New Chances for Light and Rest

Thursday, March 5, 2009 -- Week of 1 Lent, Year One

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 948)
Psalms 50 (morning) [59, 60] or 19, 46 (evening)
Deuteronomy 9:23 - 10:5
Hebrews 4:1-10
John 3:16-21

We have been reading in Deuteronomy the dramatic accounts of Israel's sojourn in the wilderness. We've just experienced the terrible disappointment when Moses returned from the mountain with the two stone tablets "written with the finger of God." But while Moses was away, the people made a golden calf, an image of the fertility cults that were common throughout the ancient world. This rebellion threatened the very existence of the tribe.

Moses interceded for the people forty days and forty nights, fasting with prayer. God heard his prayer and invited Moses to return with two stone tablets. Then God wrote again the same words as before. The people were given another chance, and were restored to the same circumstances from which they had fallen. Israel remembered these stories of rebellion and restoration in the wilderness as illustrations of God's mercy, forgiveness and steadfast love.

John's Gospel picks up a similar interplay about God's work of mercy in the midst of our rebellion. Using the metaphor of darkness and light, John's Gospel invites us to choose the light rather than the evil of darkness. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."

And Hebrews also remembers the rebellion in the desert. For this writer the invitation is for us to enter into God's sabbath rest. When we are disobedient, our hearts harden and we fail to enter God's rest. If we listen to the message of God's gift and open our hearts, we enter God's rest where we cease from our labors as God did on the sabbath.

John and the author of Hebrews pick up the story of the wilderness to say that Jesus is like another Moses, leading God's people from their bondage into freedom. God keeps giving us another chance, inviting us into the light of resting in God.

There is something powerful about letting yourself be, within the steadfast love of God. To rest, and simply be -- trusting God to lead us through our particular wilderness. We are made for freedom. A restful freedom that trusts in God. Out of that rest, we are free to be responsible -- able to respond whenever God calls us to action or movement. Yet even the action can be restful, for it is contained within the life and presence of God.

A prayer in the back of our Book of Common Prayer articulates this energy nicely:
Direct us, O Lord, in all our doings with your most gracious favor, and further us with you continual help; that in all our works, begun, continued, and ended in you, we may glorify your holy Name, and finally, by your mercy, obtain everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (for Guidance, p. 832)

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About Morning Reflections
Morning Reflections is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life

We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas