Looking Toward Sunday

March 18, 2012 - Fourth Sunday in Lent

“Choices”

We continue our Lenten worship and sermon series, "Ready for a Change".  (If you've missed any of the sermons, you can listen to the podcast here.)  Our scripture reading for the day will be Luke 14:15-24, the Parable of the Great Banquet.  Remember the story?  People were invited to a fabulous feast.  But when the host sent word that the meal was ready, the guests were all were too busy with other things.

Our theme for the day is "Choices".  With so many choices about where to focus our time and attention, we need the wisdom to choose that which brings us into communion with God.  How do you discern the changes needed in your life that will bring you into a closer relationship with God?  Will you respond to the invitation to abundant life?

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.

Lenten Devotion for March 8

A Prayer for Lent 

by Henri Nouwen

The Lenten season begins. It is a time to be with you, Lord, in a special way, a time to pray, to fast, and thus to follow you on your way to Jerusalem, to Golgotha, and to the final victory over death.

I am still so divided. I truly want to follow you, but I also want to follow my own desires and lend an ear to the voices that speak about prestige, success, pleasure, power, and influence. Help me to become deaf to these voices and more attentive to your voice, which calls me to choose the narrow road to life.

I know that Lent is going to be a very hard time for me. The choice for your way has to be made every moment of my life. I have to choose thoughts that are your thoughts, words that are your words, and actions that are your actions. There are not times or places without choices. And I know how deeply I resist choosing you.

Please, Lord, be with me at every moment and in every place. Give me the strength and the courage to live this season faithfully, so that, when Easter comes, I will be able to taste with joy the new life that you have prepared for me.  Amen.