Sunday-Ps.95 starts as a praise psalm, on God as Redeemer and Creator, somewhat surprising for this penitential season.It’s here as a link to our reading of Ex. 17.Now it shifts abruptly and is fearful that we do not trust god any more than did the people in the wilderness. When do you find a trust in God, and when is that trust shaken?
Monday-Some people have put that together with the idea of Jesus being punished for our sins on the assumption that when an animal was sacrificed, the person who brought the sacrifice deserved to be punished and perhaps killed when the animal was being killed in their place. Now that idea may have had some currency in the pagan world but that doesn't seem to be what's going on in the Jewish sacrificial cult. For a start, the animals are not killed on the altar. The animals are killed elsewhere, and that isn't so important. What is important is that the blood which is collected is used as a purifying agent to purify not only the worshipers but also the temple furniture, and so on. The result is that the stain of death, which comes from human corruption and the corruption of the present material world, is covered by the life which is the blood. That seems to be what's going on in Leviticus.
Tuesday-William Blake said, “As a man is, so he sees. As the eye is formed, such are its powers.”
Wednesday-Jinkins-"If we read carefully, we note that the fruit of the Spirit is not miracles or mighty acts of ethical behavior, but rather deep-seated traits of personal character. ... What the Spirit does is nurture within us those traits of character that will express themselves naturally in the way we choose to behave." (Lindsey, Charter, 131.)Paul reminds us that the symbol of the Christian faith is not a castle but a cross. He reminds us that we do not live for ourselves, but are called "to be to others what Christ has become for us," as George MacLeod once wrote.
Thursday-“Hildegard described vices as the twisted form of the virtues so that the more we come to know our own ‘vices’, which we might call compulsions or stuck places, the more we can come to know the other side of those that is our heart’s deep desire, our longing to respond to the world from love. It comes down to the distinction between ego cravings and soul desires.”
Friday-"Search me, penetrating Spirit.Drag the depths for the sunken accumulations of my life.Retrieve it all:the old unhealed wounds,the memories I have tried to keep from you, who alone can remedy and smooth.Receive my sacrifice of grudges, the sludge of unforgiveness.The slights I hoard like old green pennies,the pettiness I practice to protect myself from pain. I offer you the worthless cache of my spirit's cuts and bruises, the elaborate self-deceptions that have long outlived their use. Take what you find in the sodden sea chest of my mind, and show it all to me.Let me see what I've submerged:what I ought to salvage "(Rachel Srubas,)
Saturday-I cannot do this alone.In me there is darkness,But with you there is light;I am lonely, but you do not leave me;I am feeble in heart, but with you there is help;I am restless, but with you there is peace. In me there is bitterness, but with you there is patience; I do not understand your ways, But you know the way for me….Restore me to liberty,And enable me to live now (Bonhoeffer Lenten prayer)
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