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“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.”
‭‭Psalm‬ ‭23‬:‭5‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Let us pray.

Lord of life, You look beyond our outward appearance into our our hearts. You see our desires and our lies, our hopes and our fears, our anxieties and our pride. Lord when we read about You preparing a table before David, in the presence of his enemies, how often do we think of the faces being those of the people that should have loved him. As we come to the last supper and You gather Your disciples around Yourself to celebrate the Passover meal, are they their as former enemies turned into followers. Those that did not always follow Your holy word. Those who would commit murder. Those who lied and cheated others. Those who cowered in fear and would deny that they knew You. People who You lived with and loved and called friends have also played the role of enemy of God. We all have. Some of us still do. Yet in the image of the Last Supper we see You eating with those who were and would be enemies and yet You feed them as friends. Lord we are humbled by the grace that You constantly show us. Forgives and help us to not be enemies of God but to truly live as Your sisters and brothers whom You have redeemed. We humbly pray this in Your name. Amen.

“And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.” And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.”
‭‭Luke‬ ‭19‬:‭45‬-‭48‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Let us pray.

Lord Jesus, You see deep into our lives, into our hearts, into our minds, into our very souls better than we can. You see through the masks that we wear, through the image that we try to portray through our titles and failures. Help us to clean through the things in our lives that do not matter, that try to distract us, that invite us to wander away from You. Enrich us Lord with the strength of Your steadfast Spirit living in us. Quiet the whispers of idolatry that cause our eyes to glaze over and miss You walking before us. Block the winding lies from drifting into our ears and corrupting our hearts. Fortify us with grace filled hands that share and encourage. Lord teach us to breathe Your breath of life so that our muscles will be strengthen to do the work that You have for us today. May we be focused on You and see Your people and hear their needs and not be overwhelmed. We pray this in Your name Lord Jesus. Amen.

John 12:35–36 (NLT): 35 Jesus replied, “My light will shine for you just a little longer. Walk in the light while you can, so the darkness will not overtake you. Those who walk in the darkness cannot see where they are going. 36 Put your trust in the light while there is still time; then you will become children of the light.”

Let us pray.

Lord Jesus as we think about all the ministry that You did during the days between Your triumphal entry into Jerusalem and Your crucifixion on Good Friday, we see the need for Your light to shine through the darkening practices of our world. The misuse of the temple, which led to a focus on money instead of being in God’s Holy presence, coming together in prayer and worship.

We too struggle to keep You front and Center in our lives. The busyness that we are trained and encouraged to take part in takes us away from times of meditating on Your word, and the intricate encouragements that it brings to guide us in the wholeness of life and righteousness. Our glassy, tired eyes glance at a small portion of Your holy word yet rarely take time to feed on it as You have taught us to do, Lord Jesus. We have missed living out the spiritual disciplines that have been formative for generations to strengthen our faith and help us to live in the life that You have blessed us with. The practice of gathering together for worship, of hospitality and generosity, the practice of solitude and silence, the practice of serving and being present in our community. We serve You who was incarnate but we at times struggle to live incarnational lives of faith.

Lord help us to see the subtle realities that are around us that are leading us into darkness and separation from Your faithful life living in us. May Your light shine over us so that we would be blinded to the lies that are luring us away from Your forgiveness and grace. Fill us with Your light that we might share the blessing that You have given to us. Lord, help us to humbly seek Your kingdom and point to You and not our own limited accomplishments. We want to hold You in our lives, not to limit You but to continually point to who You are and what You have done through out all time. We pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

“And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.””
‭‭Luke‬ ‭19‬:‭41‬-‭44‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Let us pray

Lord Jesus, as we journey through this Holy Week, help us to praise and to lament. Too often we struggle to understand how to truly give praise in our world and in our culture. We don’t want to forget or belittle the who You are but at times we struggle to find the words that will be recognized and heard. Help us to share all that we have seen of Your blessings in our world. In our own lives. Help us to speak about Your loving grace and how You call us and help us turn away from sin. Lord, help us communicate the deep relationship that blesses even a sinner like myself with forgiveness and new life.

Lord Jesus, Holy Week is not just about praise, it is also about lamenting. We also struggle with how to lament. Lord, we lament the brokenness in our own lives that we continually seem to encourage. We allow our eyes to drift from sins of lust, to greed, to pride, and over to idolatry. We lament a society that is more apt to do what is comfortable than listening to Your Holy Spirit guiding us in the ways of righteousness. We lament the destruction that is caused by violence and how readily people are to ignore the value in each life.

