Prayers for the Christian Year

I have benefited greatly for several years from reading the Scriptures according to the Revised Common Lectionary, which is a three-year schedule of passages to be used in worship based on the seasons of the Christian year. I've also found it a very helpful exercise to try not only to read these passages repeatedly during their respective weeks, but then to also write a prayer in my own words based on the readings. I will share the prayer that I write during the week leading up to the Sunday when the Scripture passages will be read by all of the churches around the world who follow this schedule of readings. If you're a pastor, or someone else who leads your congregation in prayer on Sundays, please feel free to adapt and use these prayers however it may be helpful.

Since one of the readings is almost always a Psalm, and the Psalms have been the most widely-used tool in prayer for an innumerable group of people seeking God throughout the centuries (including Jesus and his first disciples!), I try to begin my prayer with the way that the particular week's Psalm addresses God. Then, there are often connections between the other readings which I try to pray in a way that will allow them to sink more deeply into my mind.

Because I've also found great value in praying The Lord's Prayer together in worship, as well as repeatedly on my own during the week, I always try to follow my own words in prayer with the words that Jesus himself taught us when he said, "When you pray, pray like this, 'Our Father in heaven..."

Prayers posted so far:

Year A

Year B

The Most Important Word You May Have Said Today

  Today, millions of Christians around the world have participated in a greeting very much like this:

Greeting: Christ is risen! Response: Christ is risen indeed!

Perhaps you were one who said this. We call this the Paschal Greeting, and it has been said by Christians to one another on Easter morning (and other days) for centuries, in hundreds of languages. While all four of the words carry significant meaning, the word that caught my attention as we said it today was the last one: "indeed."

"Indeed" says that this really happened, and that all of the Christians who have said it to one another throughout all of their times and cultures have done so for a specific reason:

Because there was a historical Sunday morning, when a real woman with a shady past went to look for the physical, human corpse of a Jewish teacher from Nazareth whom she had seen be executed and laid in an actual tomb, but the body was not there.

And Christians like me have said these words to one another for so long, and included the word "indeed," because we believe that he who was dead really was alive again. "Indeed."

I'm very glad that someone centuries ago thought it important to include "indeed" in this greeting. It means that we are not saying to one another:

"Christ has risen! Maybe so!"

nor: "Christ has risen! Doesn't that sound nice?"

nor: "Christ has risen! And it makes me feel so good!"

nor: "Christ has risen! And the moral of the story is..."

No, when we say these words, we are saying that a day actually happened when, if we would have been there, we would have seen it with our eyes.

"Indeed" really matters, because it reminds us that as much as theology is important stuff in Christianity, so is history. If Christ's rising were not "indeed," there should be no Christianity, and we should give up our 21 centuries of fascination with this rabbi. But if it happened "indeed," everything else about our lives needs to be evaluated in light of what Mary Magdalene experienced that Sunday morning near Jerusalem. We need to start and end all of our theology by looking at this man who lived, died, then was alive again. Because he was human like us, we need to learn to live the way that he showed and taught us, and because he was uniquely divine, we need to remain focused on him as on no one else.

What difference would it make to you if we didn't say "indeed"? What else does "indeed" mean to us?

I Would Have Been on the Wrong Side of This

As we have moved through Holy Week so far, particularly through Maundy Thursday last night and Good Friday today, I've been dwelling on a couple of things:

First, I've never noticed before how fast things happened. Perhaps that's because as we read the gospels, the events of yesterday and today take up a lot of space. Compared to the speed of the narrative of most of Jesus' life, once we get to Thursday and Friday of this week, the speed of the narrative slows dramatically, particularly in John. Of the 21 chapters, 1/3 of them (chapters 13-19) are filled with the content of these 24 hours.

This makes the pace seem slower when reading the story, as we read about Jesus getting passed back and forth between people, Pilate trying to figure out what to do with him, and the religious leaders working the political system to get their desired result ("You are no friend of Caesar... We have no king but Caesar."). Yet despite the change in pace of the narrative, the reality is that Thursday evening Jesus was having dinner with his friends- including Judas. By mid-afternoon on Friday both Judas and Jesus were dead. It happened very fast.

