Thursday, February 28, 2013

Is. 55:1-9; Ps.63:1-8; 1 Cor. 10:1-13; Luke 13:1-9

Psalm 63:1 “O God, eagerly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”

            People sense in their souls that there is more to life than making money and paying bills. Some reach a point in life where all seems dry and barren: food loses savor, dawn loses pleasure, extreme experiences lure. But even these do not suffice. Shopping, planning, and acquiring, we discern, only temporarily satisfy. We discover that having does not quiet desire. Humans of all ages find themselves thirsting for the reality underlying reality. It  is a thirst that will not be quenched. And often we search for relief in all the wrong places…while, patiently, God waits.

O God, fountain of life, eagerly we seek you; our souls thirsts for you as in a dry and weary land. Amen

·         Skip a cup of coffee today. Set aside the money saved for an act of love.

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Worship: Noon Eucharist, soup meal follows; 7 pm Vespers, soup meal at 6 pm.

Gen. 15:1-12; 17-18; Ps.27; Phil. 3:17-4:1; Luke 13:31-35

Luke 13:34 "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it."

             In chapter 9 of Luke's Gospel account, after the Transfiguration, Jesus "set his face to go to Jerusalem". For the next ten chapters, over one-third of this gospel, Jesus and the disciples travel to Jerusalem, arriving in chapter 19 in the humble procession down from the Mount of Olives. Jerusalem was the center of religious power in Israel. And prophets were indeed killed there. Second Chronicles tells of the slaying of the prophet Zechariah, son of the priest Jehoiada, who opposed King Joash' setting up of asherim, cult objects related to the Canaanite goddess Asherah. This Zechariah was stoned to death in the very court of the Temple. Tradition says that the prophet Isaiah was also slain in Jerusalem.  And now Jesus will go up to the great city.

 O God, fountain of life, may we follow you wherever your hand leads us. Amen

 ·         Choose a hymn to memorize.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Gen. 15:1-12; 17-18; Ps.27; Phil. 3:17-4:1; Luke 13:31-35

Genesis 15:5 “God brought Abram outside and said: ‘Look toward the heavens and count the stars… so shall your descendants be.’” 

            In the Pentateuch volume of the Saint John's Bible, the illumination for this story of Abram spreads across two pages. Across the field of gold stars a menorah , the ceremonial candlestick used in Jewish rites, is overlain, stretching across the heavens like a family tree. Upon those branches, the names of the twelve tribes of Israel are inscribed in gold. The menorah has a prominent place at another illumination in the Saint John's Bible: at the beginning of Matthew's Gospel: the genealogy, the family tree of Christ from chapter one, and at the base of the menorah/tree: Sarah and Abraham.

O God, our shelter, you keep your promises beyond what we can even imagine. May we live each day in the joy of your faithfulness. Amen

• Go to the Hubble websitehttp://www.hubblesite.org/gallery. Look at the creation of stars.

Monday, February 25, 2013

 

Gen. 15:1-12; 17-18; Ps.27; Phil. 3:17-4:1; Luke 13:31-35

Full moon; Commemoration: Deaconess Elizabeth Fedde (1850-1921)

Psalm 27:7 “In the day of trouble, the Lord will keep me safe.”

The teacher asked the disciples:

            “Can any of you give me an example of enlightenment or holiness?”

One disciple stood and told the following story:

            “I heard about a saint in the area who, wanting to visit a dying friend, and fearing to travel by night, said to the sun, ‘In the name of God stay on in the sky till I reach the village where my friend is dying.’ And the sun stopped dead in the sky till the holy one reached the village.”

 The teacher thought awhile and replied:

            “Would it not have been better for the holy person to overcome his fear of travelling by night?”

God does not want us to live our lives controlled by fear. God desires abundant life for us, and always calls us back to the sure promise: I-will-be-there. Do not fear, says Jesus on the waves. Do not fear, say the angel messengers. Do not fear, says God. I will be there.

