Lenten Devotion for March 30

Lament…Weary

by Reb Fleming

Weary is to tired what poverty is to broke.
You can joke about being broke:
“Hey man, I don’t have a penny in my pocket.”
Or decline an invitation without regret:
“Sorry, I can’t go to lunch,
I gave the last of my money to my kids.”
You can do it because you know and I know its temporary,
There’s a paycheck coming and all you have to do is bide your time.
But poverty wears the same dress every day because nothing else is
hanging in the closet
Her face has grown thin and her voice shrill and she screams at her kids
even though she loves them
If she knew what to do about the situation she might
but then again she might not
because hunger stole her hope long ago
Tired means I put in a hard day’s work and my muscles ache
Tired means I fried my brain on a stressful project and even in sleep
I can’t get it to turn off
Tired means working overtime and not getting paid
but it doesn’t matter because you can see the light at the end of the tunnel
and you know that you’re ‘almost there’
But weary has walked through exhaustion and come out with bleached bones
Weary has spent all of its options, played all of its face-cards
performed all of its tricks up front, early-on
without getting so much as a chuckle or a smattering of applause
Weary is dried-up-desperate
who sits for hours in the same chair, staring
Weary walks from one room to another not remembering
nor truly caring what she was looking for
Weary dips one final time into rage and sends the money-changers tables
upside down with a strength and a fury no one knew he possessed
Weary enters the great city like a husband his own bedroom
only to find his wife in the arms of another man
And gasps
not out of anger
but hurt
and stares, unable to take his eyes from the scene
Slowly his body rocks
back and forth
and in a whisper only she can understand because she knows the sound of his voice
asks
Why?
Why, Jerusalem?
Why have you forsaken me?

Lenten Devotion for March 29

The Last Shall Be First  

by Ann Weems

Along the way the pilgrims heard
   that a group of people
had set out for Jerusalem
   without a map.
Since each of us owned
   our own map
and read it daily
   and even then
had difficulty knowing
   which way to turn,
we were amazed
   that they would set out
on their own...
   amazed and alarmed.
Many a day we had
   prayed and consulted
over choices
   in the road.
This news presented
   a greater dilemma:
Which of us would go
   in the rescue party?
Whoever went would
   most certainly
not get to Jerusalem
   on time.
Distraught,
   we prayed.
Then it was we realized
   that the ones who went
in search of the lost
   would be the first
to arrive in Jerusalem.

Lenten Devotion for March 28

A Lenten Prayer

by Terri Pilarski 

God of all new things, God of
Spring, and fragrant flowers, and
unexpected snow. God of hope
and new life,
Bless us, we pray,
this day.

God of all things passing away, God
of old and yesterday, the One who is
with us in our despair and fear.
God who sighs and weeps, God
who wipes away
our tears.

Hear us when we pray. Incline
your ear to our words, silent
shouting cries, mournful whispers.

Be gentle with our hard
hearts. Be gentle. Be
gentle.

Anoint us with your touch
the softness of your love
breaks into our hardness
and opens us anew. A
new thing. A new life.
New sight.

Anoint us, Holy One and fill
us with you loving touch.
Fill us that we can touch
in your love and fill
others. Fill us gently.
Fill us.

In your name we pray. Amen.

Lenten Devotion for March 26

Lenten Prayer

by Melodee Kistner

It begins with ashes
and a fiery promise
to walk these forty days
with you, O Christ, as my companion.

As your journey of self discovery
began with Satan in the desert
so too am I tormented during this Lenten season
by my personal demons.

Help me to see why even you, O Christ,
had to face Satan’s temptations of
Power, Wealth, and Fame.

Did Luke leave out some of the details
of your struggles with Satan?
Were you really able to resist so easily, or is that why
Lent is a forty-day journey?

Worldliness beckons each day of my life
with fantasies that steal my vitality
leaving no energy for seeing the
Image of God within me.

As I wait for stone to be turned into bread
the world goes hungry
As I wait to be the one in power
evil prevails because I do nothing
As I wait to be rescued by angels
the miracles in the ordinary go unnoticed.

How patient you are Jesus
as I stumble along my journey
hesitating, instead of walking boldly on The Way.

O Christ,
may I learn to walk without fear
facing my own darkness.
Let my journey lead me
at last
to Easter.

