Tag: stay awake

Narrative Lectionary, Year 2, Lent 5

March 17th, Lent 5
Mark 13: 1-8, 24-37 End of age, Watch
Psalm 102:12-17

Kneeling with Christ
The Promise of a New Kin-dom
Breaking [A World Beyond] Capitalism

Lent 5: Serving God: Watching for God for the Kin(g)dom that is promised. Christ promises us that a new world is being built, how can we participate in the building and serve God? Your Kingdom Come/Your Will Be Done

Breath Prayer Option
Inhale: Keep Awake
Exhale: Watch for God

Inhale: God endures forever
Exhale: I will serve God

Inhale: God’s Kingdom Come
Exhale: God’s will be done

Call to Worship:
God is enthroned forever, and promises to return
We are waiting for Jesus
God will rebuild all things, so that everything will shine with justice and mercy
God will hear the prayers of those who are stripped of all things
God will appoint the time and the place, stay awake
Come let us listen closely to the Word of our God

Call to Confession: Come let us speak to the God who always listens with a confession.

Prayer of Confession: God we confess that we do not know the hour or the day of your coming and that troubles us. We worry that we will not be awake or aware enough for when you come. We are afraid that we will be asleep. Comfort us. Remind us that you are the God of grace, and that it is not a grace that is earned but one that is given out of love. Help us to know that you will help us to tend to the Kin(g)Dom work, so that we may pray and participate in Your Kin(g)dom Come, Your will be Done with confidence we pray. (Silent Confession) Amen.

Prayer of Confession: Jesus Christ, we know that too often staying awake and being woke is used as a bludgeon of judgement instead of a measurement that you are the help and sure redemption in our lives. Help us to reassure one another that you are the Lord of Sabbath and Rest and that the awareness you promise is that of hope, truth and Love (Silent Confession) Amen.

Assurance of Pardon: Hear the good news, if Christ is for us, who is against us? We know that Jesus Christ is even now working towards our grace, and so we can proclaim the good news, In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.

Prayer of the Day/Dedication: God help us to be aware of your presence as a space of comfort and hope as we venture into the uncertainties of the world we pray. Amen.

Hymn Suggestions: Great is Thy Faithfulness

Taize Option: Wait for The Lord

Children’s Activity: Build a Tower/Town together or a collage– Talk about cooperative learning/building together and how God wants us to be cooperatively learning and building and watching and waiting together and that this is Kin(g)Dom building work. Children’s Book: A Day without Words by Tiffany Hammond talk about how we can watch how other people interact and work in the world, and how we can build relationship with them, and how that is building the kingdom of God.

Definition of Kin-dom https://sojo.net/articles/kin-dom-christ

Children’s Book: A Day without Words by Tiffany Hammond talk about how we can watch how other people interact and work in the world, and how we can build relationship with them, and how that is building the kingdom of God.

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Apocalypse Meditation

Psalm 102

18 Let this be recorded for a generation to come,
so that a people yet unborn may praise the Lord:
19 that he looked down from his holy height,
from heaven the Lord looked at the earth,
20 to hear the groans of the prisoners,
to set free those who were doomed to die;
21 so that the name of the Lord may be declared in Zion,
and his praise in Jerusalem,
22 when peoples gather together,
and kingdoms, to worship the Lord.

Two weeks ago my son asked if this is the apocalypse.

To be fair he is an 8 year old who is keenly interested in natural disasters, and three weeks ago the interest tipped into apocalypse. I had just previously defined a natural disaster as something that happens in one area whereas an apocalypse is something that happens to everyone.

Mark 13:24-37

When the sky goes dark and the stars fall from heaven it will be apocalyptic, not because the star is falling, but because when Jesus comes, Jesus will come for everyone.

Just when we think it’s “every man for himself” just when we think we are saved or die by individual faith, Jesus reminds us that we are all connected. On the heels of Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your strength and all your mind Jesus gives this prediction.

The sky will be falling, the powers in heaven will shake and Jesus will come. Jesus will come for the whole and entire earth. The elect will be gathered, but remember these last 2,000 years are our grace time for the elect to be fostered and grown. We thought world was ending with the death of Jesus Christ, but instead we are given more time to learn, and to be ready and to catch our breath.

This apocalypse is a hopeful one, because it will be like the fig tree budding into bloom. The apocalypse is hopeful because even when heaven and earth pass away the word of the Lord, Jesus Christ, will stand.

Image result for fig tree budding

And this passage is hopeful because we are each, every one of us, told to stay awake. This means that it is not just one or two of us who are told to be ready, we are all told to be ready.

Jesus talks about great suffering—this part is scary. Because of this, every time the world suffers greatly, we wonder if it’s the end times. Even though Jesus says right in this passage that nobody knows when the time will come. We are to be alert, because it will sneak up on us.

Keep awake Jesus says, before he prays at Gethsemane asking his disciples to stay awake with him. Be ready for the apocalypse: the revelation. 

The question isn’t really is this an apocalypse, the question is are we awake? Are we watching for the budding of the fig tree, are we cultivating the kingdom of heaven or are we cultivating the seeds of faith.

Are we taking care of each other? Are we loving God? Are we living life like it is short and precious, are we treating each other like we are beautiful and beloved? Are we grounding ourselves in the stable Word of God?

Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night & give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; all for your love’s sake. –Book of Common Prayer