O God, our shelter, keep us calm and at peace in your steadfast love. Amen

• Fast secretly for one meal. Set aside the money saved for an act of love.

Sunday, February 24, 2013 - Second Sunday in Lent

Worship: 8 & 10:45 am; Adult Forum 9:30: "Lectio Divina: Scripture in Prayer"

Gen. 15:1-12; 17-18; Ps.27; Phil. 3:17-4:1; Luke 13:31-35

Keep me, O God,

            from the little, the interfering, and the stupid;

from the infection of irritation and anger over nothings;

            Deliver me, and keep me, O my God.

from all promptings to decry the person or works of others;

from scorn, sarcasm, petty spite, and whisperings behind the back;

from the dishonest honesty of frankness meant to hurt;

            Deliver me, and keep me, O my God.

from hasty judgments, biased judgments, cruel judgments, and all pleasure in them;

from resentment over disapproval or reproof, whether just or unjust;

            Deliver me, and keep me, O my God.

from all imposition of my own fads and interest on my companions;

from burdening and boring others with my own anxieties and ailments;

from self-justification, self-excusing, and complacency;

            Deliver me, and keep me, O my God.

(Dean Eric Milner-White)

Saturday, February 23, 2013

 

Gen. 15:1-12; 17-18; Ps.27; Phil. 3:17-4:1; Luke 13:31-35

Commemoration: Polycarp (69-155 CE)  

Philippians 3:21 “Christ will transform our humble bodies to conform to his glorious body.”

            The journey through Lent, the path through the wilderness, is a path marked with ash.  We were marked with ash for the journey on the first day in Lent: ash, an ingredient in soap, for cleansing; ash, from which the phoenix arises with new life; ash, sign of mourning; ash, mark of repentance; ash, residue of burning, a leaving behind; and ash, for humility - humility, from the same word root as humble, human, humus. We are from the earth: “remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return”. On this day we remember our brother, the martyr Bishop Polycarp, who is reported to have been a disciple of John the Evangelist. When his imperial captors closed in on him at a country house near Smyrna, he invited the soldiers in and had them served food and drink. In Irenaeus' account of Polycarp's death by fire in the arena, it was said there was a beautiful fragrance, "like frankincense". May we never know the arena. But may we be a humble, fragrant offering (marked with ash!) - wherever our journey leads.

O God our shelter, you have created a place for us in the body of Christ. Bless our daily journey, that all we do may give glory to your name. Amen

• Purchase or download the icon of a saint important to you. Place it near your altar.

Friday, February 22, 2013

Gen. 15:1-12; 17-18; Ps.27; Phil. 3:17-4:1; Luke 13:31-35

Psalm 27:1 The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?”

In Abram’s deep and terrifying darkness, God then appeared as a flaming torch. Light in the darkness. No matter how we make peace with the dark, we will always greet the dawn with a sense of hope, a sense of relief, a sense of joy. The word Lent comes from the Anglo-Saxon lenct which, like the German Lenz, means “spring”. It is related to “lengthen’, referring to the lengthening of days. The survival of all agrarian cultures depends on the lengthening of days to warm and light the soil and seed. In the lengthening of daylight is hope, hope for life. In the days of Lent is hope, hope for new life.

O God, our shelter, you are our light, you are our salvation, whom shall we fear? Amen

• Plant a bulb in a pot. Begin to water it; place it in a sunny window.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Gen. 15:1-12; 17-18; Ps.27; Phil. 3:17-4:1; Luke 13:31-35

Genesis 15:12 “As the sun was going down,…a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon Abram.”

            Humans are basically afraid of the dark. Even farmsteads have pole lights that burn all night, counterparts to the porch lights and streetlights that pink the night in cities and suburbs. And yet, lights are counteractive to deep sleep. Left to our natural tendencies most humans will rise when the sun rises, not when the alarm shouts and shakes. Some alarm clocks now awaken with a gradually brightening light. Darkness is a time of dreams, of visions, of revelation, of deep awareness. And it is quite evident that the deep darkness that descends upon Abram in Genesis is not evil, but a darkness from God, intended to seal the covenant with Abram. Darkness is also a gift from God – for rest, for dreams, for revelation.