Lenten Devotion for March 25

Plumb Line Prayer

by Jan Sutch Pickard

Then God said, “See, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people.” (Amos 7:8)

God of justice, mercy and truth,

we gather in your presence,

aware of it in all creation –

where the warmth of the sun, the strength of the wind,

the energy of the waves, the stability of the earth

all remind us of your constant love

and your power to change and challenge our lives.

God of justice, mercy and truth,

we gather in your presence,

aware that in our world

there is one law for the rich and one for the poor,

that the scales are weighted against many

of our sisters and brothers,

and against new nations struggling to become,

and to find a balance.

God of justice, mercy and truth,

we gather in your presence,

aware of our own lives –

individually and in community –

where they measure up,

where they fall short,

where they are out of kilter –

as your plumb line shows us what is true.

Help us to be true to ourselves,

true to our history,

true to our own story,

true to you. AMEN

Lenten Devotion for March 24

God’s Graffiti
by Ann Weems

We’ve splashed our rules
all over the sanctuary walls...
so many rules we don't have time
for dancing...
our graffiti
defiling the house of God.
God's graffiti is different:
God writes LOVE
upon our hearts.
Some night, let's sneak in the sanctuary
and paint over the rules
and write God's graffiti
all over the walls...
LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE

Lenten Devotion for March 23

"But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; 

he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him."  (Luke 15:12)

From The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming 

by Henri J. M. Nouwen 

For most of my life I have struggled to find God, to know God, to love God.  I have tried hard to follow the guidelines of the spiritual life—pray always, work for others, read the Scriptures—and to avoid the many temptations to dissipate myself.  I have failed many times but always tried again, even when I was close to despair.

Now I wonder whether I have sufficiently realized that during all this time God has been trying to find me, to know me, and to love me.  The question is not “How am I to find God?” but “How am I to let myself be found by him?”  The question is not “How am I to know God?” but “How am I to let myself be known by God?”  And, finally, the question is not “How am I to love God?” but “How am I to let myself be loved by God?”  God is looking into the distance for me, trying to find me, and longing to bring me home.

Lenten Devotion for March 21

Batting

by Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Toward the end of winter I came upon

the Lord on a diamond, batting.

I said, “Lord, what are you doing?”

“These are your sins,” he said,

as a shadowy figure on the mound

with a vicious arm pitched.

He had no instinct: swung at everything,

even dirtballs. And hit ‘em every time.

He had a beautiful swing,

fluid, sure, and joyful.

He hit pitch after pitch, endlessly.

I lost myself, watching.

“Out of the park” he said, his eye

on a nasty looking knuckleball,

and swung like a dancer,

gracefully unwinding. Chock!

It rose up over the fence, over the trees,

released from all earthly bonds,

floating free until it disappeared,

infinitely gone, still rising.

He watched it go, as if

he’d never seen such a beautiful thing.

“I love this game,” he grinned,

and set for another pitch.

I think he was honestly

pleased with himself.

Lenten Devotion for March 20

“People often think of Christian morality as a kind of bargain in which God says, ‘If you keep a lot of rules, I’ll reward you, and if you don’t I’ll do the other thing.’ I do not think that is the best way of looking at it. I would much rather say that every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different than it was before. 

“And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature; either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow creatures, and with itself. 

“To be the one kind of creature is heaven: that is, it is joy, and peace, and knowledge and power. To be the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, impotence, and eternal loneliness. Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state or the other.”

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, p. 92. 

Lenten Devotion for March 19

Indifference
by Studdart Kennedy

When Jesus came to Birmingham 
they simply passed him by.
They never hurt a hair of him 
they simply let him die.
For men had grown more tender
and they would not give him pain.
They only just passed down the street 
and left him in the rain.

Still Jesus cried, ‘Forgive them, for they 
know not what they do.’
And still it rained the wintry rain 
that drenched him through and through. 
The crowds went home and left the streets
without a soul to see.
And Jesus crouched against a wall 
and cried for Calvary.

Lenten Devotion for March 18

Night Thoughts
by William F. Bell

It is our emptiness and lowliness that God needs, and not our plenitude. — Mother Teresa

Somehow by day, no matter what,
I patch myself together whole,
But all my effort can’t offset
The nightly nakedness of soul
When angels in a dark descent
Strip off my integument.

