Thanks to this
combination of readings, transport, restoration, and spirit/breath are
the themes that gathered together for me in them. Ruach in the Hebrew
means spirit, wind, and/or breath of the Holy Spirit/aka Wisdom/God.
Obviously there is no life without breath and sometimes the wind overwhelms us,
perhaps the Spirit does, too, and I/we don’t recognize it. Yet we and all
living creatures that are not plants were created with the Breath. (an
interruptive aside here ~ have you ever noticed the word creature and
its relationship to create/Creator?) And so it is when the Spirit
and Breath transports those very dry bones from their graves and the
bones become enfleshed and are restored to stand up and live again.
The Psalmist
is clear that those who trust in their wealth and praise of the abundance of
their riches (Gafney v. 6-7); or The
wickedness of those who put their trust in their goods, and boast of their
great riches… (v. 5 in the
Book of Common Prayer ~ BCP~, Psalm 49, pg. 652) will be
transported to Sheol and unlike those dry bones, the land of the dead
shall be their home…They shall join the company of their forbears, who will
never see light again. (BCP Psalm 49:14b,
19). And then we
have verse 15! The transport of some and the restoration of The upright
in this version of the psalm and the ransom of God in the BCP, redeem
in the NKJV, The Complete Jewish Bible, NIV; ransom in Authorized KJV,
and so it goes in many other translations. [I use Biblegateway.com]. Of course
it doesn’t mitigate the damage done to the upright in the short term.
But the ransom/restoration/transport away from the Pit of Sheol,
by God, is what keeps our hope alive and the spirit breath within us
flowing.
And then to
the Letter to the Ephesians…as we remember, Paul wrote letters to specific
churches for specific reasons. Sometimes it’s very difficult to connect those
letters to our own time for those reasons. Yet in there are some letters and moments
in them that certainly stand out and this is one of them. Again, you can read
this in any translation you prefer and the phrasing that hit me immediately
was/is with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you all may know what is the
hope to which God has called you… Some of the paraphrases ~ that is translations
re-written to be more modern in their wording such as The Message, The
Living Bible, Good New Translation, etc., simply have the same basic
thought just phrased differently. For me, this week, it was with the eyes of
your heart enlightened that jumped out. A continuing reminder to dig deeply
and often, and to reflect on what and why my attention is captured positively
and especially if otherwise.
And then in John’s Gospel, the Born Again
piece that has been used often though perhaps not so wisely, but, as said
above, digging more deeply we get a restoration of the full meaning of Jesus,
especially as we move beyond verse 8 all the way to verse 21, whereafter the
scene changes.
Nicodemus, the
teacher of Israel (v. 9-10) is having difficulty believing what Jesus is
saying. In verse 12, Jesus responds with, If I have told you about earthly
things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly
things? A question for the ages! What do you think Jesus means
by saying we must be birthed of water and the spirit? For me, these
chosen readings all come full circle in the Gospel. Through the breath-wind of
the Spirit we are given life. When we take the time, as we stop for a
period of time every single day to consciously breathe deeply in, hold,
and breathe deeply out, for at least several minutes and more, with our
questions on these readings as a beginning, we invite the Spirit to enlighten
the eyes of our hearts that we may turn toward the light of God in Jesus
and be birthed again, and again, and again from above. As we seek,
often, to know what is the hope that God calls us, placing our hope
in Jesus, our Christ, is our first step.
LET US, GOD’S PEOPLE, PRAY
Reader: ~ Sovereign ALL-KNOWING GOD, come
upon us and bring us out through your Spirit. Cause your spirit-and-breath to enter us and fill our bones with
Your energizing life, to rise upright, birthed again from above.
Response: O Wellspring, O Source, O Author of Life
Enlighten the eyes of our hearts
~ Sovereign ALL-KNOWING GOD, now in this blessed season of
Lent, grant us the fortitude
of Christ in the wilderness to stand before the ruling powers in our world, in our
nation, and in our local communities, to demand for all people the release from
affliction, injustice, inhumanity, and oppression imposed by the evils of greed
and corruption. We pray especially for… add your own petitions
O Wellspring, O Source, O Author of Life
Enlighten the eyes of our hearts
~ Sovereign ALL-KNOWING GOD, shelter
in Your love all who suffer in body, mind, or spirit, and encourage all who
give them help. We now join our hearts to pray for those in need… add
your own petitions
O Wellspring, O Source, O Author of Life
Enlighten the eyes of our hearts
~ Sovereign ALL-KNOWING GOD, ease the hearts of all who grieve, as
those we love in our living memory are now risen in the joy and glory of
eternal life. We pray especially for: add your own petitions
O Wellspring, O Source, O Author of Life
Enlighten the eyes of our hearts
~ Sovereign ALL-KNOWING GOD, we pause in this moment
to offer You our other heartfelt thanksgivings, intercessions, petitions, and
memorials, aloud or silently…add your own petitions
O Wellspring, O Source, O Author of Life
Enlighten the eyes of our hearts
~ Sovereign ALL-KNOWING GOD, may all who are chosen to bring us
Your Word and Sacraments, in times of sorrow and times of gladness, abide under
Your Shadow, bound to you in love. We pray
especially for: add your own petitions
O
Wellspring, O Source, O Author of Life
Enlighten
the eyes of our hearts
The Celebrant adds: O God in Your Majesty, rescue
us from the wilderness of our own making; turn us from fear to faith, and from
complacency to action. Help us to keep the Word of our Redeemer Christ near, on
our lips and in our hearts as we move through the humanity and the sound of the
Spirit throughout Your Creation, each and every day. We ask through Jesus, our
Messiah; and the Holy Spirit-that-is-like-wind; who together with You are One
God, the Origin of Glory, now and beyond forever. Amen.
*Readings for our Parish in this Year C are from The Rev.
Dr. Wilda [Wil] Gafney,
Womanist biblical scholar, and the Right Rev. Sam B. Hulsey Professor
of Hebrew Bible at Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, Texas. She is the
author of A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church Yr C, and
others in her series, and translator of its biblical selections. I definitely
commend her book for the complete readings, to Clergy and Laity, for her Text Notes,
and Preaching Prompts whether or not you will use them in your
Liturgies/Services/Preaching. There is much to learn from her work to inform
every facet of our worship and in our lives in Christ. To learn more
about her and her work, see her website: https://www.wilgafney.com/
**PLEASE NOTE that you can go to any translation to read
the lessons that Dr. Gafney uses. She does NOT change the context or much of
the phrasing. Rather she adds expansive Titles for God and highlights the
feminine aspect that she gleans from her own translations from the early languages
in which she is fluent. The context of each reading is essentially the same
even in those that are not in our usual Revised Common Lectionary. Do go
read these in at least 2 other translations and, it’s also useful at times to
read the full chapter.