Weekly Meditations and Prayer Prompts, February 12-18, 2023

Sunday, February 12, 2023 Sixth Sunday after Epiphany

Matthew 5:21-26 (ESV)

You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny. 

Prayer prompt:  Jesus doubles down.  The laws and traditions that were codified a long time ago are good, so far as they go, but Jesus demands more from his followers.  Of course you should stop short of murder (that’s one of the big ten), but Jesus says to stop short of harboring anger, hurling insults (on Twitter), and calling people names.  And Jesus doesn’t end with prohibitions of these behaviors, however defined and subtle.  Jesus adds the positive command: reconcile.  Reconciliation requires a willingness to compromise, even with people who are wrong.  Jesus doubles down.  Pray today for the courage and commitment to live in the way of Jesus, and to reconcile with anyone who has something stuck in their craw about you.

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Monday, February 13, 2023

Genesis 4:17-26 (ESV)

Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. When he built a city, he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch. To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad fathered Mehujael, and Mehujael fathered Methushael, and Methushael fathered Lamech. And Lamech took two wives. The name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. Adah bore Jabal; he was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe. Zillah also bore Tubal-cain; he was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron. The sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah. 

Lamech said to his wives: 

  “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; 

you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say: 

  I have killed a man for wounding me, 

a young man for striking me. 

If Cain’s revenge is sevenfold, 

then Lamech’s is seventy-sevenfold.” 

And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.” To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord. 

Prayer prompt:  Today’s reading is a synopsis of human existence.  Sin and death and birth and redemption are present in the context of family and city, begetting and building, farming, making music, and forging tools.  Revenge and religion are there, side by side.  Pray today that God will show you life, productivity, art, and religion where others see only death and destruction.  Whatever your circumstance, pray that God will show you the way of redemption and hope amid the human predicaments.

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Tuesday, February 14, 2023 (Valentine’s Day)

1 Corinthians 13:1-8, 13 (ESV)

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 

Love never ends.

…So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Prayer prompt:  All you need is love.  What may be self-evident on Valentine’s Day sometimes becomes obscured for us on the other 364 days of the year.  (As the apostle says, we peer into a clouded looking glass most of the time.)  The sort of love we mean is strong and enduring, not the soft and fleeting stuff of romance.  It is eternal.  It is the sort of thing that leads Scripture to affirm that God is love.  Pray today that your own heart will be opened, so that every aspect of life may be touched by love--so that every activity will produce something of lasting value.  Pray that “nothing” will be replaced everywhere by love, sweet love.

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Wednesday, February 15, 2023

Exodus 24:15–18  (ESV)

Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the Lord dwelt on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. And on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

Prayer prompt:  Have you ever spent time on a mountaintop that was covered with dense clouds, fog, or smoke?  (They don’t call them the Great Smoky Mountains for nothing.)  Have you ever emerged above or below the cloud line on a mountain range?  How does it feel to be inside a cloud?  If this is a metaphor for Moses’ experience of God’s presence, what metaphor would you use?  The passage seems to highlight God’s “otherness” and “distance” from human experience (what theologians call “God’s transcendence”).  Pray today that God will give you a sense again of the divine transcendence, if not as a “devouring fire” then in some way that serves to communicate God’s “otherness” to you.   

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Thursday, February 16, 2023

Psalm 2:7-8 (ESV) 

I will tell of God’s decree: 

  The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; 

today I have begotten you. 

   Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, 

and the ends of the earth will be your possession.”

Prayer prompt:  Christians understand this verse, which originally applied to the ancient kings of Judah, as uniquely applicable to Jesus Christ, and metaphorically applicable to every child of God.  Two aspects of our adoption as God’s own children stand out: first, the universal nature of it and, second, the responsibility that it places on those who are called to serve as the “hands and feet of Jesus,” to bring about fairness, justice, and equity.  It is a calling full of conflict and danger.  Pray today that God will make you worthy of your calling and adoption.  Pray that you will be able to contribute, even in a small way, to the provision of “refuge” for those who need it most today.

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Friday, February 17, 2023

Psalm 99:5-9 (ESV) 

  Exalt the Lord our God; 

worship at his footstool! 

Holy is he! 

  Moses and Aaron were among his priests, 

Samuel also was among those who called upon his name. 

They called to the Lord, and he answered them. 

  In the pillar of the cloud he spoke to them; 

they kept his testimonies 

and the statute that he gave them. 

  O Lord our God, you answered them; 

you were a forgiving God to them, 

but an avenger of their wrongdoings. 

  Exalt the Lord our God, 

and worship at his holy mountain; 

for the Lord our God is holy! 

Prayer prompt:  Where do you worship?  The language of the Psalmist sounds quaint in its invitation to worship “at God’s footstool.”  The image is one of worshiping in Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem, in front of the Ark of the Covenant, which has been reconceptualized from its role as a “mobile war palladium” to become the lowly footrest of the deity.  Can you imagine a holy, but lowly place of worship?  Pray today that God will be present, and reveal that presence to you, whether on a mountaintop, or in an elaborate sanctuary filled with holy symbols, or as you kneel beside a footstool in your own living room.  Pray that God will convert whatever space you find for worship today into a holy place.

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Saturday, February 18, 2023

2 Peter 1:16–21 (ESV)

For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of an individual, but people spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. 

Prayer prompt:  My profession is one in which I am called, week after week, to say “This is the Word of the Lord.”  Thankfully, I can rely on Holy Scriptures, the Old and New Testaments, the Bible, to carry the weight of this burden to speak.  These people who “spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” have given us our thesaurus, a treasury, from which to draw the assurance and promises of God: “This is my beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”  As you pray today, ask the same Holy Spirit who breathed the Scriptures to confirm God’s Word to you, so that you too can say: “This is the Word of the Lord.”