is not the border of living and the walls of Your temples are not shelters from the winds of truth, justice and reality.

Disturb us, O God, and vex us;
let not Your Shabbat be a day of torpor and slumber;
let it be a time to be stirred and spurred to action.

Baruch atah, Adonai, m'kadeish Ha Shabbat

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¹⁰ For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they do not regard my ways.”

¹¹ Therefore in my anger I swore, “They shall not enter my rest.”

Jesus has really been getting a bad rap in recent daily readings! Poor guy – try as he might to convince folks that HE IS THE SON OF GOD, there is still too much distrust. There’s been talk of killing him for boasting to be God’s son. But Jesus persists, and goes about his teaching and his healing. He’s not going to lose sleep over these guys bashing him for his work, let alone on the Sabbath. Not just yet, anyway. He’s still got work to do.

The Psalmist writes, “They shall not enter my rest.” How often do we lay our heads on our pillow at night, only to begin tossing and turning with thoughts of what/who bothered us today, and then start worrying about tomorrow? Is that helpful? In this psalm, the writer mentions loathing a generation for forty years! That’s a lot of tossing and turning, don’t you think? This behavior finally got to him, and he gave it up to God and claimed, “They shall not enter my rest.” I’ll bet he slept pretty well after writing this.

Too often I don’t remember to seek guidance from God through prayer until a situation has already worked itself out. Then this light comes on in my head and I remember, “Duh! I could have prayed about it!” Little bits of prayer, tucked into the tiny spaces of quiet we are blessed with each day. Little bits or prayer, talking to a friend (God) when we’re lonely. Little bits of prayer, instead of incessant noise on the car radio. Little bits of prayer for those people whose hearts are embittered with what they think is a lack of love. If only they would take a little bit of prayer and remember how much God loves them! If only they could see their photo hanging on God’s refrigerator – right next to mine! Little bits. Baby steps. Taking it one day at a time. Feel the love of God!

There’s enough of God’s love for everyone. It’s a really good thing!! And you don’t have to lose sleep over it.

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Psalm 69:1-23, 31-38.  (Author: David)

For the Choir director:  A psalm of David, to be sung to the tune “Lilies.”

This is one of the most quoted psalms in the New Testament, and it is often applied to the ministry and suffering of Jesus.  It’s theme is a cry of distress in a sea of trouble.  We may have to suffer severely for our devotion to God, but that should cause us to look forward with joy to the day when evil and injustice will be gone forever.

David cried out until he was physically exhausted, with a parched throat and eyes swollen from weeping.  Yet he still trusted God to save him.  When devastated by death or tragedy we need not collapse or despair because we can turn to God and ask him to save us and help us.  The tears will still come, but we will not be crying in vain.

What problems David faced!  He was scoffed at, mocked, insulted, humiliated, and made the object of citywide gossip.  But still he prayed.  When we are completely beaten down, we are tempted to turn from God, give up, and quit trusting him.  When your situation seems hopeless, determine that no matter how bad things become you will continue to pray.  God will hear your prayer and will rescue you.  When others reject us, we need God most.  Don’t turn from your most faithful friend.

Most people want lasting joy and will try almost anything to obtain it, for scrambling for more money to being involved in risky escapades.  The only genuine source of happiness is God, and we receive lasting joy only by seeking him.  How are you trying to find happiness?  Seek God and live as he directs you, and true joy will soon follow.

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Hasn’t it been fun reading Jeremiah this Lent? Well, maybe fun isn’t the right word. A bit on the frightening side perhaps. Today Jeremiah likens God to a potter at this wheel. He can destroy the wet clay vessel very easily with his hand – and can begin to form another just as quickly. God, the potter, can destroy and build up the nation of Israel as easily if they don’t “turn now, all of you from your evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.”

But “Jesus set us free from the law of sin and of death” we read on in Romans. We are to set our minds on the things of the Spirit and live according to the Spirit.  Paul says the spirit dwells within us. I have an image that when I am acting haughty, full of pride, and just plain unbecoming, I am closing a little door inside my body so the Spirit can’t get to my heart and my head. If I can think about that today, maybe I can leave the door open and the Spirit will be free to guide me into a nicer person – to someone who can be more generous with compliments and love.

The Gospel reading from John reminds us that Jesus is the bread of life. Whoever comes to him will never be hungry, and whoever believes in him will never be thirsty. All that believe in Jesus may have eternal life; and God will raise them up on the last day. So that’s where that song comes from! “And I will raise them up, on the last day.” Yes, Lord we believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God who has come into the world. 

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John 6: 16- 27

The Sea of Galilee is huge! 33 miles in circumference, about 13 miles long, 8 miles wide and 141 feet deep at its maximum depth. I was there once many years ago. Once one is in the middle of it, you cannot spot any land. Tiberius is on one shore and on the other Capernaum. The winds can be very strong as they come down of the highlands and ship across the lake. The day I sailed across it was as smooth as glass. The Gospel for today talks about Jesus calmly walking on the Sea of Galilee when his disciples boat was thrashing about in strong wind. In this version Peter doesn’t try to leap out of the boat and walk on the sea as well. The disciples boat just immediately gets to land safely after they see Jesus. The folks in Tiberias, who had eaten their fill with Jesus the previous day, followed him to Capernaum. When they arrived they asked him when and why he came there. He accuses them of following him just because they wanted more food.

Jesus, once again, tries to turn us to what is important and away from worldly things. “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal." Easier said than done, no?

Paul writes in Romans “So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.”

And so we do our best – starting out each day with new promise and asking forgiveness to where we fall short each evening.

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