First Sunday of Lent

First Sunday of Lent

The Lord God formed man from the dust of the grund, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.

Genesis 2:7

Sunday Prayer

Families are full of love, laughter and a great deal of joy.  Families, however, are also full of bickering, bemoaning and occasional strife.  Bless me, O Lord, as I carry the crosses of family life.  Heavenly Father, you know the crosses I carry in this part of my life; sustain my joy and renew my patience when it is lacking.  Give me all that I need to lovingly care for the members of my family: spouse and children, parents and grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins.  Let my family be a cord not quickly broken.   Amen.

Sunday Meditation

You are a child of God.  I want you for a moment, for a few minutes, to think about it not intellectually but go with me and listen to me simply saying the same thing in different ways.  See if you can make connections here.  Because God is saying to us you are my child.  You are written in the palms of my hands.  You are hidden in the shadow of my hands.  I have molded you out of the secret of the earth.  I have knitted you together in your mother’s womb.  You belong to me.  I am yours, you are mine.  I have called you from eternity.  You are the one who is held safe and embraced in love from eternity to eternity.  You belong to me.  I am holding you safe, and I want you to know that whatever happens to you I am always there.  I was always there.  I am always there.  I will always be there and hold you in my embrace.  You are mine.  You are my child.

-          Henri Nouwen

Saturday after Ash Wednesday

Saturday After Ash Wednesday

The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your need in parched places,
and make your bones strong.

Isaiah 58:11

Saturday Prayer

Lord, you take broken things and make them new.  You have taken a broken world and made it new again by the powerful cross of Christ.  Do the very same in my life: transform my complaints so that they become crosses I carry for you.  Turn my grumbling into gladness.  Make my many objections new so that they can become opportunities to carry a cross for you.  Do what only you can do: Make all things new.   Amen.

Saturday Meditation

Many voices around and within us warn us of their dangers of dependence.  We fear being dependent on others because of the idea that dependence is a threat to our security.  A friend once told me how often his father would say, “Son, be sure you don’t become dependent on anybody.  Be sure you do not have to beg for what you need.  Be sure that you always have enough money so you can have your own house, your own things, and your own people to help you.  As long as you have some money in the bank, nothing bad can really happen to you.”  The pressure in our culture to secure our own future and to control our lives as much as possible does not find support in the Bible.

-          Henri Nouwen

Psalm 32

¹ Blessed is the one
    whose transgressions are forgiven,
    whose sins are covered.
² Blessed is the one
    whose sin the Lord does not count against them
    and in whose spirit is no deceit.

³ When I kept silent,
    my bones wasted away
    through my groaning all day long.
⁴ For day and night
    your hand was heavy on me;
my strength was sapped
    as in the heat of summer.^[b]

⁵ Then I acknowledged my sin to you
    and did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, “I will confess
    my transgressions to the Lord.”
And you forgave
    the guilt of my sin.

⁶ Therefore let all the faithful pray to you
    while you may be found;
surely the rising of the mighty waters
    will not reach them.
⁷ You are my hiding place;
    you will protect me from trouble
    and surround me with songs of deliverance.

⁸ I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
    I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.
⁹ Do not be like the horse or the mule,
    which have no understanding
but must be controlled by bit and bridle
    or they will not come to you.
¹⁰ Many are the woes of the wicked,
    but the Lord’s unfailing love
    surrounds the one who trusts in him.

¹¹ Rejoice in the Lord and be glad, you righteous;
    sing, all you who are upright in heart!

Friday after Ash Wednesday

Friday After Ash Wednesday

Have mercy on me, O God,  according to your steadfast love… I know my transgressions…

Psalm 51:1,3

Friday Prayer

Sometimes life is full of hardship. Other times life is full of happiness in their proper season.  When the crosses in my life become too much for me to carry, I beg you to remove my burden.  When the crosses in my life become too few, I beg you to add more  In the fullness of time, you sent your Son Jesus Christ to the cross for me.  In the fullness of my life, Lord, show me the crosses that I am to carry.   Amen.