Lord, Holy Week is a time of great expectation and hope, but it is also a time of disillusionment and reformation. Help us to live in the tension of this week of faith where all is laid bare. Lord we pray this in Your Holy Name, Amen.

“And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!””
‭‭Mark‬ ‭11‬:‭9‬-‭10‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Let us pray.

Lord Jesus, when we think of the triumphal entry, we think of all the noice and fanfare, the excitement and the buzz of new beginnings. Our hearts yearn from the oppression of the occupation that takes away our freedoms, stops us from being the people that we wont to be. The people of Jerusalem yearned for the Romans to be kicked out and a return to long lost glory. Yet they did not recognize the deeper oppression that was holding them back. The oppression of blindness to sin, arrogance and ignorance to their brothers and sister in the faith. Strangely enough we are still plagued by these same problems. Our hearts are clouded because of the sins that disguise themselves and hide right before our eyes, whisper in our ears, travel from our mouths with words that cut each other down. We don’t always recognize what we are doing or saying and how our pride and ignorance hide our real problems from our awareness and hide Your grace and freedom from our lives.

As much as we want freedom from the oppression of injustices in our world we need to first have freedom to choose to live justly, to have freedom from our sinful nature. Lord free us so that we can live in Your kingdom and work towards the overall freedom that You are bringing into this world. Help us to see, and to feel Your righteousness being lived out in our lives and in the lives of others. We Pray this in Your Holy Name, Amen..

28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (‭‭‭Matthew‬ ‭20‬‬:‭28‬ ‭ESV‬‬)

Let us pray.

Lord Jesus, we don’t know what it means to sacrifice as You have sacrificed for us. You have left heaven to show us Your divine love. The world that You have created has too quickly forgotten You. In our wanting to make the world in our image we have forgotten its creator. Our busyness to establish ourselves in Your creation, to take Your place and to be worshiped, has made us lose sight of who we really are. Help us to see You with open eyes. We need help to resist the temptations of pride and greed, to step away from our yearnings to be worshiped like You.
Lord we humble ourselves before You and ask for Your forgiveness. We know in our minds that You are Lord and Saviour but too often we give into our fickle hearts that search to fill our desires. Yet we don’t realize that in You we find all that we truly need. Your sacrifice has brought us new life, a life that we could only dream about. Help us to be satisfied in Your eternal blessing. Lord Jesus we pray this in Your name, Amen.

“And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?””
‭‭Luke‬ ‭13‬:‭16‬ ‭ESV‬‬

How often do the people around us not realize who they belong too? I am not talking about being someone’s property but about being part of something that is greater than themselves. Jesus pointed out to the synagogue leader that the person before him was a person, not just a number, not just an injury, but a daughter of Abraham. For some people we don’t always see people that are different than us, or see those who are easily deemed less than us. It is sad that people could even think of themselves as less than. It is horrendous to think of how people could miss the image of God, a daughter of God, a child of God like each of us.

Jesus isn’t just pointing out this fact to the synagogue leader and all the others present, He is telling this woman who has endured physical pain and who has been marginalized for years that she was recognized. She was a daughter of Abraham. She is a daughter of Abraham. Jesus wasn’t just healing her body, but also her identity.

Jesus does the same for us. Healing our bodies, our hearts, our minds, and our souls. No, we don’t always get what we want but that doesn’t mean that Jesus doesn’t meet what we truly need. He reminds us that we are His, loved and cared for, redeemed and reconciled.

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭6‬:‭12‬ ‭ESV‬‬

How many times have we read the passage from Luke 13:10-17 and not seen the spiritual battle that was happening or seen the word spirit being used, and tried to explain away the Jesus’ reference to Satan? This is a nice story about Jesus healing a poor woman. In some people’s eyes this is comparable to us helping some one cross the road. Unfortunately Jesus’ words and actions are so much more than just a physical healing.

This is a spiritual battle that the religious leaders did not want to happen on the Sabbath. There are many problems with this but the glaring one is that they didn’t recognize the problem for eighteen years worth of work days prior to this day. They did not want to wage a spiritual battle to free this woman who some may have seen as a no body, yet Jesus saw her as a daughter of Abraham. The spiritual battle that this woman had faced left her physically bent over but this was not the only spiritual battle that Jesus was confronting, the Synagogue Leader was in a spiritual battle also, one of blindness and his heart was bent out of shape so much so that he was not seeing the daughter of Abraham that was in front of him, and possibly not seeing many other people.

