GREETING (Adapted from Isaiah 52:7)
How beautiful upon the mountains, O God,
are the feet of the messenger who announces peace,
who brings good news,
who announces salvation,
who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”
HYMN 297 “Beneath the Cross of Jesus”
PSALM 54
PRAYER
(Think back to the beginning of this day. Start there, and mentally walk through the day again, while you thank God for the day's blessings and God's continuous work of love. Confess and repent of those times when you forgot, ignored or rebelled against God. Continue to pray with your personal prayer list.)
SCRIPTURE LESSON
(Choose a passage of scripture to read. It can be a chapter, a paragraph, or a particular story. Daily lectionaries are available online or in print that assign a lesson each day from the gospels, epistles, Old Testament and psalms on a three-year cycle. Or you can create a plan to read a book of the Bible, or the whole Bible. Then follow the steps below.)
Read a passage of scripture. Read it out loud, very slowly and carefully as if for the first time. Continue reading until a word, phrase or sentence captures your attention. Stop there to repeat the word, phrase or sentence over and over, listening to it deeply in your heart.
Reflect on why the passage got your attention. Consider the area of your life to which this may apply. Is God saying something to you in this passage? Take time to listen carefully to whatever God may be saying to you.
Respond to God in prayer (or with journaling, music, art or whatever you choose) about what you have heard. Ask questions. Open yourself to God’s will for you.
Rest in God’s company. Be still and quiet. Move beyond thinking, practicing interior silence. Let yourself be open to God’s presence. Savor this moment with God.
PRAYER
Almighty God, we lift our eyes to look at your Son dying on our cross,
and we wail with grief and we shake with dread at the totality of our loss.
We look longer, and unbelievably what we took for devastating defeat,
we see is no defeat at all, but rather the greatest of all declarations of love.
The flesh torn by whips, the brow pierced by thorns, and hands by nails,
join with his dying words spoken from our cross, “Forgive them, Father.”
What looked like all defeat and loss is really victory and gain for us.
Forgiving us is Jesus’ greatest glory, and our salvation from sin and death.
As Jesus pours out his sacrificial gift, his blood shouting of his pain,
we are comforted, our hope is reborn, and his eternal love washes over us.
Horror and beauty, tragedy and victory, vile hatred and extreme love,
meet for the long, agonizing hours as Jesus offers his exquisite sacrifice.
We recoil from the price he pays, but honor and love him for the gift.
We could never have asked. And never have. No one could even imagine.
God cannot die. But in Christ it has happened on the cross we built.
Now we stand before that cross, humbly accepting the gift so freely given.
We should be contorted with pain and broken by the shame of guilt,
but he lifts up our faces and hears from our lips whispered thanksgivings.
Tomorrow we will leap, dance, and shout his praise to the heavens,
but today we ache too much from the pain we have caused to one so good.
Today we bow before you, seeds of relief growing into grateful fruit.
You have restored our hope, resurrected our lives, and won us with love.
Thank you for sending Jesus. Let us forever be known as Christian,
as his Spirit creates an unending chorus of thanksgivings from our lives. Amen.
SILENCE AND COMMITMENT
(Pause to reflect and listen. Work to push out of your mind any distracting or irrelevant thoughts. Concentrate your thoughts on the words of the hymns and choruses you have sung, the prayers you have spoken and the scriptures you have read. Be aware of what you are feeling. Listen for anything that God might be saying to you in this time you have spent together. As God responds to your prayer-time, seek guidance for how you can best respond to God’s will. Then commit to serving God’s will for you.)
HYMN 298 “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”
CLOSING PRAYER
You, God, are the very essence of love and grace,
and tonight as we approach our beds for needed sleep,
we turn over all our concerns to your compassionate heart.
Wrap our families and friends in your protection.
Guard those whose paths we have crossed today,
and our neighbors: known and unknown, near and far.
Heal those with diseases, wounds and afflictions;
those boiling with deep troubles inside themselves;
and those cursed with bad decisions and crippling habits.
Bring good news to the people suffering in wars;
those impoverished by ignorance or sick economies;
and those living under the burden of earth’s pollution.
Take all your people into your arms tonight, Lord.
Comfort them with your steadfast and faithful love.
Let them find rest and hope tonight in your tender care. Amen.
Copyright 2020. Robert D. Ingram, 32746 Jourden Rd., Albany, Ohio 45710 (dr.bobingram@gmail.com). Used by permission.
