Not on my own. The words we need today, aren’t they?
Because aren’t we each feeling a little alone? A little isolated? Overwhelmed? My word for how I am feeling is discombobulated. I’m an introvert, but the separation still feels surreal.
Some of my community focused on these words, “not on my own” from Proverbs 3:5 recently at a women’s retreat, and I feel that theme had to have been God ordained. We were thinking of sisterhood, and how we all need each other even in the different roles, life stages, personalities and jobs that might divide us. Never did we think of being separated in order to protect ourselves and our loved ones from a virus.
And yet here we are. Each of us doing our part to keep the numbers low enough that our dear sisters and brothers in the medical field can do their jobs well.
And yet, none of us is on her own.
We have our phones to text each other, our screens to worship together, and our imagination to think up new, safe ways to communicate our sisterhood. While that is all good, it would never be enough without the unbreakable cord of faith, the ever-present Spirit of God that binds us all together no matter our circumstances today.
So we are taking a break from prayers from Jeremiah until I get to the other side of this section where God’s people are rebellious and stubborn. Because our community- we refuse to buy Satan’s lies that God is turning his face away, or that we are alone and unseen or unwanted.
Our community is coming together to pray in online churches and at the ends of our driveways. In Facebook groups and text chats. We are looking for and finding ways to meet the needs of those around us, and we are praising God for his good faithfulness.
Let’s continue to pray that our eyes would be open to the ways we can love and support each other, so that each can say… I am not on my own. We have our sisters, and God has us.
The people were plain crazy. They came to Jeremiah saying they wanted to hear what God said. Jeremiah said sure, but I’m going to tell you everything he says, so are you sure you want to hear it? Yes, yes, tell us what God says, the people beg. So Jeremiah spends ten days seeking God, comes back to tell them the message, and can you even guess how the people responded? They called Jeremiah a liar and did the opposite of what God said.
That’s just crazy! Who would do something like that?
Reading these old stories of the people of Israel, it is so easy to see their foolishness and rebellion. I try to reflect that back on myself though- in what way have I been foolish and rebellious? Would I be the one who would do something like that?
In today’s installment, the people disobeyed using the excuse “that’s not really what God says.”
Do I ever do that? Do we as a people of God? Do we make excuses, or rationalize our behavior or lack of action?
In the days when a large part of the Christian world was Catholic, Fridays were a traditional day of prayer and fasting. Every week, Christians spent time examining their lives, attitudes, behaviors. These rhythms could become rote, or they could become guide rails ushering us to a place of confident vulnerability, where we trust God’s love enough to vulnerably confess all.
So when I look into my heart and soul, and I see there the same foolishness and rebellion I see in the people of this story, I am not afraid of God’s wrath. I am relieved to confess and repent, trusting the restoration he offers through Christ.
Today, this Friday, nothing is as it’s supposed to be. Well, that’s how it seems though it’s not actually true. One thing that can bring comfort is a sense of community, and so today I invite you into a community of saints who have used this day throughout the centuries to examine their lives and repent. And the thing that brings much more than the comfort of community is the truth that our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. So today, standing on that foundation, join me in prayer of repentance. (full text of prayer below)
#prayersformychildren #JeremiahforLent #Lent2020
From The Book of Common Prayer as adapted in Divine Hours
Most holy and merciful Father: I confess to you and to the whole communion of saints in heaven and on earth, that I have sinned by my own fault in thought, word, and deed; by what I have done, and by what I have left undone.
I have not loved you with my whole heart, and mind, and strength. I have not loved my neighbors as myself. I have not forgiven others, as I have been forgiven.
Have mercy on me, Lord. I have been deaf to your call to serve, as Christ served us. I have not been true to the mind of Christ. I have grieved your holy spirit.
Have mercy on me, Lord. I confess to you, Lord, all my past unfaithfulness: the pride, hypocrisy, and impatience of my life.
I confess to you, Lord. My self-indulgent appetites and ways, and my exploitation of other people,
I confess to you, Lord. My anger at my own frustration, and my envy of those more fortunate than I,
I confess to you, Lord. My intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts, and my dishonesty in daily life and work,
I confess to you, Lord. My negligence in prayer and worship, and my failure to commend the faith that is in me,
I confess to you, Lord. Accept my repentance, Lord, for the wrongs I have done: for my blindness to human need and suffering, and my indifference to indulgence and cruelty,
Accept my repentance, Lord. For all false judgments, for uncharitable thoughts toward my neighbors, and for my prejudice and contempt towards those who differ from me,
Accept my repentance, Lord. For my waste and pollution of your creation, and my lack of concern for those who come after us,
Accept my repentance, Lord.