As I've tried to let these stories sink in and picture the scenes of the Last Supper, Jesus' trial with the Sanhedrin, Peter's denial, the crowd's choice of Barabbus and insistence on Jesus' death, I've realized something: If I had been there and been a character in the story, or even just a face in the crowd, it's silly to think that I would have done anything differently from what everyone else did. I too would have been on the wrong side of the story and left Jesus alone.

I might have been one of those who loved Jesus but for various reasons couldn't do anything about what was happening, and therefore had to let it happen. Those such as Mary his mother, Mary Magdalene, John, Joseph of Arimathea, or Nicodemus surely hated what they saw happening but felt some inevitable sense of resignation to the way things were playing out so quickly.

Or I might have been someone who more actively turned my back and ran from Jesus, like most of his friends. I may have even done what Peter did and tried to cover up any tracks that I'd had with him. Based on my own history in circumstances much less intense that what Peter faced that night, I don't have much reason to think I would do any better than he did.

Or I might have been Judas. It's easy to believe that I could have been more interested in my own plan than Jesus' way of getting things done. Like Judas, I too have been disappointed with God at times, feeling that he didn't come through as he should have, so who's to say that I wouldn't have been the one to seek personal gain as a result of Jesus not turning out to be and do what I had hoped?

Regardless of what role I would have played, I would have been among those included in Jesus' statement, "you all will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me."

I would have been somewhere on the wrong side of this horrible drama. And Jesus would have known that, and even in his most agonizing hours which I helped to bring about, he would have loved me anyway.

A Prayer for Good Friday

"Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family,for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen."

- From The Book of Common Prayer

A Map for Navigating Holy Week

As we jump into Holy Week, here are some options to guide your reflection on Scripture, one for using printed Scriptures and another is for listening and reflecting audibly. I'll also note opportunities to participate in prayer and worship with communities of people both in your area and around the globe. Do all of these, or none of them, but especially during this week, do something! Everything I'll list here will be reliable, so choose whatever draws your attention.

Option 1: Reading Through the Week

The first option is to use the passages from the Revised Common Lectionary to guide your reading this week. Normally the lectionary only gives passages for Sundays, but during Holy Week and some other special days of the Christian year, it also provides readings on some weekdays. While most of its readings rotate through a three-year cycle, the readings for Monday - Friday of this week are the same every year.

Monday of Holy Week

  • Isaiah 42:1-9: The first of four "Servant Songs" of Isaiah, all of which are included in the readings during this week. These songs both point forward to an individual (the Messiah), and describe Israel at its best. This passage describes the Messiah as one who "will not shout or cry out... a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out" until he brings forth justice on earth.
  • Psalm 36:5-11: Praise to God for his love, faithfulness, righteousness, and justice.
  • Hebrews 9:11-15: How Christ's blood on the cross was superior to the blood of temple sacrifices, establishing a new covenant, so that we could be set free from sin.
  • John 12:1-11: To begin the week leading up to his crucifixion, Jesus visits the home of his friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus for the final time. At a dinner given in Jesus' honor, Mary enters and pours expensive perfume on Jesus, drying his feet with her hair.

Tuesday of Holy Week

  • Isaiah 49:1-7: Isaiah's second Servant Song, expressing that although the Messiah would be sent to bring Israel back to God, he would also be made a light for the Gentiles, so that he could "bring [God's] salvation to the ends of the earth."
  • Psalm 71:1-14: A plea to God for deliverance from the hands of the wicked. Although others will say, "God has forsaken him," the Psalmist pleads, "Be not far from me, O God; come quickly, O my God, to help me."
  • 1 Corinthians 1:18-31: "The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God..."
  • John 12:20-36: Jesus predicts his death, saying that "the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified," and "unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds."

Wednesday of Holy Week

  • Isaiah 50:4-9a: The third Servant Song of Isaiah: "I have offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard... I have set my face like flint... It is the sovereign Lord who helps me."
  • Psalm 70: A plea to God for help when faced with the threats of enemies. Contains the words so often repeated in traditional prayers: "Hasten, O God, to save me; O Lord, come quickly to help me."
  • Hebrews 12:1-3: An admonition to throw off the sin that entangles us so easily and remain focused on Jesus, "who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame..."
  • John 13:21-32: Jesus predicts his betrayal and tells Judas, "What you are about to do, do quickly."

