Monday 13 March 2023

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Today is Monday the 13th of March in the third week of Lent.

Eliza King sings, ‘Christ Abides’. Can you make these your own prayerful words today?

In the crowded thoughts, You are an open space

And I hear Your voice, calling me to come away

Where the eagles fly, You're raising me high with You

To heavenly places, heavenly places

I have the mind of Christ

My portion is His perfect peace

For Christ abides with me

I'll seek You, Lord, and here in Your shadow hide

I won't dread the day, nor fear the terror of the night

Though thousands fall, I've been seated all along

In heavenly places, in heavenly places

I'm with you in heavenly places, in heavenly places

I have the mind of Christ

My portion is His perfect peace

For Christ abides with me

He's closer than a friend

He takes the weary by the hand

And says, "Come abide with me"

"Come abide with me

For my yoke is easy and my burden light

I will raise you up like an eagle into flight

You will not grow weary nor will you be faint

In your every weakness, I will be your strength"

I have the mind of Christ

My portion is His perfect peace

For Christ abides with me

He's closer than a friend

He takes the weary by the hand

And says, "Come abide with me"

Heavenly places, heavenly places

Heavenly places, heavenly places

Heavenly places, heavenly places

I'm with you in heavenly places, heavenly places

Heavenly, heavenly, heavenly places

Heavenly, heavenly, heavenly places

Today’s reading is from the Gospel of Luke.

Luke 4:24-30

And he said, ‘Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up for three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers* in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.’ When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

This dramatic scene takes place in the synagogue in Jesus’s hometown of Nazareth. Jesus’s message is one of inclusion. He uses illustrations - the widow at Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian - of people outside the Jewish tradition who were blessed by God. His hearers are incensed. What does the scene reveal to you about the character of Jesus?

The gospel account tells us that Jesus has just come from a time of great testing in the wilderness. Luke writes that he is “in the power of the Spirit”. How has the Spirit emboldened him? Interesting that emboldening should follow a time of testing. Is that your experience?

Testing can wear us down. Can we be encouraged by Jesus’ example here?

As you hear the passage again, accompany Jesus through the scene…

“He passed through the midst of them and went on his way.” There’s almost a nonchalance about it. There’s a simple confidence. There’s certainly a holiness. You might ask for that sense of the lightness of God’s touch in the face of any adversity you might be confronting just now.

Speak to the Lord in these closing moments. Let His all-embracing lightness replace oppression and opposition.

You have given all to me,

To you, Lord, I return it.

Everything is Yours, do with it what you will.

Give me only Your love and Your grace,

That is enough for me.

Amen.