March 2011
Message March 2011
Ann Weems once said: “A profession of faith is not a part-time promise; it’s a whole time/all the time/every time way of life, and we who say we believe in Jesus Christ are saying now and tomorrow and forever.”
At the end of his first letter to the church of Thessalonica, the Apostle Paul
says: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (5:16-17)
I get caught up sometimes in how impossible it seems to live in the reality of these two statements. It is not until; I slow down, take a breath and remember that both of these statements are proclaiming a truth about reality and are not impossible commandments that I somehow must re-create.
The simple act of professing faith changes the very reality that we live into. Life itself becomes prayer. Everything we do, say, think and feel. It is the reality of walking before God and being “blameless”.
During this Lenten season we will be focusing on prayer, in its many and diverse forms. There will be two meeting times each week during Lent, where we will focus on prayer: silent, meditative, contemplative and scriptural. We will meet at 6:30 pm on Sunday evenings beginning March 13, and at 2:00 pm Wednesday afternoons beginning March 16. Don’t forget to mark your calendars for our Ash Wednesday service, March 9 @ 7:00pm.
You will find a list of scripture below. I encourage you, even if you can’t attend one of the study sessions, to use the daily scriptures as a beginning point for your daily prayer during the Lenten season. While these types of prayer are primarily individual in nature they must always be viewed in the context of corporate prayer. Corporate prayer is the praying we do together, the obvious example is Joys and Concerns and the Lord’s Prayer during worship each Sunday.
Looking again at the first two paragraphs perhaps Paul is giving us some insight into corporate prayer. If we begin to see Sunday worship as corporate prayer than it is a small step toward living into the reality of ceaseless praying. There is intentionality to it.
All of this is to give you a context within which you might participate as an individual within the corporate body of our church community. If we are all studying the same scripture and focused on the same prayers each day, whether together or apart we are participating in the corporate body and the corporate prayer.
Let us celebrate our journey on the Way and our journey of faith together as we pray into what we profess and confess as disciples of the risen One. “To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul!”
May God’s peace fill you always and all ways.
Greg