I am a cornered rebel pinched
Between night’s armies and my lack,
And when inside the bedclothes hunched
I feel the force of their attack,
I hardly know what I can do,
Exposed to God at half-past two.

I once believed my being full,
But night thoughts prove that it is not.
Waking scared and miserable,
I scrape the bottom of the pot
And then must bow down and confess
Totality of emptiness.

Kings once ventured, it is said,
To offer gold and frankincense,
But I send nothing from my bed
Except a tattered penitence,
So very little has accrued
From years of doubtful plenitude.

God who tear away my cover,
Oh, pour your Spirit into me
Until my emptiness runs over
With golden superfluity,
And I bow down and offer up
Yourself within my earthen cup.

Lenten Devotion for March 17

Lachrimae Amantis   

by Geoffrey Hill

What is there in my heart that you should sue

so fiercely for its love? What kind of care

brings you as though a stranger to my door

through the long night and in the icy dew

seeking the heart that will not harbor you,

that keeps itself religiously secure?

At this dark solstice filled with frost and fire

your passion’s ancient wounds must bleed anew.

So many nights the angel of my house

has fed such urgent comfort through a dream,

whispered “your lord is coming, he is close”

that I have drowsed half-faithful for a time

bathed in pure tones of promise and remorse:

“tomorrow I shall wake to welcome him.”

“lachrimae amantis” – tears of the lover (Latin)

Lenten Devotion for March 16

Wake Me
by Susan Daron

Wake me up God, from the dreamless sleep of complacency.
Wake me from the fitful slumber of worry and despair.

Wake me from the sleepwalking of needless gathering and greed.
Wake me from the nightmares of prejudice, hatred and fear.

Wake me to the daybreak of your Resurrection morning.
Wake me to the dawning of new life in You.
Wake me to the sunshine warmth of service and caring.
Wake me to a blessed day of purposeful living.

And after the sunset, let me find at last a peaceful slumber in Your Love.
Amen.

Lenten Devotion for March 15

Feasting and Fasting in Lent 
by William Arthur Ward

Fast from judging others; feast on the Christ indwelling them.
Fast from emphasis on differences; feast on the unity of all life.
Fast from apparent darkness; feast on the reality of light.
Fast from thoughts of illness; feast on the healing power of God.
Fast from words that pollute; feast on phrases that purify.
Fast from discontent; feast on gratitude.
Fast from anger; feast on patience.
Fast from pessimism; feast on optimism.
Fast from worry; feast on divine order.
Fast from complaining; feast on appreciation.
Fast from negatives; feast on affirmatives.
Fast from unrelenting pressures; feast on unceasing prayer.
Fast from hostility; feast on non-resistance.
Fast from bitterness; feast on forgiveness.
Fast from self-concern; feast on compassion for others.
Fast from personal anxiety; feast on eternal Truth.
Fast from discouragement; feast on hope.
Fast from facts that depress; feast on truths that uplift.
Fast from lethargy; feast on enthusiasm.
Fast from suspicion; feast on truth.
Fast from thoughts that weaken; feast on promises that inspire.
Fast from shadows of sorrow; feast on the sunlight of serenity.
Fast from idle gossip; feast on purposeful silence.
Fast from problems that overwhelm; feast on prayer that undergirds.

Lenten Devotion for March 14

Destroy Our Wisdom 
by Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Holy God, Outrageous Mystery, help us!
You who establish the earth and yet make it tremble,
grant us stability— and shake us up for the sake of love.
You who give your commandments,
make us obey— and replace all obedience with compassion.
You for whom we build our temples—
tear them down until only mercy remains.
We who think we know, who think we have enough to offer,
come before you with nothing,
and you receive us with grace.
O Holy One, foolishly crucified, powerless among us,
destroy our wisdom and knowledge and power,
with all their hidden faults,
that we may die with Christ,
and be raised up to new life
in the grace of your Spirit alone.
Amen.

Lenten Devotion for March 13

Loss is Indeed Our Gain

by Walter Brueggemann

The pushing and shoving in the world is endless.
      We are pushed and shoved.
      And we do our share of pushing and shoving
           in our great anxiety.
     And in the middle of that
           you have set down your beloved suffering son
           who was like a sheep led to slaughter
            who opened not his mouth.
     We seem not able,
     so we ask you to create space in our life
     where we may ponder his suffering
     and your summons for us to suffer with him,
     suspecting that suffering is the only way to newness.
So we pray for your church in these Lenten days,
     when we are driven to denial –
           not to notice the suffering, 
           not to engage it,
           not to acknowledge it.
So be that way of truth among us
       that we should not deceive ourselves
That we shall see that loss is indeed our gain.
We give you thanks for that mystery from which we live.
Amen.

