Marked by Ashes

Ruler of the Night, Guarantor of the day . . .
This day — a gift from you.
This day — like none other you have ever given, or we have ever received.
This Wednesday dazzles us with gift and newness and possibility.
This Wednesday burdens us with the tasks of the day, for we are already halfway home
halfway back to committees and memos,
halfway back to calls and appointments,
halfway on to next Sunday,
halfway back, half frazzled, half expectant,
half turned toward you, half rather not.

This Wednesday is a long way from Ash Wednesday,
but all our Wednesdays are marked by ashes —
we begin this day with that taste of ash in our mouth:
of failed hope and broken promises,
of forgotten children and frightened women,
we ourselves are ashes to ashes, dust to dust;
we can taste our mortality as we roll the ash around on our tongues.

We are able to ponder our ashness with
some confidence, only because our every Wednesday of ashes
anticipates your Easter victory over that dry, flaky taste of death.

On this Wednesday, we submit our ashen way to you —
you Easter parade of newness.
Before the sun sets, take our Wednesday and Easter us,
Easter us to joy and energy and courage and freedom;
Easter us that we may be fearless for your truth.
Come here and Easter our Wednesday with
mercy and justice and peace and generosity.

We pray as we wait for the Risen One who comes soon.

Taken from Walter Brueggemann’s Prayers for a Privileged People (Nashville: Abingdon, 2008), pp. 27-28.

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O God the King of glory, you have raised your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph into your kingdom:  we beg you, do not leave us comfortless, but send your Holy Spirit to strengthen us and raise us to the place where our Saviour Christ is gone before, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. AMEN.Related Posts:

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God of flaming truth and burning compassion, give us courage to turn to you with awe.  You are so holy, we are so common. You are so beautiful, we are so shabby. Enable us to turn, turn, turn!  Grant us grace to prepare the way for your coming.  As we embody righteousness and peace in an eternal kiss, may we see high ridges leveled, canyons filled up, a smooth path and level way for the Coming One.  As we turn to you, turn to us we pray, and in the light of your presence let us find our true love and worship.  We pray this through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit; one God forever and ever.  AMEN.Related Posts:

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Christ our King, it is so right to give you thanks and praise always for all you do and all you are.  We give thanks for your immeasurable power at work in us to clothe us in compassion and righteousness, so that we might be fit for the kingdom which you prepared for us from the foundation of the world.  Grant us the grace to participate in that kingdom here on earth as it is with you.  We pray this through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit; one God forever and ever.  AMEN.Related Posts:

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Merciful God, forgive us for trusting in ourselves more than you.  Show us your compassion, as we turn toward you again; remind us of your faithfulness and grant us the grace to risk our lives in you.  We like to take the reigns of life ourselves.  We can’t seem to consistently live out a cooperative faith.  But like Deborah and Barak, like the good servants our Lord spoke of, like the church at Thessalonica, fashion us to communally live in the light of the grace you have shed on us.  We pray this through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit; one God forever and ever.  AMEN.Related Posts:

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Readings for the week:
Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25
Psalm 78:1-7
I Thessalonians 4:13-18
Matthew 25:1-13

Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25

For a people who spent a generation on the move, this text is the call to stay put in the land YHWH promised their forebears, and to serve the LORD their God alone.  Joshua reminds the people several times here to serve God alone.

Joshua knows that it is all too easy for us to fall back on what we’ve known and miss experiencing the new.  Joshua had witnessed these people complaining while in the wilderness.  He had heard them beg to go back to Egypt, because liberation was not what they thought it would be.  He knew they fashioned a god into something they were comfortable with–a golden calf–when God Almighty became uncomfortable.

Joshua knows this history and so when the people vow, “Yes, of course we’ll serve God and God alone,” Joshua challenges them:  “You can’t do it; you’re not able to worship the LORD. He is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He won’t put up with your fooling around and sinning.”

Have we held to our vow any better?  Don’t think on just an individual basis, think on a communal level.  Has your family, your neighborhood, your faith community, your tribe worshipped the LORD our God alone?  Have I and my family?

Or have we rather served the gods of money, stability, status quo, government, politics, career, prestige, opinion?

What a great text to call us again to answer this simple and profound question:  Who owns you?  And to answer that question, it seems we need to look at what has consumed our time, energy, resources, thoughts, and feelings this past week, month, year?

The apostle James spoke truth when he admonished the Church to let their actions speak.  For a credible communal life speaks louder than any words.

Psalm 78:1-7

Lest we ever forget our mission, the psalmist here poetically calls us to account: Trust in God; never forget the works of God, but keep his commands to the letter.

