Wednesday night, March 18, we encourage all members of Trinity Lutheran Church, Nampa to pray this devotional at 7pm. You may wish to light a candle as a way of inviting the light of Christ into your sacred space.
Our theme for midweek Lent evening prayer is Open our Lives.
Photograph by Trinity member Mary Braudrick
March 4 was “Open our Eyes.”
March 11 was “Open our [thoroughly washed] Hands.”
March 18 is “Open our Ears.”
Psalm 141 (Song of Forgiveness and Protection)
1 I call upon you, O Lord; come quickly to me;
give ear to my voice when I call to you.
2 Let my prayer be counted as incense before you,
and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice.
3 Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord;
keep watch over the door of my lips.
4 Do not turn my heart to any evil,
to busy myself with wicked deeds
in company with those who work iniquity;
do not let me eat of their delicacies.
5 Let the righteous strike me;
let the faithful correct me.
Never let the oil of the wicked anoint my head,
for my prayer is continually against their wicked deeds.
6 When they are given over to those who shall condemn them,
then they shall learn that my words were pleasant.
7 Like a rock that one breaks apart and shatters on the land,
so shall their bones be strewn at the mouth of Sheol.
Litany (Sundays and Seasons)
As children, we hear: Don’t touch! Slow down!
As teenagers, we hear: Your curfew begins in an hour.
As adults, we hear: Cash or credit?
In the water and the word, we hear: You are loved, my precious child.
Prayer (Sundays and Seasons): Open our ears, Lord, to heed your will for our lives. Help us not only to hear, but to listen and understand with our hearts. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Readings
Isaiah 50:4-5
4 The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher,
that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word.
Morning by morning he wakens—wakens my ear
to listen as those who are taught.
5 The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious,
I did not turn backwards.
Matthew 13:10-17
10 Then the disciples came and asked him, ‘Why do you speak to them in parables?’ 11He answered, ‘To you it has been given to know the secretsof the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 12For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. 13The reason I speak to them in parables is that “seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.”14With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that says:
“You will indeed listen, but never understand,
and you will indeed look, but never perceive.
15 For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and their ears are hard of hearing,
and they have shut their eyes;
so that they might not look with their eyes,
and listen with their ears,
and understand with their heart and turn—
and I would heal them.”
16But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.17Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.
Time for Listening (Two Options)
You are invited to participate in one or both of these:
Step outside and listen to the evening sounds. What do you hear? How is God present in the sounds you hear?
Most of us are now a few days into practicing physical distancing in an attempt to slow down the spread of the Coronavirus. We are attempting to “Flatten the Curve.” We are going to be creating and sustaining community in a new way. What might we be building? This recording of a song from the musical Godspell provides some hope and vision:
Prayer
Lord’s Prayer
A Place at the Table 