Lent 5: Worship

 As we are nearing the end of Lent, we hear the story of Mary anointing Jesus’ feet. We cannot physically touch and anoint Jesus. However, as the collect for Sunday, notes we can remember that among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found. We keep our hearts on Jesus in our prayer and service. Then like Mary and Martha, we do worship and anoint Jesus.

The Gospel (John 12:1-8) tells us of Mary’s extravagant gesture of love. We hear that Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. This is not only an expensive gift, but a very intimate action. The cost was likely around a year’s wages (300 denarii) at the time. Mary’s act of wiping Jesus’ feet with her hair could even have been considered wanton by those in the room. (Certainly, Judas finds it offensive.)

In our worship, are we willing to be extravagant and even wanton? Sometimes, we err on the side of decorum rather than doing something simple like lifting holy hands in prayer. (1 Timothy 2:8) Mary’s action gives us permission to offer all of ourselves to God when we pray and serve. In this image of Mary anointing Jesus (from Bing images), we see her anointing and adoring the roughest and dirtiest part of her Lord.

 

In my book, Sacred Story: Yours, Mine, Ours, I focus on the earlier incident where Mary and Martha meet and minister to Jesus. (Luke 10:38-42) Although Mary is often pointed to as the paragon of faith by sitting at Jesus’ feet, “each of these women was an apostle in her own right. Each used her gifts in the service of God.” I note, “Mary and Martha demonstrate that there is more than one way to offer God’s love. Some of us may share love in active pursuits like teaching and housework. Others may be more comfortable with prayer or song. The important thing is to serve in love... [Mary and Martha] responded in different ways to Jesus. We are inheritors of their inspiration to pray and to serve.”

Do (or how do) Mary and Martha, in their differing responses to Jesus, encourage you in your life and ministry to pray and serve?

I offer this prayer from the Rev. Leslie Scoopmire, in closing: “Blessed Teacher, may we sit at your feet and be transformed to follow your Way. May we seek to serve others with gratitude. Unite within us the desire to learn and the willingness to serve like Mary and Martha in their work for the kingdom of God. Give us Martha hands and Mary hearts, opening our minds and spirits to serve you and be guided by you. Let us proclaim your glory in words and actions. Make us your hands and your loving wisdom in the world. Amen”

Lent: Pray for Social Order

 We are almost at the end of our Lent journey of praying for the World, Church, Nation, Social Order, Natural Order, and Family as suggested by prayers at the end of the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer (BCP) and the Episcopal Church’s 2021 Lent curriculum: Life Transformed: The Way of Love in Lent, which is exploring the seven disciplines of the Way of Love.

Today we will think about how our Worship and our work for Social Justice are linked. The song Start Right Here by Casting Crowns speaks of the ways we can ‘do’ church but asks are we really? The lyrics say, “We want our blessings in our pockets/ We keep our missions overseas/ But for the hurting in our cities/ Would we even cross the street?... What if the church on Sunday/ Was still the church on Monday too/ What if we came down from our towers/ And walked a mile in someone's shoes?”

In the Lent curriculum reading for this week (Zephaniah 3:12-20), “we are called let go of our fears so that we might truly WORSHIP God. In a world beset by violence, hunger, exploitation, and oppression, this is no easy task…Do not fear, O Zion … he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love. (Zephaniah 3:16-17) Here we see that God intends to turn all our fear into rejoicing, which means our worship should well up as an overwhelming act of gratitude.”

It can be easy to Worship joyfully and without fear when everything is going smoothly. This last year has been anything but smooth. We have been assaulted by pandemic, social unrest, political wrangling and rhetoric, economic challenges, and the recognition of much injustice in our society. Fear has lurked in the background, ready to pounce, as we read or watch the news. Even our regular Worship has been interrupted. We have had to find new ways of worshipping and of gathering and of working together.

The Lent curriculum notes that it was much the same for the disciples, “by the time Jesus’ life is ending, when faced with the possibility of following him to the cross, the disciples are once again filled with fear.” It was only on Easter, “when they are reunited with the resurrected Jesus, the doors of a new future are flung open and they return to a stance of gratitude and worship. Their fear of eternal death, as well as our own, has been buried in the empty tomb. We are invited to rejoice and let our gratitude for the gift of new life draw us to worship God.”

Easter this year may still not be within the walls of our churches, but we can still rejoice in God’s love. This year of challenges has made many of us aware of the hidden depths of injustice and inequality still to be faced. How can we use our worship to prepare us to do the work we are called to in the Baptismal covenant?

Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?

Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?

Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?