Friday Meditation

God’s mercy is greater than our sins.  There is an awareness of sin that does not lead to God but to self-preoccupation.  Our temptation is to be so impressed by our sins and failings and so overwhelmed by our lack of generosity that we get stuck in a paralyzing guilt.  It is the guilt that says:  “I am too sinful to deserve directing our eyes to God.  It is the guilt that has become an idol and therefore a form of pride.  Lent is the time to break down this idol and to direct our attention to our loving Lord.  The question is: Are we like Judas, who was so overcome by his sin that he could not believe in God’s mercy any longer and hanged himself.  Or are we like Peter who returned to his Lord with repentance and cried bitterly for his sins?  The season of Lent, during which winter and spring struggle with each other for dominance, helps us in a special way to cry out for God’s mercy.

-          Henri Nouwen

Thursday after Ash Wednesday

Thursday After Ash Wednesday

What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?

Luke 9:25

Thursday Prayer

The full sacrifice has been made.  Holy blood has been poured out for me.  Christ has offered himself up on the cross in order to restore all of your creation, O God.  All that was necessary to forgive sins has been accomplished by the cross of Christ.  Nevertheless, Lord, you invite me to deny myself and take up crosses of my own.  You beckon for me to die to myself and rise to new life in Christ.  These crosses I carry transform my feeble plans and turn them into your far greater plans.  Amen.

Thursday Meditation 

What is our security base? God or Man? That is what Jesus would ask.  He says that we cannot put our security in God as also in money.  We have to make a choice. Jesus counsels: “Put your security in God.”  We have to make a choice where we want to belong, to the world or to God. Our trust, our basic trust, Jesus teaches, has to be in God.  As long as our real trust in the money, we cannot be true members of the Kingdom… What is the true base of our security?

-          Henri Nouwen

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the season of Lent. Lent is a time when many Christians prepare for Easter by observing a period of fasting, repentance, moderation and spiritual discipline.

Ash Wednesday emphasizes two themes: our sinfulness before God and our human mortality. The service focuses on both themes, helping us to realize that both have been triumphed through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

During some Ash Wednesday services, the minister will lightly rub the sign of the cross with ashes onto the foreheads of worshipers. The use of ashes as a sign of mortality and repentance has a long history in Jewish and Christian worship. Historically, ashes signified purification and sorrow for sins.

It is traditional to save the palm branches from the previous Palm Sunday service to burn to produce ashes for this service. Sometimes a small card or piece of paper is distributed on which each person writes a sin or hurtful or unjust characteristic. The cards are then brought to the altar to be burned with the palm branches. The ash cross on the forehead is an outward sign of our sorrow and repentance for sins.

— Adapted from The United Methodist Book of Worship

Ash Wednesday

By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

Genesis 3:19

Ash Wednesday Prayer

The truth can be hard, Lord.  It is true that I have been formed out of the dust of the earth.  It is true that I live only because your holy breath has filled my empty lungs.  I have life from you and from you alone.  Every day I live is an undeserved gift from you.  Help me to take up my cross and follow you.  The crosses I carry are not mere problems to solve, the crosses I take up are opportunities to patiently and joyfully present my life as living sacrifice.  Teach me the limits of my own existence and fill me with your limitless power.  Amen.

Ash Wednesday Meditation

In prayer we seek God’s voice and allow God’s word to penetrate our fear and resistance so that we can begin to hear what God wants us to know.  And what God wants us to know is that before we think or do or accomplish anything, before we have much money or little money, the deepest truth of our human identity is this: “You are my beloved son.  You are my beloved daughter.  With you I am well pleased.”  When we can claim this truth as true for us, then we also see that it is true for all other people.  God is well pleased with us, and so we are free to approach all people, the rich or the poor, in the freedom of God’s love.. As our prayer deepens into a constant awareness of God’s goodness, the spirit of gratitude grows within us.  Gratitude flows from the recognition that who we are and what we have the gifts to be received and shared.  

Lent Dates to Remember

Calendar of Dates for Lent and Easter 2014

Ash Wednesday - March 5, 2014

First Sunday in Lent - March 9, 2014

Second Sunday in Lent - March 16, 2014

Third Sunday in Lent - March 23, 2014

Fourth Sunday in Lent - March 30, 2014

Fifth Sunday in Lent- April 6, 2014

Palms Sunday - April 13, 2014

Lent Easter Sunday - April 20, 2014