Restore me, good Lord, and let your anger depart from me,
Favorably hear me for your mercy is great.
Accomplish in me and all of your church the work of your salvation,
That I may show forth all your glory in the world. By the cross and passion of your Son, our Lord,
Bring me with all your saints to the joy of his resurrection.
Jeremiah had it rough. All he wanted was for the people of God to act like it, but usually when he passed God’s message along he got thrown into prison or worse. Once, he ended up at the bottom of a muddy well in the middle of a long siege on Jerusalem. His nation was headed for captivity, there was hunger and despair all around.
I don’t know how the current uncertainty of our situation is hitting you, but it’s not an easy time. Not to be melodramatic and say we are under siege or facing captivity, but just to acknowledge- this is hard. We have never faced anything remotely like this. Thinking back three weeks, we had no inkling how much everything would change, or how quickly.
But Jeremiah never quit, and neither will we.
He never quit listening to God, and neither will we.
He never quit praying, and neither will we.
He never quit proclaiming God’s words, and neither will we.
He never quit obeying God’s call, and neither will we.
We have a beautiful, faithful, vocal community of the people of God; unlike in Jeremiah’s day, a lot of us are acting like it. We hear words of hope, songs of joy, messages of faith.
Things may get easier soon, or they may get harder. Either way, we are God’s people. We will continue listening, praying, proclaiming and obeying. Not because we are strong or wise in our own power, but because we are God’s people, living by the power of his Spirit. #prayersformychildren #Lent2020 #JeremiahforLent #prayersinpandemic
You know what God loves? He loves obedience. Today’s story out of Jeremiah tells of a family God promises good things to because of their obedience. Not even their obedience to him- their obedience through many generations to an ancestor. It’s interesting- you can find it in Jeremiah 35.
The other story for today is one of defiant disobedience. God gives Jeremiah a message. Jehoiakim, king of Judah, has kicked Jeremiah out of the temple, so Jeremiah dictates a message to be written on a scroll. Eventually Jehoiakim has the opportunity he needs- the opportunity all of Judah needs. It’s a chance to hear the words of God, repent, and avert the coming disaster. God, through Jeremiah, has been warning and pleading with his people to repent; “perhaps…each one of them will turn from his evil way. Then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin.”
The day comes, and Jehoiakim hears the words of opportunity. The words that would bring freedom and forgiveness. Do you know what he does? It’s so defiantly arrogant! Picture the scene- Jehoiakim, surrounded by sycophants and luxury. A roaring fire, as the king is in his winter quarters. The scribe starts reading. Jehoiakim, after a few minutes of listening, stops him.
Good, right? He is listening, and he wants to consider the words and repent.
But no.
As soon as he hears three or four columns read, “Jehoiakim would cut the scroll with a scribe’s knife and throw the columns into the fire in the hearth until the entire scroll was consumed by the fire in the hearth. As they heard all these words, the king and all of his servants did not become terrified or tear their clothes.”
Tragic disobedience.
We have the gift of these Old Testament stories at least in part so that we can see God’s heart. He longs to shower us with good things- forgiveness, protection, love. But we position ourselves to receive his beautiful gifts only through obedience. May we, and all our children, be a people who obey. #prayersformychildren #JeremiahforLent #Lent2020
The situation was unimaginable. The parallels to our time are not perfect, but they are striking.
Just a generation before, God miraculously delivered the Israelites from the Assyrians, and now Jeremiah is predicting that Israel will not be delivered- that captivity is coming. Yet even in the stark, harsh prophecy of defeat God delivers a message of hope. Soon, God says, you (Jeremiah) will have the opportunity to buy land. Make the purchase and publicize it, then bury the deed where it can be found in the future. This matters because God is telling Jeremiah to spread the message; the Israelites’ land will be taken from them, the people will be taken into exile, and all will be destroyed. What is the point of buying land?
The point is, God is the giver of hope. Yes, there will be suffering and defeat for Israel. But on the other side is restoration and victory.
Today, we are not looking at defeat, but we are looking at a time of massive upheaval. No one needs me to rehash all the ways our situation would have found unimaginable three weeks ago.
The question for today is, what are the signs of hope that God is sending? Can we acknowledge the losses and discomforts, the emotional upheaval all the uncertainties cause, while also acknowledging the hope we see? I think we can, because we are people of faith. One of my favorite descriptions of faith states “when circumstances dictate fear, we choose faith.” (The whole quote from Walter Brueggemann is below).