O God, our shelter, blessed are you for you cause darkness and light, the night and the day. May we always find ourselves held in your shelter. Amen

·         Sit in the dark for a part of your prayer time, perhaps before dawn, using the psalm verse "the Lord is my light and my salvation."

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Worship: Noon Eucharist, soup meal follows; 7 pm Vespers, soup meal at 6 pm.

Deut. 26:1-11; Ps. 91:1-2, 9-16; Rom.10:8b-13; Luke 4:1-13

Luke 4:1 "Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil."

            In the Saint John's Bible illumination for Mark's account of the baptism of Jesus, John stands in the foreground, and Jesus is a distant gold figure with indistinct features. Golden angels and birds of deep blue fill the sky above the Christ.  But above him, to the left, red eyes peer out into the scene, along with a dark nebulous shape and two black spiders - a presaging of the coming temptation in the wilderness. The ancient hymnwriter Prudentius, as well as John Milton, conjectured that Satan (named only by Mark) had watched the baptism and came to the wilderness to test Jesus to discover if he was the Son of God, the seed that was to bruise Satan's head (Gen. 3:14-15): "Who this is we must learn, for Man he seems/In all lineaments, though in his face/The glimpses of his Father's glory shine." (Paradise Regained, Book I) In the Saint John's Bible illuminations, wherever there is gold, there is the presence of God. Though darkness and evil may be on the path, God is ever near.

O God of the desert, you have promised to send your angels to guard us in all our ways. May we always trust your promises, so that we may walk fearlessly through all the wilderness times of our lives. Amen

·         Put something at your place of prayer that will remind you  of the presence of god: an icon, a candle, something gold…

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

 

Deut. 26:1-11; Ps. 91:1-2, 9-16; Rom.10:8b-13; Luke 4:1-13

Romans 10:12 "For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him."

 In the darkness fifteen feet below street level, under the 12th century church of San Clemente in Rome, an excavated 2nd century Roman domus (family home) sits with its brick barrel vaults, with small terracotta tiles in a herringbone pattern on its floor. A trickling spring sounds somewhere nearby. In this barrel-vaulted space met a 2nd or 3rd c. house church - the type of community to whom the apostle Paul would have been writing his Epistle to the Romans: small communities meeting in homes and reading the letters from Paul and others, passed from house to house to house. Copies passed from city to city. It was letters, primarily the letters, like that to the Romans, that sustained and enheartened the early house churches, and we have the witness of these letters still, in our hands, in our worship. 

O God of the desert, you have promised to be generous to all who call on your name: fill us with joyful confidence in your living Word for all people.   Amen

• Create a small Lenten group to study together in a home: to study perhaps one book of the Bible, a novel, a memoir …

Monday, February 18, 2013

Deut. 26:1-11; Ps. 91:1-2, 9-16; Rom.10:8b-13; Luke 4:1-13

Commemoration: Martin Luther (1483-1546)

 

Romans 10:6 "But the righteousness that comes from faith says,… 'The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart.'"

 

From Martin Luther's "Preface to the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans" (1522 rev. 1526):   "Faith is not the human notion and dream that some people call faith… Faith…is a divine work in us which changes us and makes us to be born anew of God (John 1:12-13)…Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that the believer would stake his life on it a thousand times. This knowledge of confidence in God's grace makes us glad and bold and happy in dealing with God and with all creatures. And this is the work which the Holy Spirit performs in faith. Because of it, without coercion, Christians are ready and glad to do good to everyone, to serve everyone, to suffer everything, out of love and praise to God who has shown them this grace. Thus it is impossible to separate works from faith, quite as impossible as to separate heat and light from fire." (Luther's Works, Vol. 35)