We respond to each of these “I will, with God's help.” How then do we live? Where do we find hope to conquer our fears? In what ways can we actively proclaim the Good News, love our neighbors, and work for justice and peace?

The Casting Crowns song says, “if we want to see a change in the world out there/ It's got to start right here/ It's got to start right now.”

For me, it starts by being grounded in God and finding things to be grateful for, even in the pandemic and turmoil. Things like family, friends, sunshine, and even technology that keeps us connected. The Lent curriculum suggests, “write down at least five things every day for which you are grateful. They can be very small, but they should be things that make you appreciate the gift of life we have from God. At the end of the week, bring this list to worship and place it in the offering plate as an act of grateful worship.”

When we can turn from fear and truly Worship, then we will be freed to reach out to those who need to know the touch of God, the touch of Christ. We can be that touch, we can build bridges and find common ground. We can walk what Presiding Bishop Curry calls the Way of Love as Beloved Community.

The closing prayer from the Lent curriculum calls us to love and service:

O God and Father of all, whom the whole heavens adore: Let the whole earth also worship you, all nations obey you, all tongues confess and bless you, and men and women everywhere love you and serve you in peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer, p. 124)

The Prayer for Social Justice on page 823 of the BCP calls us to the same work:

Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so move every human heart [and especially the hearts of the people of this land], that barriers which divide us may crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that our divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

You may want to pray these two prayers throughout the week as you think about how our fearless worship and action might transform us and those around us.

Next week is Palm Sunday. We'll finish our series with prayers for our families and the imperative to 'Go'. 

Epiphany: Worship

This week in our Epiphany series we come to the discipline of Worship. Over the pat 3 weeks, we’ve looked at the Way of Love practices of Learn, Go, and Bless. Worship is another core component of any life of faith. It can take many forms, too. 

Worship is a time of drawing near to God, whether it is in a grand Cathedral, or a tiny prayer gathering. The communal act of worship joins us with others and with God who promises “where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them." (Matthew 18:20)

We know Jesus took time to Worship. In the lesson this Sunday from the Gospel of Luke (4:14-21) we learn that Jesus “returned to Galilee…When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.’ And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’”

Jesus went to the synagogue in the town where he grew up to worship. It was just a regular Sabbath service, nothing special. As is the right of any adult Jewish man, he was invited to read the scripture. He had likely done this many times before. He ’unrolled the scroll” and read Isaiah 61. As customary, following the reading, he could give an interpretation or sermon on the lesson. Jesus amazed everyone by stating, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’

It's a pretty radical claim for the carpenter's son! In next week’s lesson (and on this blog), you’ll discover that the men in the synagogue didn’t like this statement. They renounced him and attempted to literally throw him out of town.

When we claim our God-given gifts we may not find them welcomed by the home town crowd. There can be too much familiarity to see the new person we have become. The addict who is now clean, the paroled criminal, the mother turned entrepreneur, the hometown kid who makes it big--each of these has an uphill battle when they return home. People have a hard time seeing past ‘little Suzie with the pigtails’ to the sports star or successful business owner she has become. The people of Nazareth had the same problem when Jesus claimed to be fulfilment of one of the scriptures pointing to Messiah.

It can be difficult to claim, or even recognize, who we are in God. Worship is one way to help figure that out. In a community at worship, we can find encouragement and discernment. The worship of a group helps put life in perspective as we come before God with awe and wonder. Worship helps us put God back in the center. Worship moves me to the proper position of child of God, not CEO of the universe.

At the end of our time of worship, ideally, we find ourselves feeling more capable. As the D365 meditation on January 22 says, we are to: “Go, a disciple, called and sent. Go, a disciple, equipped for justice. Go, a disciple blessed in the strong name of God: one holy and undivided Trinity. Amen.” 

The same meditation begins with a quote from the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. He states, “Vocation is, you could say, what’s left when all the games have stopped. It’s that elusive residue that we are here to discover, and to help one another discover. (Rowan Williams in A Ray of Darkness: Sermons and Reflections (1995))

It is in and through and during worship--in and through and during dedicated time with God, that we can help one another discern vocation. In worship, we can begin to look past our differences and how ‘little Suzie’ might have changed to acknowledge and support one another on our faith journeys.

Jesus used the context of a worship service to announce his vocation, his calling. The people were amazed. As we grow in God, people may be amazed at the changes in us.

Do you find yourself strengthened as you worship?

How do you respond to Rowan Williams' definition of vocation?

Can you help someone discern their vocation, or can your worship community help you discern your own?  

Prayer of course is part of worship, and we will look at the Way of Love call to pray next week.