13 February 2016 - no more turning away

[ Today's Readings ]

If you hold back your foot on the sabbath
from following your own pursuits on my holy day;

LORD, teach us to hold back from our own pursuits. We're just not very good at this. We know Sunday should be yours. Yet we give it little more than lip service. It isn't enough to spend an hour with you. If we can only learn to place you at the center we will see our day transformed. And when our day is transformed our week will follow. If we hold back even Sunday from you the rest of the week won't be different.

Teach us to leave our selfishness aside. Teach us concern for others. There is so much that seems necessary in our lives. We become so busy that we have no sense of the needs of others. It's all we can do to stay afloat. Even when our lives intersect with those in need, even when the things we do actually are helpful, our hearts are not engaged because we are trapped within ourselves.

We fail to notice the injustice in our midst. We even fail to notice the injustice in ourselves. We're just so busy and preoccupied. We speak falsely and horde more than we truly need. We ourselves are part of the problem. And we do these things without really noticing. After all, we're just barely getting by. How can we be expected to do more? But the problems of the world are largely the sum of individuals who won't notice what is wrong near them and in their hearts. In order to be the change we want to see in the world we must first see that we are the very brokenness that we want to change.

Jesus said to them in reply,
“Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do.
I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.”

Jesus, we do need a physician! We do! Please, visit us with your healing. Call us and make us to listen! Reveal the parts of our lives where we ignore your call. Show us where we pretend to be well but are in fact direly ill.

Then light shall rise for you in the darkness,
and the gloom shall become for you like midday;
Then the LORD will guide you always
and give you plenty even on the parched land.
He will renew your strength,
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring whose water never fails.

LORD, we want to follow you. We desire your promise. Teach us to lift our souls to you so that we do not fool ourselves. We need not fear to do so, for you are rich in mercy.

For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving,
abounding in kindness to all who call upon you