Evening Prayer for June 23, 2021

 

June 23, 2021

Evening Prayer (Vespers)

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

 

OPENING DIALOGUE

Sing praises to the Lord, sing praises.
We will declare God’s deeds among the people.
Shout for joy, you children of the Most High.
God remembers the needy
and gives hope to the poor.
Sing praises to the Lord, sing praises.
We will declare God’s deeds among the people.

 

HYMN: Yours, Lord, is the glory

YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ogq4BrEUd0

 

READINGS

FIRST READING: Malachi 3:1-4 (CEB)

A reading from Malachi

3 Look, I am sending my messenger who will clear the path before me;
        suddenly the Lord whom you are seeking will come to his temple.
        The messenger of the covenant in whom you take delight is coming,
says the Lord of heavenly forces.
² Who can endure the day of his coming?
        Who can withstand his appearance?
He is like the refiner’s fire or the cleaner’s soap.
³ He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver.
        He will purify the Levites
            and refine them like gold and silver.
            They will belong to the Lord,
                presenting a righteous offering.
⁴ The offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord
        as in ancient days and in former years.

 

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

 

Gospel: Luke 1:57-68 (CEB)

A reading from: Luke

⁵⁷ When the time came for Elizabeth to have her child, she gave birth to a boy. ⁵⁸ Her neighbors and relatives celebrated with her because they had heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy. ⁵⁹ On the eighth day, it came time to circumcise the child. They wanted to name him Zechariah because that was his father’s name. ⁶⁰ But his mother replied, “No, his name will be John.”

⁶¹ They said to her, “None of your relatives have that name.” ⁶² Then they began gesturing to his father to see what he wanted to call him.

⁶³ After asking for a tablet, he surprised everyone by writing, “His name is John.” ⁶⁴ At that moment, Zechariah was able to speak again, and he began praising God.

⁶⁵ All their neighbors were filled with awe, and everyone throughout the Judean highlands talked about what had happened. ⁶⁶ All who heard about this considered it carefully. They said, “What then will this child be?” Indeed, the Lord’s power was with him.

⁶⁷ John’s father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied,

⁶⁸ “Bless the Lord God of Israel because he has come to help and has delivered his people.”

 

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

 

REFLECTION:

Before there was Jesus, there was John. Only Luke gives us the story of John the Baptist’s birth. Only in Luke do we learn that John and Jesus are cousins, the sons of cousins. Only in Luke do we learn the special nature of both births.

Because Zechariah expressed some doubt that the angel’s words were true, John has been mute since that time in the temple when Gabriel told him there would be a baby. It has been nine months or more since the announcement. Baby John has been born. He will be named at the time of his circumcision, the same way we name infants at their baptism today.

Today, the neighbors and relatives have gathered for the big event. They have speculated on the name for the baby, assuming it would be a family name. But Elizabeth speaks up. His name is John, Yochanan in Hebrew. This was the name given to him by the angel. When Elizabeth reveals the name, the neighbors look stunned and questioning. When Zechariah confirms the name Yochanan, he is suddenly able to speak.

Zechariah’s words are a song praising God and making clear that this special baby will grow up to have a special purpose. He will be the forerunner to Jesus. As Micah says, he will be the messenger who clears a pathway for the coming of the Lord, for Jesus.

Can you imagine growing up with the knowledge that you are the precursor to the Lord? Can you imagine always knowing you will be the one pointing the way? From childhood, John has been imagining how he could be like Elijah, yet different, forever knowing he will be the second banana.

Yet, he is not resentful of this role. John knows his calling, and is happy to fulfill it. It seems he relishes the chance to yell at people in the name of justice. He delights in drawing people back to God. He delights in being the one privileged to point the way to Jesus, the Messiah.

In a way, we are all John the Baptist, called and anointed at baptism to point the way to Jesus. How are we doing with that? Amen

This song is the text of Zechariah’s song of praise:

HYMN: Blessed be the God of Israel

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

SCRIPTURE DIALOGUE

People of God, do you feel the movement
of the Holy Spirit?
Our hearts have been broken open
to receive the grace of God.
People of God, what do you hear?
We hear Christ calling us to follow
and to be faithful.

 

PRAYERS

In Christ Jesus we meet the God who knows our weakness and bears the wounds of the world. Therefore, let us be bold as we pray, trusting that God draws near to those in any kind of need.

Individual prayers are offered silently or aloud.

