Walk With Jesus: Holy Week 2020-Wednesday

This week, I'll be posting a study: Walk with Jesus: Holy Week 2020. You can download the entire study, or just visit this page every day. (If you download the pdf, you should be able to print it 2 pages to a sheet (8.5 x 11) if you set it to landscape.)
We'll journey through Israel, pausing to read and reflect at various events of His life and ministry. These events took place at specific locations, so you’ll learn a bit about Israel in 30AD, too. There are questions to inspire you to meditate on your response to Jesus’ ministry and how that may be different this year due to self-isolation and social distancing. After completing the daily study, take time to reflect and journal on the questions. If you are doing this study with friends, share you insights with each other. Each session has an activity to do as well to help you move faith into action.
Close each session with the prayer in the lesson.

Opening Prayer

Lord Jesus, walk with me and open my heart to what you would have me learn from these lessons. Amen.

Power of Christ (Wednesday): Bethlehem & Bethany

Power can have many meanings and connotations. The people of Israel in Jesus’ time had good reason to fear the powerful, esp. the Romans. A soldier could coerce anyone into working. The average person had no rights. Beatings and death were common ways power was exerted. Currently, the Coronavirus has a certain power over our actions. It is also causing us to try new ways of doing things, so it is both good and bad.

Power is also positive. We need electric power to run our homes. The power of nature can awe us, even though it can be destructive. Jesus had spiritual power, which he used to heal and also to confront the religious establishment. It got him into trouble.

Do you think of Power as mostly a positive or negative thing? How about the Coronavirus?

The southern part of Israel, called Judea, was under control of the Roman procurator, Pontius Pilate. Rome had installed Pontius Pilate as procurator in 26CD to keep the fragile peace. His uses of power to keep order were hated by the Jews. It was in this area that Jesus performed his greatest works of power.

Read  Luke 13:1-9

Jesus uses the example of those killed by Pilate and by the disaster of the tower falling to urge repentance not revolt. How do you respond to evil in the world?

What good do you see could come from the current Coronavirus responses?

Bethlehem is a little town nestled in the hills five miles south of Jerusalem. It is closely linked to the capital. The name Bet Leven means House of Bread and the wheat grown here is used for the shewbread in the temple.

The nearby hills are home to the temple shepherds and their flocks. The little fat-tailed sheep that dot the hills provide lambs for the temple sacrifices. They must be entirely white, without any spot of another color. During lambing season, the numerous hill caves are used to shelter the ewes and newborn lambs from the chill spring winds.

Bethlehem is revered as the ancestral home of the family of David. No Hebrew child in Israel is unaware of the story of Ruth from Moab. This famous great-grandmother of King David came to Bethlehem with her mother-in-law, Naomi, after both women were widows. In obedience to the Law, she gleaned grain in the barley and wheat fields during the harvests. Here she met Boaz who offered her the protection of marriage.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem during the rule of Herod the Great. His birth caused a great tragedy in the area.

Read  Matthew 2:1-18

Being of the house of David was an honor to the ancient Jews. How much greater honor is it to be of the ‘house and lineage’ of Christ?

What harm do we do, knowingly or unknowingly, out of fear?

North of Bethlehem lies Bethany. This small village is almost a suburb of Jerusalem. The name means “House of Dates” because of the many date palm trees in the area. The branches are used to make the booths during the Feast of Booths (Succoth) every fall. The leaves are also used to make baskets and for thatching the roofs of the houses.

Scribes and some temple priests make their home in Bethany because it is so close to Jerusalem and the duties of the temple, without the dust and crowds of the larger city. Many wealthy families live in the estates in and around the town. 

Bethany was the home of Jesus’ friend Lazarus who he raised from the dead. This miracle was the catalyst that convinced the Jewish leaders that Jesus had to die.

Read  John 11:45-53

The priests were trying to protect the status quo. Is there something you are protecting?

Are you afraid, or do you have confidence in Christ at this time?

Take Action:

Prayer is a powerful activity. Use the Doxology and pray through the alphabet, adding 3 or 4 things for each letter that offer praise to God. For instance, for ‘A’:

Praise God from whom all blessing flow, praise God all [anteaters, anglers, angels, and albatross].