 

O God of the desert, set us free  "to do the good with pleasure, with a willing and happy heart."  Amen

 

• Volunteer to help with one of the ministries of Mount Olive: Tuesday Tutors, Community Meal, Our Savior’s meal, Meals on Wheels¹  

Sunday, February 17, 2013 - First Sunday in Lent

 

 

First Sunday in Lent

Worship: 8 & 10:45 am   Adult Forum: 9:30   "Common Hope" The Ruff Family

Deut. 26:1-11; Ps. 91:1-2, 9-16; Rom.10:8b-13; Luke 4:1-13

 

Lord, bless to me this Lent.

Lord, let me fast most truly and profitably,

            by feeding in prayer on your Spirit;

                        reveal me to myself

                                    in the light of your holiness.

 

Suffer me never to think

            that I have knowledge enough to need no teaching,

                        wisdom enough to need no correction,

                        talents enough to need no grace,

                        goodness enough to need no repentance,

                        devotion enough to need no quickening,

                        strength sufficient without your Spirit;

            lest, standing still, I fall back for evermore.

 

Show me the desires that should be disciplined,

                        and sloths to be slain.

Show me  the omissions to be made up

                        and the habits to be mended.

And behind these, weaken, humble, and annihilate in me

            self-will, self-righteousness, self-satisfaction,

            self-sufficiency, self-assertion, vainglory.

 

May my whole effort be to return to you;

            O make it serious and sincere,

            persevering and fruitful in result,

                        by the help of your Holy Spirit

                                    and to your glory,

                                                my Lord and my God.   Amen

 

(Dean Eric Milner-White, 1884-1963, in My God, My Glory)

Saturday, February 16, 2013

 

 

Joel 2:1-2, 12-17; Psalm 51:1-17; 2 Cor. 5:20b-6:10; Matt. 6:1-6, 16-21

 

Matthew 6:19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth,… but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven…For where your treasure is, there your heart is also."

            For forty days Jesus was tempted, for forty years the Israelites wandered in the desert, for forty days and forty nights Moses was on the mountain of Sinai. If you have a concordance of the Bible, look up the word “forty” and see the remarkable number of passages with that number. What is the significance of all these forty years, forty days, forty nights? Lent is a period of forty days (not including Sundays), roughly one-tenth - a tithe - of a year, that we give over to a discipline of prayer for the good of the spirit, fasting for the good of the body, acts of love for the good of neighbor, that we may reconsider what exactly it is that we treasure above all things, that we may, as Richard Rohr says, "live our way into a new way of thinking."

 

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Amen

 

• Invite friends or family to bake pretzels (see recipe).

Friday, February 15, 2013

 

Joel 2:1-2, 12-17; Psalm 51:1-17; 2 Cor. 5:20b-6:10; Matt. 6:1-6, 16-21

 

2 Corinthians 6:2b "See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the time of salvation!"

 

Today Asteroid 2012 DA14 will pass within about 21,000 miles of earth (sound the kettledrums...) within the moon's orbit,  faintly visible at night with strong binoculars or telescopes. Scientists say it's not going to hit us, don't worry. Life on earth has plenty of dangers, visible and invisible, microscopic and cosmic, known and unknown, which can sweep us away, and the apostle Paul is urging the church at Corinth in this part of his letter to begin living their lives as beloved, redeemed people now, in this time, on this day. Not waiting for some future date, some other life, some other time. Now.

 

You desire truth, O God, in the inmost being, therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart. Amen

 

• Start a Lenten journal; write even just a sentence, a thought, or a paragraph each day. Go out tonight and marvel at the night sky.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Joel 2:1-2, 12-17; Psalm 51:1-17; 2 Cor. 5:20b-6:10; Matt. 6:1-6, 16-21

Commemoration: Cyril and Methodius (9th c.), St. Valentine (Valentinus, 3rd c.)

 

Psalm 51:10 "Create in me a clean heart, O God."