Hope does not ignore the dark- it looks past the dark to the light. It joins Jeremiah, who just purchased land that is he will never possess, in saying,
“O Sovereign Lord! You made the heavens and earth by your strong hand and powerful arm. Nothing is too hard for you!”
Jeremiah 32:17
And through the difficult, uncertain days hope also hangs onto the promise of God, allowing his work to be complete in our hearts.
“They will be my people, and I will be their God. And I will give them one heart and one purpose: to worship me forever, for their own good and for the good of all their descendants. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good for them. I will put a desire in their hearts to worship me, and they will never leave me. I will find joy doing good for them and will faithfully and wholeheartedly replant them in this land.”
Jeremiah 32:38-41
#prayersformychildren #Lent202 #JeremahforLent #prayersinpandemic
“Faith is not a matter of intellectual content or cognitive belief. It is rather a matter of quite practical reliance upon the assurance of God in a context of risk where one’s own resources are not adequate.” Walter Bruggeman, Isaiah
Lent, every year, is a time to re-evaluate. We examine our lives and our souls, we repent and refocus.
This year, though. This is a whole new level. Is anyone not impacted by the pandemic? Is anyone’s life carrying on as usual?
When is the last time we had an event that affected us- aaallllll of us- at this magnitude?
But some things haven’t changed, and we are all finding out what is really important to us. Reading through Jeremiah, we see suffering and destruction, defeat and exile. Our situation is not nearly as dire, but our need is the same.
We need God. We need to turn to him, we need to repent of any rebellion or sin, and we need restoration. Not because of our current circumstances- just because we are human.
It’s the path of Lent. It’s no different in times of social distancing, business shut-downs, and school closures than it was a week ago when life was normal. But it feels different, because we have new challenges, new problems, and old temptations. New decisions, new uncertainties, and old insecurities.
Let’s keep walking the path of self-examination and repentance, and while we do, let’s remember this beautiful old promise from Jeremiah. I chose it as an anchor at a very young age, so this promise is especially precious to me. It has seen me through all the seasons of my life; may it be an anchor now to us all.
“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them, ” declares the Lord.
“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God, and they will be my people.
No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another,
‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the Lord.
“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Lent, day 19. Also, prayers for my children, pandemic edition. The only words I can use to describe this time are discombobulating and surreal. But I’m a turtle, and when things get weird I pull my head in for a bit. So when my discombobulation started a couple of weeks ago I went silent. Not because I quit praying. But first came an oddly timed vacation with my daughters, then the world erupted and now there is just too much noise.
But we all need a new normal, and for me, that means I write. And God, in his familiar gentle way, has placed the timing perfectly at one of my tip-top favorite passages in my Lent reading of Jeremiah.
For a little background, the Israelites are in captivity because they turned to other powers besides God, worshipping other gods and refusing God’s loving protection (“I thought you would call me Father, and would not turn from following me.”)
Today, we read that God plans to leave them in captivity for seventy years. So, he says, you need to settle in and pursue well being where you are. Hmmm.
Now here it comes. The promise that we can cling to in captivity or in freedom. This is a promise with conditions, but the conditions are entirely within our choosing.
“You will call to me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.
I will be found by you.” Jeremiah 29:12-14a
A lifelong prayer, never more needed than today. #prayersformychildren #JeremiahforLent # Lent2020 #prayersinpandemic
Repentance- the big thing missing in so many of the Old Testament scriptures. Those whom God loved and protected, rescued and established turned away and looked for security from other sources. Worshiped other gods. Followed other priorities, not God’s priorities of justice and righteousness.
God called and called, but the people did not repent.
Lent is the time when we agree we will not be like that. We will do the hard work of looking inward to our own dark corners of our hearts, and we will invite God in to heal and forgive.
Let’s join our voices with the saints throughout the centuries across the globe in confession and repentance.
Thankfully, all those whom I personally know and love in Nashville are safe. But we all have seen the devastation and the grief of those for whom that is not true.
Lent is a time of sobering contemplation, and nothing is more sobering than the suffering and questions that follow such a storm. So today, we join our voices to pray as “we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.” (Romans 12:5).
It’s ok to boast, the Lord says. It’s just that there is only one thing worth boasting about. Not because we are humble or self effacing, but only because nothing else is worthy.
Would you boast in your ability to chew gum? Or your aptitude for brushing your teeth?
We need a lot of skills in life, and each of us have a few talents; that really is a good thing.
But the only thing worth boasting about is knowing God. And I pray that each of us make that our life’s work. #prayersformychildren #lent2020 #JeremiahforLent
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