"I pray for the desire to pray and meditate on behalf of my congregation. May we learn patience, gentleness, compassion, empathy, humility, and tolerance. May we abstain from anger, anxiety, compulsive behaviour, discouragement, and shame. May we come to know Christ as Christ knows us, as made in the image and likeness of God. May we seek justice, love kindness and walk humbly."
Joel 2:12-16
12 Yet even now, says the Lord,
return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
13 rend your hearts and not your clothing.
Return to the Lord, your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,
and relents from punishing.
14 Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,
and leave a blessing behind him,
a grain-offering and a drink-offering
for the Lord, your God?
15 Blow the trumpet in Zion;
sanctify a fast;
call a solemn assembly;
16 gather the people.
Sanctify the congregation;
assemble the aged;
gather the children,
even infants at the breast.
Let the bridegroom leave his room,
and the bride her canopy.
1) "...with all your heart;" "...rend your hearts and not your clothing;" "...gracious and merciful;" "...abounding in steadfast love;" "...relents;" "Blow... sanctify... call... gather... sanctify... assemble... gather..." "...sanctify a fast;" "...the people... the congregation... the aged... the children... infants at the breast... the bridegroom... the bride;"
2) A part of me wants to roll my eyes at the pageantry of "fasting, weeping and mourning," "rending our hearts." But the message is contrition, to genuinely seek reconciliation, to genuinely own our complicit-ness in the systems of wrong doing in the world and to change our allegiance. "With all your heart." I read scripture, not as a window into the past, but as a mirror into our own hearts. Any evil, violence, oppression and injustice we witness in scripture is the capacity for evil, violence, oppression and injustice that resides in our own hearts. It is not enough to rile against the evil they are doing over there. I have no control over the condition of someone else's heart, only my own. And so I am called to model reconciling my own heart with God. How effective are fasting, weeping and mourning? What is their effect?
3) What is the invitation in all this? To return to God. To humbly return to the virtues again and again after I have failed to model them, after others have failed to model them for me.
"Holy One, may we find the joy in humbly returning to you again and again, seeking reconciliation."
Breathprayer: "Return to me... with all your heart."
return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
13 rend your hearts and not your clothing.
Return to the Lord, your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,
and relents from punishing.
14 Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,
and leave a blessing behind him,
a grain-offering and a drink-offering
for the Lord, your God?
15 Blow the trumpet in Zion;
sanctify a fast;
call a solemn assembly;
16 gather the people.
Sanctify the congregation;
assemble the aged;
gather the children,
even infants at the breast.
Let the bridegroom leave his room,
and the bride her canopy.
1) "...with all your heart;" "...rend your hearts and not your clothing;" "...gracious and merciful;" "...abounding in steadfast love;" "...relents;" "Blow... sanctify... call... gather... sanctify... assemble... gather..." "...sanctify a fast;" "...the people... the congregation... the aged... the children... infants at the breast... the bridegroom... the bride;"
2) A part of me wants to roll my eyes at the pageantry of "fasting, weeping and mourning," "rending our hearts." But the message is contrition, to genuinely seek reconciliation, to genuinely own our complicit-ness in the systems of wrong doing in the world and to change our allegiance. "With all your heart." I read scripture, not as a window into the past, but as a mirror into our own hearts. Any evil, violence, oppression and injustice we witness in scripture is the capacity for evil, violence, oppression and injustice that resides in our own hearts. It is not enough to rile against the evil they are doing over there. I have no control over the condition of someone else's heart, only my own. And so I am called to model reconciling my own heart with God. How effective are fasting, weeping and mourning? What is their effect?
3) What is the invitation in all this? To return to God. To humbly return to the virtues again and again after I have failed to model them, after others have failed to model them for me.
"Holy One, may we find the joy in humbly returning to you again and again, seeking reconciliation."
Breathprayer: "Return to me... with all your heart."
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