      On this day the church commemorates Sts. Cyril and Methodius, brothers from Thessaloniki, who were monastics sent to the area south of the Caucasus and to Moravia. There they developed a 32-letter Glagolitic alphabet, now called Cyrillic, based on the Greek, to use for transliterating Slavic. Cyril, also trained in philosophy,  used the alphabet to translate the Gospels,  Acts, the Pauline epistles, and liturgical texts into  the Slavic languages. The earliest known Slavonic hymn "Hospodine pomiluj ny", stemming from the 10th or 11th c., was used by Antonin Dvorak in the third part of his oratorio, Svata Ludmila (Saint Ludmila), which depicts the era during which the brothers were bringing Christianity to Bohemia, when Duke Borivoj I and Ludmila were baptized by Methodius.

 

Lord, have mercy. Christ have mercy. Savior of the whole world, have mercy on us and hear, O Lord, our voices. Amen   (Hospodine pomiluji ny, excerpt)

 

·         Make an altar, a place for prayer. Listen to the Introduzione e coro from Dvorak's Saint Ludmila, Part III (availableon YouTube).

Ash Wednesday

Wednesday, February 13, 2013 - Ash Wednesday   

worship: noon & 7 pm

 

Joel 2:13 "Return to the Lord, your God, for God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love."

 

            All through Lent in place of the alleluia verse, we sing the verse from Joel 2:13: “Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.”  Repentance, turn, return – in Hebrew, all these words share a common root: teshuvah, lashuv, shuvah.  Lent is an opportunity to examine, to reflect, and to turn – to turn away from false gods (power, popularity, success?), to turn around and leave behind those things that enslave us (self-doubt, misconceptions, bitterness?) and to return to the arms of a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

 

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Amen

 

• Veil crosses with deep purple cloth or unbleached muslin, a fast for the eyes.

Introduction

            From as early as the fourth century, the Christian Church has  observed a forty-day period of fasting before the festival of Easter. These weeks became a time of preparation for those adults wishing to be baptized at the Easter Vigil, and, for the whole  Church, a time of  examination, of prayer, of returning to the central things of life in Christ, of relationship with God.

             During this lectionary year which uses the Gospel according to Luke, we begin on Ash Wednesday with the admonition of the prophet Joel: 'Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart"; we enter into the wilderness with Christ for forty days to confront those things which keep us from God and the fullness of our own being; we make our way with Christ to Jerusalem, a journey that takes a full ten chapters in the middle of Luke's narrative. At the core of these weeks is the Parable of the Lost Son, mourned, missed, and welcomed home by the extravagant love of the Prodigal Father.

              May we have the courage to take this journey willingly, consciously, during this Lenten season. May we remember that Christ took this wilderness journey before us and walks the rocky road with us. May we call to mind that the Spirit gives us power in our weakness. May we always see the loving face of God reaching out to us in welcome and love. Blessed journey to us all.

 "O my brother, the contemplative is the man not who has fiery visions of the cherubim carrying God on their imagined chariot, but simply one who has risked his mind to the desert."             (Thomas Merton)

Prayers on Sundays

 Eric Milner-White (1884-1963) is the source for all the Sunday prayers in this year's Lenten devotional. He was chaplain to the British forces in France from 1914, then, from 1918-1941, served as Dean and Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, where he developed the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols, first for Christmas, later for Advent. In 1941 he was appointed Dean of York. He is the author of the well-known prayer used in this booklet in the Matins service: "Lord God, you have called your servants". (See Evangelical Lutheran Worship, Evening Prayer, p. 317, [language updated].) All prayers are from his collection, My God, My Glory, Triangle, London, 1994.

Resources related to the Parable of the Lost Son (Luke 15):

ART

 -    Minneapolis Institute of Arts, currently on view (all on 3rd floor):

            David Teniers, ca. 1640 The Prodigal Son, G312
            Pier Leone Ghezzi, ca. 1720 The Prodigal Son G308
            also, in the same area:  
            Titian, ca. 1516 The Temptation of Christ G330

The Institute owns many additional Prodigals, not currently displayed, which can be viewed online. http://www.artsmia.org, under Collections.

