Monday In Holy Week, Morning Prayer
Psalm 51
Lamentations 1:1-2, 6-12
Mark 11: 12-25
In the Lamentations passage begins the Babylonian Exile of Israel. Jerusalem is a city sitting empty of its people, taken away to a far-off land. They disregarded God and his statutes and set themselves to their own pursuits, devoting themselves to idols, false gods. Israel ceased bearing fruit for God's kingdom and a curse was set on them to wither to the hand of Babylon for seventy years.
The lesson from Mark captures a similar image with the fig tree and the temple cleansing. The fig tree that Jesus curses is found withered away as the Israelites were in Jeremiah's time, same as the money-changers in the temple, exchanging Roman currency for Jewish currency; to me that is symbolic of exchanging God's provision for worldliness. Those who place personal ambition over before the will of the Lord will be driven away. That is not to say personal ambition is inherently a bad thing it is when personal ambition takes us away from the pursuit of the things of God, clouding and veiling our sight from him. The passages take me back to a teaching of Jesus in the gospels, separating the wheat from the chaff. There are plenty of other examples illustrating this, the 40 years in the desert in Exodus is probably the greatest depiction in the Old Testament of that parable where those who were grumbling or insolent against Moses were "weeded out." It serves as an example to us who walk the way of the straight and narrow, to keep the course and remain on the path of salvation.
We will fall off from time to time but we need not fear being separated from the Lord. Repentance is gifted to us; as the psalm is written, "The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit; a broken and contrite heart of God, you will not despise." As holy as God and his law is, he will forgive us when we fall short. All we need to do is turn and set ourselves toward Christ. Remember your baptism, remember his death, resurrection, ascension, and mediation. Find comfort in his written Word and in the Sacrament of the Eucharist and if so convicted, go to confession and hear the absolution one-on-one with your priest (or pastor if you're a Lutheran.) Christ died for you, you are dead to sin. With abundant forgiveness given us, so too must we forgive abundantly. Going back to the lesson in Mark, in verse 25, Jesus instructs the disciples in this very act. If our prayers, our worship, is going to be pleasing to God, and if we're going to have a right relationship with him, want to be forgiven, so too must we forgive; go to Matthew 18:15-35. As we pray every Sunday at Eucharist and if you commit to the Daily Office, every day, we pray forgiveness from God as we forgive others their debts against us in the Lord's Prayer.
B
ring to mind what is interfering with you growing closer to the Lord. How does it consume your thoughts, how you act? Does it occupy your activities unceasingly, distracting you from worship or prayer? Is there an in-dwelt affliction caused by someone that needs to be healed through forgiveness? Have you hurt anyone and need to make reparation?
Lamentations 1:1-2, 6-12
Mark 11: 12-25
In the Lamentations passage begins the Babylonian Exile of Israel. Jerusalem is a city sitting empty of its people, taken away to a far-off land. They disregarded God and his statutes and set themselves to their own pursuits, devoting themselves to idols, false gods. Israel ceased bearing fruit for God's kingdom and a curse was set on them to wither to the hand of Babylon for seventy years.
The lesson from Mark captures a similar image with the fig tree and the temple cleansing. The fig tree that Jesus curses is found withered away as the Israelites were in Jeremiah's time, same as the money-changers in the temple, exchanging Roman currency for Jewish currency; to me that is symbolic of exchanging God's provision for worldliness. Those who place personal ambition over before the will of the Lord will be driven away. That is not to say personal ambition is inherently a bad thing it is when personal ambition takes us away from the pursuit of the things of God, clouding and veiling our sight from him. The passages take me back to a teaching of Jesus in the gospels, separating the wheat from the chaff. There are plenty of other examples illustrating this, the 40 years in the desert in Exodus is probably the greatest depiction in the Old Testament of that parable where those who were grumbling or insolent against Moses were "weeded out." It serves as an example to us who walk the way of the straight and narrow, to keep the course and remain on the path of salvation.
We will fall off from time to time but we need not fear being separated from the Lord. Repentance is gifted to us; as the psalm is written, "The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit; a broken and contrite heart of God, you will not despise." As holy as God and his law is, he will forgive us when we fall short. All we need to do is turn and set ourselves toward Christ. Remember your baptism, remember his death, resurrection, ascension, and mediation. Find comfort in his written Word and in the Sacrament of the Eucharist and if so convicted, go to confession and hear the absolution one-on-one with your priest (or pastor if you're a Lutheran.) Christ died for you, you are dead to sin. With abundant forgiveness given us, so too must we forgive abundantly. Going back to the lesson in Mark, in verse 25, Jesus instructs the disciples in this very act. If our prayers, our worship, is going to be pleasing to God, and if we're going to have a right relationship with him, want to be forgiven, so too must we forgive; go to Matthew 18:15-35. As we pray every Sunday at Eucharist and if you commit to the Daily Office, every day, we pray forgiveness from God as we forgive others their debts against us in the Lord's Prayer.
B
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