Long Enough: Lent Daybook 27

Take a few deep breaths, settle your body, mind, and heart into a quiet space, and let’s begin with prayer.

Opening prayer for the fourth week of Lent:

O Lord, this holy season of Lent is passing quickly. I entered into it with fear, but also with great expectations. I hoped for a great breakthrough, a powerful conversion, a real change of heart; I wanted Easter to be a day so full of light that not even a trace of darkness would be left in my soul.

But I know that you do not come to your people with thunder and lightning. Even St. Paul and St. Francis journeyed through much darkness before they could see your light. Let me be thankful for your gentle way. I know you are at work. I know you will not leave me alone. I know you are quickening me for Easter - but in a way fitting to my own history and my own temperament.

I pray that these last three weeks, in which you invite me to enter more fully into the mystery of your passion, will bring me a greater desire to follow you on the way that you create for me and to accept the cross that you give to me. Let me die to the desire to choose my own way and select my own desire. You do not want to make me a hero but a servant who loves you.

Be with me today and in the days to come, and let me experience your gentle presence. Amen. (Henri Nouwen, A Cry for Mercy: Prayers from the Genesee)

Look: Jeremiah, fresco by Michelangelo - Source 

Listen: Long Enough, Paul Zach - Lyrics | Spotify | YouTube 

Read: Psalm 89; Jeremiah 16:10-21; Romans 7:1-12; John 6:1-15

Excerpts:

“I will sing of your steadfast love, O Lord, forever; with my mouth I will proclaim your faithfulness to all generations. I declare that your steadfast love is established forever; your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens.

You said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to my servant David: ‘I will establish your descendants forever, and build your throne for all generations.’”

Selah

… But now you have spurned and rejected him; you are full of wrath against your anointed. You have renounced the covenant with your servant; you have defiled his crown in the dust. You have broken through all his walls; you have laid his strongholds in ruins. All who pass by plunder him; he has become the scorn of his neighbors. You have exalted the right hand of his foes; you have made all his enemies rejoice. Moreover, you have turned back the edge of his sword, and you have not supported him in battle. You have removed the scepter from his hand and hurled his throne to the ground. You have cut short the days of his youth; you have covered him with shame.

Selah

How long, O Lord? Will you hide yourself forever? How long will your wrath burn like fire? Remember how short my time is—for what vanity you have created all mortals! Who can live and never see death? Who can escape the power of Sheol?

Selah

Lord, where is your steadfast love of old, which by your faithfulness you swore to David? Remember, O Lord, how your servant is taunted, how I bear in my bosom the insults of the peoples, with which your enemies taunt, O Lord, with which they taunted the footsteps of your anointed.

Blessed be the Lord forever. Amen and Amen.

*

The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought:

Judah mourns, and her gates languish; they lie in gloom on the ground, and the cry of Jerusalem goes up. …

Although our iniquities testify against us, act, O Lord, for your name’s sake; our rebellions indeed are many, and we have sinned against you. …

Why should you be like someone confused, like a mighty warrior who cannot give help? Yet you, O Lord, are in the midst of us, and we are called by your name; do not forsake us! …

And the Lord said to me: “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name; I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds. Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name though I did not send them and who say, ‘Sword and famine shall not come on this land’: By sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed. And the people to whom they prophesy shall be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem, victims of famine and sword. There shall be no one to bury them—themselves, their wives, their sons, and their daughters—for I will pour out their wickedness upon them.”

You shall say to them this word: Let my eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease, for the virgin daughter of my people is struck down with a crushing blow, with a very grievous wound. If I go out into the field, look—those killed by the sword! And if I enter the city, look—those sick with famine! For both prophet and priest ply their trade throughout the land and have no knowledge.

Have you completely rejected Judah? Does your heart loathe Zion? Why have you struck us down so that there is no healing for us? We look for peace but find no good, for a time of healing, but there is terror instead. …

Do not spurn us, for your name’s sake; do not dishonor your glorious throne; remember and do not break your covenant with us. Can any idols of the nations bring rain, or can the heavens give showers? Is it not you, O Lord our God? We set our hope on you, for it is you who do all this. …

Therefore, the days are surely coming, says the Lord, when it shall no longer be said, “As the Lord lives who brought the people of Israel up out of the land of Egypt,” but “As the Lord lives who brought the people of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the lands where he had driven them.” For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their ancestors.

I am now sending for many fishermen, says the Lord, and they shall catch them, and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill and out of the clefts of the rocks. For my eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from my presence, nor is their iniquity concealed from my sight. …

“Therefore I am surely going to teach them, this time I am going to teach them my power and my might, and they shall know that my name is the Lord.”

*

But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died, and the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.

*

When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”

When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

—Psalm 89:1-4, 38-52; Jeremiah 14:1-2, 7, 9, 14-19, 21-22, 16:14-17, 21; Romans 7:8-12; John 6:14-15

Pray: The Lord's Prayer - Adapted from this source.

On Mondays during Lent, we'll use the Lord's Prayer as our guide for praying for ourselves and the world. One of the ways to pray the Lord's prayer is by dividing it into six sections and pausing between each section to offer prayer on that theme. This week, as we consider how honesty helps us express lament to God, notice the places you feel disconnected from your heart and mind as you pray the Lord’s Prayer. Journal those responses.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name

Thank God for who God is and for God's abundant faithfulness. Contemplate
God's many attributes and offer praise for the blessings in your life, community, and the world: ____________________.

Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven

Pray for God's rule and reign to become a reality in your life, city, nation, and
world. Ask for God to bring miracles and salvation: ____________________.

Give us this day our daily bread.

Pray for God's daily provision in your life and for those around the world who
the Holy Spirit brings to your heart and mind: ____________________.

Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us.

Engage in a few moments of silence to allow space for the Holy Spirit to bring
specific acts of sin to your attention. Confess those sins to the Lord. Also, be still
and allow the Holy Spirit to bring to mind those that have sinned against you so
that you can name them to God, ask for healing and strength to forgive. Forgive
those who have wronged you: ____________________.

Lead us not into temptation.

Ask for God to guide you in ‘paths of righteousness for God's name sake'. Pray that
God will give you the discernment and knowledge of God's will in the specific
decisions, known and unknown, ahead of you today: ____________________.

Deliver us from evil.

Pray for God's protection against any of the strategies of Satan. The Devil wants
to kill, steal, and destroy. Ask God to mightily deliver you and others the Holy
Spirit brings to your heart and mind: ____________________.

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

Do: This week, ask the Spirit of Christ to open your eyes to the times you become offended by the words and actions of others. Acknowledge the feeling and then ask God to help you release the offense quickly.

During the week, choose one person (or group) to forgive and to release from your expectation of apology or restitution.  If appropriate, write them a note passing the peace of Christ through a simple few words.

Once you’ve done this, talk with a trusted friend today, and ask them to pray for you to remain in the place of peace and forgiveness in your heart and mind. Bask in the love and forgiveness of our friend and brother, Jesus, who has reconciled us to God.

If it’s helpful, here’s a recent reflection I shared on some common roadblocks to forgiveness. (scroll to the bottom of the post)

*Sunday Scripture readings are taken from Year A of the Book of Common Prayer 2019 (Anglican Church of North America). Daily Scripture readings are taken from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer and include both Morning and Evening Psalms (Year 1)