-    Basilica of Saint Mary, Minneapolis:

Exhibit of art depicting the Parable of the Prodigal Son, from the collection of Jerry Evenrud, February 13-April 28, 2013   http://www.mary.org, Events.

-    The Museum of Russian Art:

Special exhibit, "Concerning the Spiritual in Russian Art, 1965-2011", includes a large painting by Olga Bulgakova of The Return of the Prodigal Son, January 26-June 9, 2013. Also on exhibit concurrently, "Cast Icons: Preserving Sacred Traditions", extended to April 2013. http://www.tmora.org

-    Luther Seminary houses the main body of Jerry Evenrud's Prodigal Son collection, a number of which are generally on display in the Northwestern Building, second floor.  http://www.luthersem.edu/prodigal

BOOKS

-    And Grace Will Lead Me Home: Images of the Prodigal Son from the Jerry Evenrud Collection,  Robert Brusic, Kirk House Press.

-    The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming, Henri Nouwen, Image Books. An encounter with Rembrandt's Return of the Prodigal Son propels Nouwen onto a spiritual journey. Also, Home Tonight: Further Reflections on the Prodigal Son, pieced together from Nouwen's notebooks and workshops, Image Books.

-    Home (novel), Marilynne Robinson, Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux.

       -    Great Expectations (novel), Charles Dickens.

-    The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge (semiautobiographical novel), Rainer Maria Rilke, tr. Stephen Mitchell, Random House. The final pages are a prose poem on the Prodigal Son.



FILMS


"Gebo and the Shadow" (Portugese film, in French) 2012, directed by Manoel Oliveira 

MUSIC, THEATER

      -    1869, Sir Arthur Sullivan, oratorio, The Prodigal Son

-    1884, Claude Debussy, scéne lyrique, L'enfant prodigue (Édouard Guinand, librettist, adds the mother, given the name Lia, whose beautiful aria of regret and longing opens the scéne. The father's name is Simeon, the son, Azäel. Recommended recording: Jessye Norman, José Carreras, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau on YouTube., 34 mins. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ShjToPSsOM

-    1929, Sergei Prokofiev, ballet, The Prodigal Son, choreographed by George Balanchine. Libretto: Boris Kochno. Sets based on images from Georges Roualt. In this libretto, the Son has two sisters. Danced on YouTube by Mikhail Baryshnikov, approx. 35-40 mins. in 4 segments. (If you can only watch one, watch the 4th segment.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkN4lNDlKG8

      -    1961, Langston Hughes, one-act play, Prodigal Son

-    1968, Benjamin Britten, church opera, The Prodigal Son, Opus 81. Libretto: William Plomer. Inspired by Raphael's Prodigal Son in the Hermitage. Plomer's story line adds a Tempter, under whose  power the son undergoes three temptations. The Tempter was originally sung by tenor Peter Pears. Excerpt from a 2012 production at Church of the Transfiguration, New York: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKmr3s3bByM

POETRY

 James Weldon Johnson, "The Prodigal Son"

Rainer Maria Rilke, "The Departure of the Prodigal Son"

Christina Rossetti, "A Prodigal Son"

What others at Mount Olive are considering reading during this Lent:

Pastor Joseph Crippen

            Les Miserables, Victor Hugo (in a new translation by Julia Rose)
            Clowns of God, Morris West

Dwight Penas

            Balance of the Heart: Desert Spirituality, Lois Farag
            The Diary of a Country Priest, Georges Bernanos

Art Halbardier

            Beyond the Shattered Image, John Chryssavgis
            Cross-Shattered Christ, Stanley Hauerwas

Susan Cherwien

            The Breath of the Soul, Joan Chittister
            Seeking Life: The Baptismal Invitation of the Rule of Benedict, Esther De Waal

A Brief Order for Matins (Morning Prayer)

(or use the complete form in Evangelical Lutheran Worship, p. 298)

To be sung or said aloud

(Trace the sign of the cross on your lips and chant or say)

O Lord, open my lips,

and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.

