March 8, 2023

Lent

Scripture Reading: Psalm 95
O come, let us sing to the Lord;
   let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
   let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
For the Lord is a great God,
   and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth;
   the heights of the mountains are his also.
The sea is his, for he made it,
   and the dry land, which his hands have formed.

O come, let us worship and bow down,
   let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
For he is our God,
   and we are the people of his pasture,
   and the sheep of his hand.

O that today you would listen to his voice!
   Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
   as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
when your ancestors tested me,
   and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
For forty years I loathed that generation
   and said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray,
   and they do not regard my ways.’
Therefore in my anger I swore,
   ‘They shall not enter my rest.’—Psalm 95:6-11

I must say my first reaction to this scripture was that I know exactly how you feel, God. I am so tired of what I consider to be hot-button issues drowning out the more important needs in our society. But I do not know how God feels. I cannot image God looking down on God’s creation and seeing people like me thinking we are righteous in our beliefs, while at the same time, God’s children with opposing views think we are the ones who have lost our way. Evil divides us by the simplest of things, such as the grayness of what is right and what is wrong. Where is the oneness Jesus called for in his final prayer for his disciples?  Why are we letting the evil one divide us?

All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. John 17:10-11

Prayer:  Lord, make us whole; make us one. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.