Praise God above you heavenly host, Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

(Then continue with ‘B’, ‘C’, etc.)

Prayer Today

 Lord Christ, I want you to be in charge of my life, but I can become fearful that you will ask too much of me, so I try to save my life just like the Roman and Jewish leaders did. Help me to trust you with my life. Amen.

Prayer for Wednesday of Holy Week

Lord God, whose blessed Son our Savior gave his body to be whipped and his face to be spit upon: Give us grace to accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time, confident of the glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Lord's Prayer: For Thine is the Kingdom, the Power, the Glory

Since the beginning of June, we’ve been ‘unpacking’ each line of the Lord’s Prayer. We have explored heaven (June 18) and asked for our daily bread (July 16). We’ve looked at how to ‘hallow’ God’s name (June 25) and offered ourselves to bring God’s will to earth (July 9). We’ve seen that God’s Kingdom (July 2) comes partly through our ability to forgive and receive forgiveness (July 23, 30). The past couple of weeks have been devoted to praying for protection from temptation and evil.

Today we consider the final phrase of the prayer “For Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever”. It is a summary of all the rest of the lines of the Lord’s Prayer. As some commentators note, it is a doxology of praise. In this last section, we return to praising God, as at the start. We acknowledge that God alone has the Power and Glory. Only God can accomplish all that we have asked. It is interesting to note that in the Luke version of the prayer (Luke 11:2-4) this phrase is absent. In some translations of the Matthew citation (Matthew 6:9-13) it is also absent with the note that this doxology was added early on by the church. Likely the early church fathers thought that the prayer should have some nice and tidy way to end.

Enter the Presence: This ending Doxology is a good reminder that to God do belong the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory. Saint Irenaeus, a second century bishop, wrote: “The glory of God is a human being fully alive.”

We are reminded in the Old Testament that “the sight of the glory of the LORD was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel.” (Exodus 24:17) The New Testament encourages us to participate in that glory. In the First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul says “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31) The Philippians are urged to have “every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:11) Our every action is to be a doxology of its own-a hymn of praise in action to God.

Of course, as Paul tells the Roman community “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23). Still, the Colossians are encouraged because we are those “to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27) Because Christ is in each of us, we can in fact be human beings, fully alive.

Stand In Awe: How awesome to think that we are, as Saint Irenaeus said, “the glory of God”, and we are to live and confess God in that Glory. Take a moment to think about what it means to have the glory of God in you. Look around you, sit in your garden and listen, smell, hear, see all around the glory of God in birds, grass, flowers, sky, sound. Everything proclaims the glory of God, if we pause to see it.

Barbara Brown Taylor talks about this in her book An Altar in the World. She notes, “the last place most people look [for God] is right under their feet, in the everyday activities, accidents, and encounters of their lives.” She suggests letting yourself get lost and get out of the daily routines of the same routes. When you do, you “agree to become aware of each step you take, tuning all of your senses to exactly where you are and exactly what you are doing.”

Involve your Heart: “Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory” says the Lord’s Prayer doxology. Take some time to be really aware of God all around you. Get off the normal, beaten path, and try a new route, or a new prayer routine, or a new version of the Bible.

Write the word ‘Glory’ or ‘Power’ or ‘Kingdom’ in the center of a paper. Add words or images that come to mind when you think of that word.

Color the tree of life image from Pinterest in this blog, or find your own image, and think about what being the Glory of God means to you.

This week focus on “Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever”. Next week, we will take a quick look at ‘Amen’.

Advent III-Power

Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

Welcome to the Third week of Advent. We’ve been looking at the Collects (prayers) for each Sunday from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. 

This week, we consider the power of God and what that means for us, and for Joseph of Nazareth. The power of God changed his life in dramatic ways.

This Sunday is also "Rose Sunday", more properly called Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete is the Latin for 'Rejoice' and the readings today call us to Rejoice in the Lord (Philippinas 4:4-6). When there is seemingly much darkness in the world, we are called to rejoice and remember the 'great power' of our God! As a visible symbol of this, we light the one rose colored candle on our Advent wreaths, and many churches include pink roses in the altar flowers. Some priests wear rose colored vestments, too, instead of the normal Advent purple. 

Download this week’s Advent chain. 

The chain for the first week and second week can also be downloaded.