Psalm 108:1-4

One or more of the day’s designated readings may be read.

The day's reflection may be read.

Benedictus (Song of Zechariah): Luke 1:68-79

Prayer: O God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer

Almighty God, the + Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit bless and preserve us.

Amen.

A Brief Order for Compline (Prayer Before Sleep)

(Or use the complete form in Evangelical Lutheran Worship, page 320)

 To be said or sung aloud

 (Make the sign of the cross and say)

Almighty God grant us a quiet night and peace at the last.  Amen

It is good to give thanks to the Lord,

to sing praise to your name, O Most High,
to herald your love in the morning,
your truth at the close of the day.

Psalm 91:1-6, 9-12

One or more of the day’s designated readings may be read.

 Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.

You have redeemed me, O Lord, God of truth.
Into your hands I commend my spirit.

Guide us waking, O Lord,

and guard us sleeping,
that awake we may watch with Christ,
and asleep we may rest in peace.

Nunc Dimittis (Song of Simeon): Luke 2:29-32

Prayer: I give thanks to you, heavenly God, through Jesus Christ your dear Son, that you have graciously protected me today. I ask you to forgive me all my sins, where I have done wrong, and graciously to protect me this night. Into your hands I commend myself: my body, my soul, and all that is mine. Let your holy angels be with me, so that the wicked foe may have no power over me.  Amen

 The Lord’s Prayer

 Almighty God, the + Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, bless us and keep us.

Amen

February 2013 - Year of Luke

Friday-Tuesday, February 8-12, 2013 – shrovetide

• Have a party, make doughnuts (see recipe).

Tuesday, February 12, 2013 – Shrove Tuesday

Mount Olive Youth-sponsored Pancake Supper: 6:00 PM, Undercroft

·         Put away any alleluias until Easter.

Full Text of the Homily Excerpted on March 20

Homily 1/25/02   Jenifer K. Ward, Christ Chapel, Gustavus Adolphus College

Text:  Matthew 26:6-13  An unidentified woman anoints Jesus' head with very costly ointment at the house of Simon the leper in Bethany


In Biblical tradition, there are many examples of anointing with oil, often perfumed and costly; sometimes in the context of healing, as in the Letter of James; or as a sign of honor, as in the passages where kings are anointed; or in scenes in which a body is being prepared for burial, as in today's text. In all cases, to anoint requires touching someone, either figuratively or literally. At its very simplest level, an anointing is about service and intimacy and vulnerability, and so when Jesus says to his disciples that the Gospel will be told in memory of the woman who has anointed him, he is making a foundational statement about what it means to serve Christ.

When I think back over my life, and conjure up memories of anointings, I have to confess that I can find no costly perfumes or alabaster jars. My anointings were much more humble. I think of my mother, Betty. When I was sick as a child, she would come into my room, bearing a jar of the dreaded Vicks Vap-o-Rob to slather over me. On the one hand, this overpowering swirl of camphor and eucalyptus…my flannel nightgown sticking to the ointment and to me…my own feverish, congested discomfort. But on the other hand: my mother…sitiing on the edge of my bed, present to me, only to me, there to soothe, to tell me it would be all better, as her hand gently circled around my face and chest.

