Evening Prayer 06 03 2020

June 03, 2020

Evening Prayer (Vespers)

You may wish to light a candle and place it before you as you begin.

OPENING DIALOGUE

Jesus Christ is the light if the world, the light no darkness can overcome.

Stay with us Lord, for it is evening, and the day is almost over.

Let your light scatter the darkness and illumine your church.

HYMN: You have come up to the lakeshore, ELW 817 (though slightly different lyrics)

YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kdsab4mm4nI

READINGS

FIRST READING: Numbers 11:24-29

A reading from: Numbers

²⁴ So Moses went out and told the people the Lord’s words. He assembled seventy men from the people’s elders and placed them around the tent. ²⁵ The Lord descended in a cloud, spoke to him, and took some of the spirit that was on him and placed it on the seventy elders. When the spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but only this once. ²⁶ Two men had remained in the camp, one named Eldad and the second named Medad, and the spirit rested on them. They were among those registered, but they hadn’t gone out to the tent, so they prophesied in the camp. ²⁷ A young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.”

²⁸ Joshua, Nun’s son and Moses’ assistant since his youth, responded, “My master Moses, stop them!”

²⁹ Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? If only all the Lord’s people were prophets with the Lord placing his spirit on them!”

Word of God, word of life. Thanks be to God.

PSALM 104:24-34 Common English Bible (CEB)

²⁴ Lord, you have done so many things!
    You made them all so wisely!
The earth is full of your creations!
²⁵ And then there’s the sea, wide and deep,
    with its countless creatures—
    living things both small and large.
²⁶ There go the ships on it,
    and Leviathan, which you made, plays in it!
²⁷ All your creations wait for you
    to give them their food on time.
²⁸ When you give it to them, they gather it up;
    when you open your hand, they are filled completely full!
²⁹ But when you hide your face, they are terrified;
    when you take away their breath,
    they die and return to dust.
³⁰ When you let loose your breath, they are created,
    and you make the surface of the ground brand-new again.

³¹ Let the Lord’s glory last forever!
    Let the Lord rejoice in all he has made!
³² He has only to look at the earth, and it shakes.
    God just touches the mountains, and they erupt in smoke.

³³ I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
    I will sing praises to my God while I’m still alive.
³⁴ Let my praise be pleasing to him;
    I’m rejoicing in the Lord!

Gospel: John 7:37-39 Common English Bible (CEB)

A reading from: John

³⁷ On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and shouted,

“All who are thirsty should come to me!
³⁸     All who believe in me should drink!
    As the scriptures said concerning me,
        Rivers of living water will flow out from within him.”

³⁹ Jesus said this concerning the Spirit. Those who believed in him would soon receive the Spirit, but they hadn’t experienced the Spirit yet since Jesus hadn’t yet been glorified.

Word of God, word of life. Thanks be to God.

REFLECTION:

When we are baptized, we recognize that we are children of God, and that we are forever afterwards bearers of God’s Holy Spirit. Sunday was Pentecost, so we should be feeling the Spirit more, right?

While we may wish the fire of the Spirit were present more often in our lives, we tend to quench it, flood it with the quietness of our baptismal waters. It takes some doing to set aside our Lutheran, Northern European manners. We have been taught to sit quietly, to pay attention, to stand at the right time, to sit at the right time, to not pray as though the Spirit were speaking.

Instead of being filled with the exuberance of Spirit, I am feeling weariness, frustration, anger, pain. I am speechless and yet full of words. I am a preacher, after all! The recent killings of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd would have been called lynching if they had used ropes strung from a tree. I guess those feelings are the movement of the Spirit, in response to the accumulated deaths. Why, I wonder, has it taken so many deaths to make my blood boil over?

We in the ELCA have been working on anti-racism for decades. And while some things have changed, there is a long way to go until our denomination is really anti-racist, really free of the sense of white supremacy.

America is ill. Our president speaks the words of many Americans – calling the protestors “thugs”. Whether he meant all or only some of the people in Minneapolis, the attitude is still there. Black people are thugs, in the eyes of many white people.

We in America criticized and boycotted South Africa for Apartheid, bragging about our own laws. But in truth, we have been doing the same thing, and it’s legal. White people decide who will get permits and who will get loans and who can buy a house. The poverty of people of color means that more black and brown people end up in prison than white people because they can’t afford good lawyers. And so forth.

So, what does Spirit have to say to us about this? What can St Matthew’s do to make changes in our community? This may be the moment where we decide: “We are sick and tired of being sick and tired” of the way people of color are treated in America.

My first thoughts about this reflection were about how Spirit inhabits us and invites us to use our gifts for God’s purposes. I began with the thought of lifting up various spiritual gifts.

Instead, I am wondering, “Is today – or last week – the time when we are called to pay attention to the cries of the poor? How will we allow or even push the living waters of justice to flow in Ocala?”

It will be a project we work on together, if we choose to respond at all.

Amen

SCRIPTURE DIALOGUE

Jesus said, I am the light of the world.  

Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness.

PRAYERS

For the peace from above, and for our salvation, let us pray to the Lord. Lord, have mercy.

For the health of creation, for abundant harvests that all may share, for plentiful water, and for peaceful times, let us pray to the Lord. Lord, have mercy.

For public servants, the government, and those who protect us; for those who work to bring peace, justice, healing, and protection in this and every place, let us pray to the Lord. Lord, have mercy.

For those who travel or have been prevented from traveling, for those who are sick and suffering, for those who are in captivity, and for those who are living in isolation, let us pray to the Lord. Lord, have mercy.

For deliverance in the time of affliction, wrath, danger and need, let us pray to the Lord. Lord, have mercy.

Other prayer petitions may be offered here.

For those who are suffering the injustices of racism and white supremacy, Lord have mercy.

Merciful God, we know that your heart overflows with compassion for your whole creation. Pour out your Spirit on all people living with this virus, or who are living with anxiety about this illness, for which there is not yet a cure. Be with those who tend to the needs of the sick. Strengthen us all in body and spirit, console us when anxious, comfort us in grief and hearten us in discouragement. Help to remind us that you claim us as your own and are with us wherever we go. Through Christ, our healer and Lord. Amen.

LORD’S PRAYER

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread.  Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil. For the kingdom, the power, and the glory, are yours now and forever. Amen.

HYMN: Send us your Spirit, by David Haas

YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3hVOCl2prU

BLESSING

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, + keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen

Liturgy from ELW Annual Liturgy License 26504