Into your wide embrace, O God, we place all our prayers, spoken and unspoken, trusting that you will receive them into your heart of mercy, Jesus Christ, your Son, our Savior. Amen

 

LORD’S PRAYER

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

 

HYMN: When Jesus came to Jordan

YouTube link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4eC0cOj5Dw

 

BLESSING

As the Lord has given to you peace and healing, go into the world offering God’s love and hope to others. Go in peace and remember + that God goes with you. Amen

 

Scripture from Common English Bible © 2012

Liturgy from ELW Annual Liturgy License 26504

And Abingdon Worship Annual 2021

Have You Still So Little Faith?!

 

Job 38:1-11; Mark 4:35-41

According to Merriam Webster, chaos is a state of utter confusion.

Ancient peoples were terrified of water because of its uncontrollable nature. A body of water could be serene one moment and roiling the next. It looked like chaos to them, a state of utter confusion.

So when the disciples are out in a boat with Jesus and a storm comes up, they are wary. When the storm becomes violent, they are terrified. They are bailing water, trying to lower the sails, holding onto the rails to keep from being thrown from the boat.

Mike and I were on the Sea of Galilee in 2010. It’s now called Lake Tiberius. It was supposed to be a 30-minute trip from Capernaum to the southern tip of the Lake for lunch. Fifty of us were in a modern boat with a skilled crew, and it took us at least an hour and a half to get there. There was no rain, but the wind kept the water roiling. To correct the way the wind pushed our boat sideways, we had to tack this way and that the whole length of the Lake.

We all were remembering the stories of Jesus and the disciples on the water in a storm. The disciples are freaking out, terrified. Jesus, meanwhile, is asleep in the stern. “Jesus! Jesus! Wake up! Can’t you tell that we’re going to drown!?”

I find Jesus’ reply to the disciples puzzling. “Have you still so little faith?” It’s relatively early in Mark, and we don’t know how long Jesus and the disciples have been traveling together. A few months or a couple years? And we don’t know which disciples were so fearful that they had to wake Jesus. Was it those who had been fishing these waters all their lives, or was it those who were afraid of the water to begin with?

It seems to me that Jesus might initiate such situations. Perhaps he only appeared to be sleeping, but in reality, he had created the storm so he could demonstrate he had power over nature – power over the waters of chaos.

The Greek phrase Jesus uses is, “Muzzle yourself.” It has the sense of Archie Bunker telling Edith to “Stifle!” It’s a rude, crude way of telling the wind to cease blowing. Jesus uses this same word to cast out the demons earlier in Mark. “Stifle, demons!”

 Usually, we shake our heads in dismay at the way the disciples in Mark’s version of Jesus’ story don’t get what Jesus is doing, or see that he really is the Son of God. But, in this story, I sympathize with them.

 It takes time to grow faith. We have 2,000 years of stories of people trusting in Jesus, the crucified, risen, and ascended Son of God. At this point in their story, however, the disciples have witnessed a few healings. They don’t yet have the full picture. I want to grant them the grace Jesus promises to us.

I know that faith sometimes comes easily, and sometimes it’s hard to grasp. I think this past year we have all had our faith challenged at least a bit. How can a good, loving, merciful God allow this virus to become so terrible, killing so many people? How can a good, loving, merciful God allow so much political and social unrest to occur around the globe and here at home? How can a good, loving, merciful God allow so much devastation to the planet in the shape of hurricanes and fires?

To my questions and challenges comes the answer God gave to Job. God speaks to Job out of another form of chaos – the whirlwind. “Where were you when I created the world, when I gave it shape?” Basically, God says to Job, and to us, “Who are you to question what I choose to do with the powers I have?”

Who indeed are we? We are the followers of Jesus, the one who shows himself to have powers only God has. We are the ones who sometimes struggle to believe, just as the first disciples did. We are the ones who fail to understand that Jesus trained his disciples to follow in his footsteps, and we are the ones who fail to understand that we responsible for the care of the world God created and of the people who reside in it today.

We have just as much and just as little faith as the first disciples had. Our specific tasks may be different, but our calling as followers of Jesus is to believe and tell others about Jesus. We may do the telling with words – sharing how Jesus has been with us through good times and bad times. Or we may do the telling in other ways – by volunteering at Interfaith or a women’s shelter. We may share our faith by participating in a peaceful protest against injustice.

If we have never done these things, it is a growing edge for us, and a way to increase our faith. Jesus invited the first disciples to step out of their comfort zones, and he continues the same invitation to us today.

Only God – the Holy Trinity – has the power to control nature, to make order out of chaos. But we have all been granted the power to make small changes to bring order and justice and God’s love and mercy into the corner of the world we each inhabit.

I want to share a video I discovered a few years ago. It is from Thailand, with English subtitles. It’s not about believing in Jesus, but it is about growing in faith, and it is about sharing with others. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Amen