This text is like a guide to the drama of our lives.  We are to be constantly in dress rehearsal mode.  Rehearse the acts of God to our children, over and over and over again.  Why?  So that we are ready when God reveals himself.  By rehearsing the acts of our LORD, we remind ourselves–whether we are on the mountaintop, in the valley, or in exile–that our God is real, our God cares for us, our God will redeem us, our God will act.

The surprising part is the mystery of how God acts.  Unless we have been rehearsing God’s story, we might miss the “how;” because God often surprised us in how he chooses to redeem.

I Thessalonians 4:13-18

This text has spawned quite a bit of theologically irresponsible notions, such as the rapture.  The Left Behind series is testament to that.  Did you know the word “rapture” does not appear in Scripture?  In fact, the very idea that we will leave this earth at the Second Coming of Christ is not biblical at all.

Stop, take a breath.  I know that sounds heretical.  But read the entire Book of the Revelation.  Especially the ending chapters.  It’s clear that the Revelation of Jesus Christ to John is about the end our salvation story.  And we will not be leaving.  Instead, Christ will return to this world in bodily form, making a new heaven and a new earth, and we will dwell with Jesus in this newly reconciled world!  What a concept.

A biblical view of the end of story does not trivilize salvation as some “get out of earth and hell” card.  Instead, salvation history is the story of God reconciling all things … ALL THINGS … to himself.  How?  I don’t know.  But he’s promised to do it:  “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.”

Paul’s emphasis in this text is not on the particulars of the Advent of Christ.  Then what is it on?  Hope.  Paul is encouraging people who have legitimate questions about what comes after death that even in death we will not be out of God’s care.  What a joy to know that because of Christ even death cannot separate us from the faithful love of our Creator.

And Paul urges us to encourage each other continually in light of this great hope.

Matthew 25:1-13

Are we ready to rejoice?  Do we live in a state of expectant joy?  In these final weeks before we celebrate the beginning of the Church Year with Advent, the theme of waiting is already beginning.

There are two ways to wait on the LORD:

1. In a sleepy state, sadly unprepared, or …
2. Ready, joyful, expectant.

This wonderful story Jesus tells of the ten bridesmaids illustrates two different ways to live life: in the kingdom or unaware of the kingdom.  Imagine if we actually lived like our prayer “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” we already being answered in a multitude of ways?  What if we lived like the kingdom of Christ was already breaking into this world?

Guess what … it is!  That is the statement of Christ’s Resurrection.  The world as we have known it has ended.  Death will not win.  God’s care cannot be stifled.  We can never fall out of God’s grace.  Yes, we can reject it, we can choose not to lean into the Spirit’s presence.  But God’s grace is extended to us in all ways in all places.

Do we see it?  Do we see this reality of heaven on earth breaking through the cracks of our false realities?  Jesus preached a kingdom where the poor are cared for, the disenfranchised are the important people in the community, the naked are clothed, the hungry are fed, the blind are given sight.  Where is this happening around us?  When we see it, we should recognize is as the presence of Jesus the Nazarene!

Better yet, we should be part of it.  We should be like the five bridesmaids who were eagerly waiting for the groom.  We should have our lights on, joyful, ready to break out in song and dance when one of the least of these is comforted.

——

Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com

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Creator and Redeemer of all souls, we have joy at this time in all who have faithfully lived, and in all who have peacefully died for the cause of your Kingdom.  We thank you for all happy memories and all living hopes; for the dear and holy dead who surround us like a cloud of witnesses and make the mystical union of your children home to our hearts.  By your saving grace, may we follow those who already inherit your promise.  We pray this through Christ Jesus our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit; One God, now and forever.  AMEN.

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Readings for the week:

Deuteronomy 34:1-12
Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17
1 Thessalonians 2:1-8
Matthew 22:34-46

Painted Prayer Book

Deuteronomy 34:1-12

With a background in theatre and a call to preach, I see much in Scripture through the lens of a storyteller.  It is after all God’s story.  This conclusion to the Torah is a very conflicted ending.  It’s a bit like watching a movie that gives you no catharsis, but requires the audience to work out the catharsis after the credits roll.

