Sunday, March 24, 2013: Sunday of the Passion/Palm Sunday

Worship: 8 & 10:45 am; No Adult Forum

Luke 19:28-40; Is. 50:4-9a; Ps. 31:9-16;Phil. 2:5-11; Luke 22:14-23:56

Commemoration: Archbishop Oscar Romero (1917-1980)       

O Jesus Christ,

            for the world's sake

                        you did stand against the world;

            you did empty yourself,

                        that you might fill all things;

            you were a curse,

                        to bless all creation.

O Christ, forgive our ignorance, blindness, stupidity;

            our vainglory and cruelty,

            all sin we do in darkness,

            all our additions to the sufferings of others.

O Christ, let me stand alongside you

            for cleanness of hand and pureness of heart;

stand after your example,

            against the small, the shallow, the spiteful and cruel;

stand for the world,

            against the world;

stand for you and your righteousness and love;

            who live and reigns with the Father and

            the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever.   Amen

(Dean Eric Milner-White)

Saturday, March 23, 2013

 

Luke 19:28-40; Is. 50:4-9a; Ps. 31:9-16;Phil. 2:5-11; Luke 22:14-23:56

 

Philippians 2:9 "Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name,…"

 

            The path out of the desert now comes into view. The church approaches Palm Sunday and the Three Days.  These Lenten days, which began with ash and confession, reach their culmination in Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, his new commandment, his death, and – behold! I am doing a new thing! – Christ’s rising from the grave. Out of winter, spring. Out of the wilderness, a river. Out of darkness, light. Out of barrenness, fruit. Out of sorrow, joy. Out of death, life.

            Christ will step out into the spring morning with a new day and a song of joy for all those who have experienced trials, dust, dryness, fear, sorrow, death. “Rise, heart, thy Lord is risen; Who takes thee by the hand, that thou likewise with him mayst rise.” (George Herbert)

 

O God, our springtime, blessed are you, for you fulfill your promise of new life. May we all, baptized in your living water through Christ, live as radiant signs of your grace, mercy, and steadfast love, for your glory shines through all ages of ages. Amen

 

• Place a candle at the grave of someone you love. (A tradition of Lazarus Saturday, the day before Palm Sunday)

Friday, March 22, 2013

 

Luke 19:28-40; Is. 50:4-9a; Ps. 31:9-16;Phil. 2:5-11; Luke 22:14-23:56

Commemoration: Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)

 

Philippians 2:5 "Let this same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave…"

 

            In order for something new to come into being, something has to exit or change. The word associated with this in the Christian tradition is kenosis, or "emptying", whose verb form is used in the Greek of the Philippians text we just read. Emptying is a part of the becoming of the universe, a step in the creative process, a necessary part of gestation and birth. It has been a part of our journey through Lent. The wilderness can be a metaphor for that empty place where there is now room for the divine energies of God. The motto of the Carmelite Order is Vacare Deo, roughly, "vacate yourself, or, empty yourself for God." Any Lenten disciplines we have taken on during these weeks have not been to show how faithful, how pious, how righteous we are, but to help us to let go of those things - belongings, attitudes, habits, values, beliefs - that prevent us from being the living abode of God.

 

O God, our springtime, blessed are you for the promise of newness. Create in us clean hearts, O God, and renew right spirits within us. Amen

           

• Eat no meat or oil today.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

 

Luke 19:28-40; Is. 50:4-9a; Ps. 31:9-16; Phil. 2:5-11; Luke 22:14-23:56

Commemoration: Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556)

 

Psalm 31:14 "But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, "You are my God." My times are in your hand…"

 

            Throughout Lent we have been entering the Sunday liturgy by chanting the Litany, an ancient form of prayer using call and response and the repeated phrase Kyrie eleison (Lord, have mercy). It has ancestors in the Jewish Alvinu Malkeinu and the Orthodox ektenia (prayed by the deacon, in similar form to the current Lutheran Kyrie of the Eucharistic liturgy.) During the time of Gregory the Great (6th c.), the Litany was used in public processions, often to counter pagan festival processions. Martin Luther considered it a beautiful prayer, translating the Litany of Saints into German, while also omitting the direct petitions to saints. This is essentially the form we chant yet today, and Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury at the time of Henry VIII, used it, along with the Sarum Processionale, as a model for the first English language liturgy, the Exhortation and Litany of 1544.

 

• Chant the Great  Litany (ELW, Hymn 238) as a part of your Prayers.

Wednsday, March 20, 2013

Is. 42:16-21; Ps. 126; Phil. 3:4b-14; John 12-:1-8

Spring Equinox 6:02 a.m.

John 12:3 "Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus' feet, and wiped them with her hair."

 

            In a 2002 sermon at Christ Chapel, Gustavus Adolphus College, professor Jenifer Ward said: "When I think back over my own 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-Rub to slather over me. On the one hand, the 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…sitting 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.…[She] exemplified the sacred and blest thread which binds us all: that to touch one another, to serve one another, to be truly present to one another, is to reflect the light of Christ."

 

(Copyright©2002 Jenifer K. Ward. The sermon in its full form is here.)

 

O God, our springtime, anoint us with your ever presence that we may embody your love in the world.  Amen

 

• Think of someone who needs the blessed anointing of your presence. Call, write or visit them.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

 

Is. 42:16-21; Ps. 126; Phil. 3:4b-14; John 12-:1-8

Joseph, Guardian of Jesus

 

Isaiah 43:19 “I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.”

 

            Wilderness times are like wandering in the Negeb, a desert in southern Israel, west of the Dead Sea. The Negeb receives less than 8” of rain in a year. And God is going to make a river? Here?

            What is so amazing is what happens in the desert when water does come. The silvery, spiny, low-growing plants bloom. Cactus puts out leaves and flowers. Desert frogs emerge after spending ten months burrowed underground. Even 3,000 year old peas found during excavation of Tutankhamen’s tomb have blossomed and produced purple pods of edible peas.

            “Behold, I am doing a new thing,” proclaims God. What miracles could happen when water flows into our wilderness?

O God, our springtime, may we never lose hope in you. Amen

 

• Plant seeds of spring flowers or herbs and begin to water them.

Monday, March 18, 2013

 

Is. 42:16-21; Ps. 126; Phil. 3:4b-14; John 12-:1-8

Commemoration: Cyril of Jerusalem (313-386)

John 12:3 “Mary took a pound of costly perfume… anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair.”

 

A reading from Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures, XXI, 4: "On Chrism":

[To those who have just been baptized:]

… while your body is anointed with the visible ointment, your soul is sanctified by the Holy and life-giving Spirit.

And you were first anointed on the forehead, that you might be delivered from shame, …Then on your ears; that you might receive the ears which are quick to hear the Divine Mysteries…Then on the nostrils; that receiving the sacred ointment you may say, "We are to God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved. " (2 Cor. 2:15) Afterwards on your breast; that having put on the breastplate of righteousness, you may stand against the wiles of the devil.…saying, "I can do all things in Christ which strengthens me. (Phil. 4:13)

 

O God, our springtime, may we be anointed with the sweet fragrance of your Spirit. Amen

 

• Take a small amount of olive oil and anoint your hands (eyes, lips, ears!) to do God's work in the world.