April 4, 2020

Daily Lectionary Readings for Year A

The readings for today can help us begin our journey into Holy Week.  For three days now we have read Psalm 31:9-16.  This repetitive contemplation of the Psalm is like praying the Scriptures.  Lectio Devina is a spiritual practice of allowing the text to speak to our hearts.  This text has a lot to say.  It speaks of suffering and sorrow, of humiliation and pain, of trust and hope.  These are the prayers of those who are attacked by a deadly virus, as well as those who are hurting in body, mind, and spirit.  

Lamentations is a book in the Bible that weeps.  It contains the prayers and words we say when we are most desperate.  They are the words we speak when we are alone, feeling overwhelmed, or filled with fear and dread.  They are pleadings to God to rescue us in the time of our trial.  In naming the pain and the heartache, lamentations help us find our way through the most difficult times of life.

One person on Twitter posted this yesterday:
My Dad died of Covid 19 almost two weeks ago. I have lost hours of sleep thinking about him dying alone. ​ ​I found out last night that a nurse, a stranger, held his hand during his final minutes.​ ​I hope that nurse could hear me clapping last night. It was for them. 

​Our sorrows and all the worries we are experiencing ​lead us into Holy Week.  In the Gospel of Mark, as Jesus enters Jerusalem, some were amazed while others were afraid.  He goes knowing that suffering and death lie before him.  He goes to overcome the power of death's separation forever.  Jesus is on his way to the cross which soon will become a doorway into the light.  Let us follow.

Please tune in to worship tomorrow at 10 am, or anytime after.  

Peace,
Dean