How many of us missed the spiritual battle in scripture because we struggle to believe it in our own lives, or don’t want to believe that it is real. Are we so comfortable with Jesus as a moral teacher that we miss Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, redeeming us from our spiritual failings in our physical sins. Is it so hard for us to recognize the multiple levels of what it means for Jesus to be Lord and Saviour? Think about it this way Jesus doesn’t just save us from our sins and wants our obedience, but He has laid down His life to protect us. Lordship is not just about sitting and giving orders, it is about helping people to have freedom and security in the lives around us. In our society that is struggling with our history we are losing sight of all that Jesus is and some are settling for what is comfortable and easy. Jesus didn’t and doesn’t. Jesus saw the spiritual battle that was being wage in people’s lives, He sees it in our own lives. Thankfully He isn’t about to give up on us. Yes we are in a spiritual battle even today, but the good news of the scriptures is that Jesus has won the war.

“Let everything that breathes praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭150‬:‭6‬ ‭NRSV‬‬

One would think that an action that elicits the praise of God would be a good thing. Yet when we read through Luke 13:10-17, the healing of the woman on the Sabbath is seen as a problem by some of the religious leaders. The people were not worshiping Jesus, they were worshiping God.

We might say that it was Jesus who did the healing, if this is the case then we can come to one of the following conclusions:
1. Jesus is God incarnate, thus the healing is pointing to God.
2. God is working through Jesus thus the healing is done by God.
3. God healed this woman in the presence of all these people.
4. Jesus did this healing all by himself and the people worshiped God.
5. Jesus was using powers given to Him by the devil and the people worshiped God.

Even on the stranger conclusions that people could draw from this occurrence, God is still be worshiped. Even the last two seem to fall flat and would be counter productive to their underlying purpose of usurping influence from God because the people turned to God and praised Him. This act of healing brought people into a closer relationship with God instead of distancing people from God. It did not put Jesus into a place of idolization, Jesus was pointing to God.

Jesus mentions that this is spiritual battle and He gave this woman freedom from the spiritual and physical trauma that she had been living with. Jesus does not glorify Himself or Satan, He continually is showing people God’s healing love. He is trying to help people live a life that is freely honour God, not being force to or excluded from worshiping God.

On the Sabbath, do you take time to rest, to heal, and to be free? Do you only focus on yourself, your physical body? What about your emotions, or your soul? Do you come to Jesus for the healing that will help you do be strengthened? Will you give God praise for what you have experienced and seen God do in yourself and in others?

“We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.”
‭‭1 John‬ ‭3‬:‭16‬ ‭NRSV‬‬

Prayer for First Responders

Lord Jesus, You call us into service as we leave our families and friends to go to the place that You have called us. Watch over our children, our loved ones, help them to understand that we love more than they will ever know. Help them to be at peace even though we rush into the unknown. Help them to know that we do the work that we do to safe guard them and those who are cherished by others. Our families are never far from our thoughts, from our hearts.

Lord of protection watch over us as we use the strength that You have given us to lift up others who are in distress. Fill us with compassion each day as we pour it into the lives of the hurting and the suffering. May other feel safe as we come to face the dangers before all of us. Help us to face the fears that can paralyze, to overcome the struggles that can bring the strong to their knees. Help us to bring Your peace with words spoken into the chaos, with actions that build bridges of hope, with the building up of relationships to create community no matter the people or backgrounds.

Lord of clarity, help us to see what others have missed to be able to lead others to safety from abuse, from violence, from disasters. Grant us wisdom from our kitchen tables to the sidewalks and roadways You have called us to serve on. Grant us Your love to overcome our own biases to be able to bring hope into the lives of the lonely and hurting that they would not walk in fear or alone anymore.

Lord of salvation, help us to remember that You are the saviour and we all need help. When our eyes have seen what our souls cannot comprehend, when our tank is empty and we are dying from hurt, Lord help us and guide us to the ones that will walk with us through darkness, confusion, pain, and suffering that no one can see but You. Lord of resurrection help the those who are hurting to rise again in strength and be at peace again. Lord help those who are struggling with the incongruencies of broken morality with actions that should never have been done and words that should not have been spoke, with words that were spoken in haste but cannot be unsaid. Lord have mercy. To those who have never walked this tortured path, may you have compassion on your brothers and sisters who are hurting from the invisible wounds. Have mercy and patience. Lord have mercy on us all as we live and breathe in this broken world yet seek to follow You to see Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.

Lord of this life and the next be with those who have laid down their lives for communities, for strangers, to try to make a difference. May their sacrifice not be in vain. Lord walk with those who are grieving and unsettled by the death itself may they find comfort and peace and know they are not forgotten. May we all work together to join in the brokenness of life to seek a new wholeness.

As we serve to bring healing and peace, Lord of all creation watch over us this day, this night, for now and forever more. Amen.