I think of my maternal great-grandmother, Nanny, whose method of removing ticks from my head after I had lolled around in the Arkansas fields was to dip her finger into the jar of bacon grease present in every Southern icebox and rub a glob of that smokey goo into my hair. Within seconds, the"anointing" would take effect and the tick would release its bite and I would be delivered and healed. On the one hand, bacon grease in my hair. But on the other hand: afterwards I would stretch out on my back on the kitchen counter with my head resting in Nanny's hand. She would pour warm water over my head and say things about Baptism as her other hand massaged Prell Concentrate into my hair. I still know in my deepest core of me the smell of Prell, and the sound of the pressure cooker on the stove, and the sight of the crepe-y skin of Nanny's grandmother arms as she washed my head.
I think of my paternal grandmother, Mamaw. In the summertime, when it was hot as blue blazes in Arkansas and all us grandkids would be up at the farm, Mamaw had a going-to-bed ritual. All the children would sit on the edge of the various beds - I was always with my cousins Renee and Lisa - and wait in the dark as Mamaw went from room to room with a pitcher and basin and some rags. It was so hot and sticky and still, and even though the windows were open, there wasn't a hint of a breeze. Mamaw would come in and dip those rags in cool water and wash our little feet, and only then were we allowed to lay down in the bed. And our cool feet made the rest of us feel refreshed and she urged us through our prayers, and it seemed as if the breeze always picked up just a bit after that…On the one hand, she was probably just making sure our dirty feet didn't ruin her white sheets. But on the other hand, I can still tell you that Mamaw's praying voice sounded different from her gruff speaking voice, even though she's been dead since 1972, and I still know that the best way to find refreshment on a hot day is to go stand in a few inches of cool bathwater.

These women were gracious givers; they did a good service for me; and when I tell you my memories of them, I am telling you about the light of Christ.

Last week I was back in Arkansas. This time it was my mother who needed healing. At St.Vincent's, a hospital run by the Catholic Sisters of Charity, my mother was about to have a complicated and lengthy back surgery. She had been in pain for years, but her fear of the surgery and the very long recovery kept her from scheduling it. Finally she made the arrangements and at 5:30 on a Friday morning, my Dad and I sat with her as the nurses prepped her for surgery. She was terrified and very quiet. Dr. Bruffett came in and explained in great detail, very professionally and very scientifically, what he was going to do. And while I know my Dad and I were comforted by his obvious expertise, my mother got quieter and quieter. And Dr. Bruffett stopped. He said, "Mrs. Ward, if you don't object, I like to share a moment of prayer with my patients before we go to surgery. Would that be OK with you?" My mother couldn't even answer, she was so relieved. She nodded her head and blinked her eyes and Dr. Bruffett took her hand in his. He asked for God's grace and help for himself and the nurses and anesthesiologists, he asked for my Mom's trust, and for courage for our family as we waited for news of the surgery. My mother didn't need a scientist right then, and Dr. Bruffett saw that. He dispensed with being a surgeon and became a person, a child of God, anointing another child of God with hope.

After the surgery, the nurse who helped us get Mom settled into her room was named James. He was a warm, boisterous African-American, and he brought my Dad a chair to nap in and me a blanket from the warmer because he saw me shiver. He was a nurse, to everyone in the room, not just to his official patient. When my mom started waking up, she wanted to know if the surgery had been a success. We confirmed that it had, and in her morphine-slurred alto voice she croaked out the first line of an old Southern gospel song: "I've got a new body, Praise the Lord!" to which James, without missing a beat, clapped his hands together and sang out the second line: "I've got a new life, I've got a new life!" My mother didn't need her blood pressure checked just then, and James saw that. He saw that my mother was a woman with a sense of humor and a love of music and so he anointed her with the healing power of laughter and song.

These men were gracious givers; they did a good service for my mother and when I tell you my memories of them, I am telling you about the light of Christ.

Now, I am a Lutheran. My mother is Methodist and so was Nanny. Mamaw was a Missionary Baptist. Dr. Bruffett is Roman Catholic. And I don't really know what James is. But on a very simple level, what could it possibly matter? They all exemplified the sacred and blest thread which runs through all our traditions and which bind us to all: that to touch one another, to serve one another, to be truly present to one another, is to reflect the light of Christ.  Amen.


Jenifer K. Ward is currently Interim Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs at Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle, Washington. Copyright©2002 Jenifer K. Ward.