Moses finally gets his people to this land of promise: it’s just on the other side of the river!  After 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, suffering endless complaints, doing his best to obey God (though sometimes failing in that), being misunderstood by the people he’s trying to lead, going to bat for those people with God when God gets angry … after all this Moses only gets to see the promised land and then die.  It seems so unfair.  But as we turn the page and see the struggles Joshua has in leading the people once in the promised land, I wonder if it isn’t a blessing that Moses doesn’t have to endure anymore.  I can’t imagine how disappointed Moses would be to discover that these self-seeking group of “YHWH’s people” still whine and complain and fear and don’t believe even when they arrive in the promised land.  Or, maybe I can imagine it …

There’s also something here of how Moses equipped the next leader.  While Moses was still the leader, he spent a ton of time with Joshua.  Joshua was prepared for leadership.  Perhaps the people complained, “Moses spends all his time with Joshua, and Aaron, and that crowd … Why doesn’t he visit our tent too?”  What they did not understand is that Moses was pouring his time and energy into good soil that was willing to be equipped for the future good of the people.

Another note on this text … The people mourned Moses’ death for 30 days and then the time of mourning was over.  They moved on.  They didn’t force Joshua to walk around in Moses’ shadow.  Any pastors in the organizational church out there feel like your predecessor is still around because you here said predecesor’s name all the time?  Thought so.  The Church can take a cue from our sacred history here as to how we are to grieve the loss of former leadership and move on to embrace the new.

Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17

In our current culture of US America, it seems we whole-heartedly embrace the notion of individual entitlement from birth (life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and so forth).  The Psalmist here reminds us that such a narrative has no place in the Christian story.

We aren’t owed happiness and stress-free life.  We are God’s.  And as God’s people we will flourish and wither; we will suffer and experience joy.  It’s a both/and reality, not an either/or.

I wonder how many local parishes are missing the divine life of Christ because they refuse to endure withering and suffering?  Will we walk through life with our eyes wide open to our call to Christ’s passion?  Will we embrace the God of night so that we can realize the God of day?  Will we suffer as little-Christ’s or despair that our suffering isn’t “fair?”

We can see how Moses endured, walking close to God through disappointment, sacrifice, discouragement, suffering, misunderstanding, disobedience, and eventually his death.

1 Thessalonians 2:1-8

Paul’s letters to the church at Thessalinica are powder kegs for leaders.  Paul pushes back against allegations falsely made of him.  He endures the suffering inflicted by others’ pride, selfishness, or ignorance; but he still lets them know that they are not acting like Christ’s church.

It’s unfortunate that accusations of deceit and the absence of equitable respect for labor are not limited to the early church.  Yet, even when we contemporary leaders find ourselves in these shoes, we have Paul’s example (follow me as I follow Christ).  He continued to preach the truth of the Gospel, even if the people refused to hear it or except it.  Paul then determined which churches and leaders were good soil (that is to say, who would embrace the paradoxical and uncomfortable truth of the Gospel) and put his energy into them.  Do you see a trend here?

Finally, our efforts to share the gospel in word and deed must be motivated by love of God and love of others.  The false requirements of institutions (numbers, money, prestige, toeing the line, etc.) must be dismissed in light of the truth of the Gospel.  And, unfortunately, this will require suffering for those who endeavor to do so.

Matthew 22:34-46

If we Christ-followers could encourage each other to live like this text demands, we might see the world turned upside down!  But oh, how hard it is (once again) to acknowledge that all of God’s story hinges on loving our Lord with our everything and loving our neighbors, too.

Why not pose this open-ended statement to those in your faith community:

If I love you as myself, I would …

Ask someone to make that statement and end the sentence.  Do it yourself.

Let’s get real … being the Church hinges on one simple request: Love God and love others.  That’s it! So in this present world financial crisis, what would loving God and loving others look like?

• Maybe we downsize our homes and vehicles so that we can support others’ needs.
• Maybe we live well under our means with the goal of blessing our neighbors as much as possible.
• Maybe a few of us get together and decide to stop tithing to a building program, or an organization, or an institution, but we decide to live off half our income and give the other half away to the poor, the disenfranchised, the ignored.

Hey, I’m convicted by these statements, so don’t think I’m suggesting what I’m already doing.  But I am seeking to let my whole life (and that means my family finances) speak to the reality of Christ and the truth of the Gospel.

At the least, when we focus so much energy on others, they might just know God by our outpouring of love … and we might become a little less stuck on our lives, our stuff, our agendas, our desires … on us!

——

Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com

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Most holy Friend, giver of faith and sharer of wondrous love, please strengthen in us an undivided loyalty to you.  Out of that first loyalty, let us find the wisdom to fulfil all our small obligations with generosity and patience, not counting the cost but giving our best to the world for which Christ has paid the ultimate price.  We pray this through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit; One God, now and forever.  AMEN.

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