St. Nicolai Notes

Prayer for Lent - Day 6 - Tuesday (February 23, 2021)
Gospel reading: Luke 4:16-21 

     God, it doesn't seem that we have grasped what a crucial moment this was. Jesus' identity as your Beloved Child, had been challenged during his wilderness testing, but remained intact. Now he identifies himself with scripture that speaks of divine anointing expressed through bearing good news for the poor, declaring the release of captives, bringing sight to the blind, freeing the oppressed, and declaring the Jubilee year, that sets aside the standard economic machinery to practice generosity and forgiveness of debts in order to restore God's covenant community to a significant degree of health and unity and give Sabbath rest to all.
     We want to be called by Jesus' name, but many of us do not want to take up Jesus' mission. We don't want to complete what Jesus instructed his followers to complete. Many of us are too busy and too greedy to notice the poor, to notice the disabled, to notice our great prison population, and then act with the compassion that Jesus showed when he identified himself with the people for whom he was anointed with God's Spirit.*
     We do not want to invest ourselves** in anything that is not to our own short-term advantage, even if it means creating a more beautiful, just, and peaceful world in the long run. Forgive us for our recalcitrant refusal to actually follow Jesus in his life-giving ministry on the way to the cross. Transform us into coworkers in your reign of forgiveness, healing, justice, and peace. Amen.

* Matthew 25:31-46
** See Isaiah 58:10 "spend yourselves"