Holy (Maundy) Thursday

  • Exodus 12:1-4, (5-10), 11-14: God's instructions to Moses on how the Israelites were to celebrate the Passover, which is what Jesus and his disciples were doing on this evening.
  • Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19: A psalm thanking God for deliverance from death. "How can I repay the Lord for all his goodness to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord."
  • 1 Corinthians 11:23-26: Paul recounts what he received from the Lord regarding the Lord's Supper.
  • John 13:1-17, 31b-35: Jesus washes the disciples' feet and gives them his new command: "As I have loved you, so you must love one another."

Good Friday

  • Isaiah 52:13-53:12: Isaiah's fourth, final, and climactic Servant Song. This passage is quoted more frequently in the New Testament than any other Old Testament passage. "He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed."
  • Psalm 22: The psalm quoted by Jesus from the cross: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
  • Hebrews 10:16-25: Because of Jesus' faithfulness and sacrifice, God's law can be written in our hearts and minds and our sins remembered no more. Now a new way has been opened for us to draw near to God.
  • John 18:1-19:42: John's full account of Jesus' arrest, trial, crucifixion and death and Peter's denial.

Option 2: Listen and Pray Through the Week

A friend recently introduced me to a podcast I've been enjoying greatly, which is based on the Christian year and features prayer, music, a Scripture passage and reflection for each day. It's produced by a group of British Jesuits, which provides a couple of benefits: it's very helpful in leading us to engage the day's passage of Scripture rather than just hear it and move on, and second, the British accents make the narrators sound much more intelligent and spiritual than I would in my Texas drawl.

The podcast and website are called Pray as You Go, and you can get the recordings through their website or their iTunes feed.

Option 3: Pray With a Worldwide Community on Good Friday

My friends at The Transforming Center, led by Ruth Haley Barton, are offering everyone a resource to guide your time of prayer wherever you are on the afternoon of Good Friday. I know their resources well enough to know that this will be well done, and it will provide us a way to pray together as a community regardless of where we are. Click here to read their blog post and receive their prayer guide.

Option 4: (Please do this one!) Worship and Pray with a Church in Your Community

It's always wonderful to see how many people are in worship on Easter Sunday morning, and our community celebrations of Easter will certainly be richer if we have also joined together to worship and pray on Maundy Thursday and/or Good Friday. Hopefully your church has an option on one or both of these days for you to participate in. If not, feel free to participate as a guest in a church that does. If you are in the Midland/Odessa area, join our church as we gather for a Maundy Thursday and Tenebrae service at 6:30 Thursday evening at First United Methodist Church of Midland. (Feel free to leave what your church is doing as a comment below to let others in your area know.)

Welcome to Holy Week

Even if someone is not a Christian, an honest analysis of the way that history has played out over the last 2,000 years would have to point to the events that Christians remember during the coming week as the most significant events in history. What else has shaped people and culture in such a dramatic way as the execution and resurrection of this first-century Jew from Nazareth named Jesus? (And if someone does not believe in the possibility of his resurrection, what possible course could history have taken to bring a poor Jew from an obscure place to still have such influence in our world today?) As we enter into this week, beginning today, Palm Sunday, with our remembrance of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem on a donkey, I have found it helpful to try to put all of the stories about Holy Week into a day-by-day context. Although we may be familiar with many of all of these stories, we often do not think about them in the context of this final week of Jesus' life, which certainly intensifies their meaning.

This is far from scientific; particularly on Monday-Wedensday, we cannot know for sure which events happened on which days, but the order of the outline below is very possible. Most of the passages below are from Matthew's account, since during this year the Revised Common Lectionary has us spending most of our time in his gospel. (Beginning tomorrow I'll post a suggested way of reading scripture this week based on the lectionary.) There are a few key events in the other gospels which Matthew does not include, so they are also listed below.

A couple of things to note: You can download full outline of the events of Holy Week in all four gospels by clicking here. Feel free to use it for your own study. Also, I got a lot of help from the NIV Study Bible's chart called "Passion Week."

Sunday:

Monday:

Tuesday:

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Friday:

Saturday: Jesus is Dead in the Tomb

Then we wait for Sunday.