Lenten Devotion for March 12

Lenten Thoughts from Wishful Thinking

by Frederick Buechner

In many cultures there is an ancient custom of giving a tenth of each year's income to some holy use. For Christians to observe the forty days of Lent is to do the same thing with roughly a tenth of each year's days.  After being baptized by John in the river Jordan, Jesus went off alone into the wilderness where he spent forty days asking himself the question what it meant to be Jesus. During Lent, Christians are supposed to ask one way or another what it means to be themselves.

If you had to bet everything you have on whether there is a God or whether there isn't, which side would get your money and why?

When you look at your face in the mirror, what do you see in it that you most like and what do you see in it that you most deplore?

If you had only one last message to leave to the handful of people who are most important to you, what would it be in twenty-five words or less?

Of all the things you have done in your life, which is the one you would most like to undo? Which is the one that makes you happiest to remember?

Is there any person in the world, or any cause, that, if circumstances called for it, you would be willing to die for?

To hear yourself try to answer questions like these is to begin to hear something not only of who you are but of both what you are becoming and what you are failing to become. It can be a pretty depressing business all in all, but if sackcloth and ashes are at the start of it, something like Easter may be at the end.

Lenten Devotion for March 11

A Prayer for Lent

by Karl Streeter

O God of Love, Courage, Hope and Peace, we trust in Your presence even when we are too busy looking for You and fail to rest in Your presence. Help us let go of our desires, hopes and sometimes-unquestionable expectations. For You are with us always.

O God of Love, Courage, Hope and Peace, we trust in your presence even when we are more comfortable with the past or more eager to escape to an unfulfilled and imagined future. Help us let go of our fondness to fix, control, or even explain the beauty and ugliness of life. For You are with us always.

O God of Love, Courage, Hope and Peace, we trust in Your presence even when we close our hearts and minds to Your unfailing love and strength. Help us let go of our fears, anxiety, and obsessive need to protect our soul from the unknown and sometimes frighten realities of life. For You are with us always.

O God of Love, Courage, Hope and Peace, we trust in Your presence that we may fully embrace life in all its goodness and darkness with all of our heart, soul and mind. For You are with us always.

O God of Love, Courage, Hope and Peace, we trust in Your presence that we not only touch, taste, feel, and hear Your presence but we become agents of Your presence to others. For You are with us always.

O God of Love, Courage, Hope and Peace, we trust in Your presence that we may be the arms so You can hug, ears so You can listen, tear ducts so You can cry, mouth so You can laugh and may we rest in Your presence so we can be presence with each other. For You are with us always.

Amen.

Lenten Devotion for March 10

To Keep a True Lent

by Robert Herrick, 1648

Is this a fast, to keep

   The larder lean?

      And clean

From fat of veals and sheep?

Is it to quit the dish

   Of flesh, yet still

      To fill

The platter high with fish?¹

Is it to fast an hour,

   Or ragg’d go,

      Or show

A down-cast look and sour?

No: ’tis a Fast to dole

   Thy sheaf of wheat

      And meat

Unto the hungry soul.

It is to fast from strife

   And old debate,

      And hate;

To circumcise thy life.²

To show a heart grief-rent;

   To starve thy sin,

      Not bin;³

And that’s to keep thy Lent.

Lenten Devotion for March 9

A Prayer for Lent
by Kathleen Stone

Like busy, busy bees
My mind and heart and womb are busy and without release.
I do not know what to do
Or who to see
Or what I want
Or what to do
Or when to do it
I only know everything seems in a beehive. Busy.
The season of reflection, depth, sorrow and suffering is all around me.
And I dwell in this other place.
What must I do and why?
Hold me and focus my hungers, O God of eternity.
Tell me of what you want from me.
Hold me like you’ve never held another before or maybe like you hold each of us every day, every minute, every second.
Without demand and with full understanding which leaves no room for such nonsense.
I know I have everything I need.
I know I do not want.

I only need to know how to live such a gift.

My Lord and my God, teach me your ways.

Amen.