GREETING (adapted from Psalm 89:26)
You, Almighty One, are our Father, our God, and the Rock of our salvation.
Your steadfast love is forever, and your covenant is everlasting.
Reveal to us your will, so we may worship you with our time in this world.
Hold us to your covenant, where all our blessing and hope lies.
Use our worship to form us as the steadfast covenant-keepers that you desire,
and let our faithful witness draw others to their salvation in you.
HYMN 586 “Let My People Seek Their Freedom”
PSALM 105
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.
Lub dub, lub dub, lub dub is the sound you created, God.
Every person and many animals wear this sound in their chests.
It is the language of our hearts, and it speaks of life and of your love.
Father of the lub dub, you prize this blood-pumping voice.
A vein of pumping blood threads your whole covenant with us.
It surprises us to find blood ties so deeply embedded in your covenant.
We think the Israelites primitive for their animal sacrifices.
That whole scene of blood and cruelty to animals turns us off.
Is it necessary for us to sacrifice something valuable for the covenant?
When Moses sealed your covenant with the people of Israel,
he threw sacrificial blood on both your altar and on your people.
Spilling the blood of valuable animals grabbed the people’s attention.
A bull, an ox, sheep and goats, peoples’ livelihoods offered,
to thank, plead, appease, atone, or seal your covenant with them.
Even the poor had to bring a dove or a pigeon to be sacrificed to you.
Was all that blood to satisfy you? No, you hallow covenant.
We are the covenant-breakers. The bloody sacrifices are for us.
We realize the essential nature of our relationship when a heart stops.
We know when the lub dub is silenced, death has come near.
Your covenant, we realize, is not just a matter of divine whimsy.
It is your grace offering us protection in the battle of life versus death.
Sacrifice? More than anyone else you know this gift’s cost.
In Christ, you made the ultimate sacrifice for a sin-filled people.
The most valuable sacrifice ever, certainly opened our eyes and hearts!
Lub dub, lub dub, lub dub, his heart spoke, and then silence.
The silence was ear-splitting. The one innocent among us died,
and it was by his choice. He could have saved himself, but he saved us.
That is sacrifice. It is pure love wrapping itself in our death.
You made one sacrifice, and all other sacrifices appeared puny.
One heart-wrenching sacrifice put an end to all future spilling of blood.
That blood so pure and precious, that heart so deeply loved,
and that heart-song so ferociously cherished, no one expected it.
All creation held its breath. None knew how profoundly we are loved.
One sacrifice told it all. A new covenant is written in blood,
with half of it you splashed the altar you formed from the cross,
the other half you hand us in the cup we still drink in holy communion.
This blood is not splashed on us. This blood we take into us.
We drink, and his blood slowly mixes and assimilates with ours.
Our hearts begin to beat with an ancient song that is fresh and new to us.
The same old lub dub sounds, but now colored by his blood.
Stone no longer holds your commandments. Their home is new.
Christ’s sacrifice has written them on beating muscle singing your song.
With a nod to justice and a pounding beat of grace-born love,
the lub dub, lub dub, lub dub sends blood coursing out to feed
nerves and muscles longing to serve, to praise, and to give you thanks.
Yes, hearts can be transformed, sanctified, and united to you.
Christ’s sacrificial blood turns “no people” into “your people.”
Christ’s sacrificial blood seals your new covenant with those you love.
The ancient song has been made new with ultimate sacrifice.
Today our hearts sing of a covenant with our Creator and Savior,
that links now with forever in your kingdom. Lub dub, lub dub, lub dub.
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 467 “Trust and Obey”
CLOSING PRAYER
You have made a number of covenants with your people, God.
But what is a covenant really – a contract, an agreement, a promise?
When you make a covenant with someone it is more than these.
Your covenants have always been full and unique because they are:
a surprise, with you initiating the whole arrangement for blessing us;
an unbalanced gift, in that we receive more than we can ever return;
a steadfast bond binding you to people you have chosen for covenant;
an alliance of you and your chosen people to work for all that is good;
a relationship with people who are privileged to enjoy your company;
your pledge, your understanding, your commitment to those chosen.
When you make a covenant, you are absolutely, always faithful.
On the other hand, we absolutely, always fail to keep faith with you.
But we can sleep soundly because Christ has kept faith for us,
and tomorrow we begin again in a covenant that still stands in love.
Amen.
Copyright 2020. Robert D. Ingram, 32746 Jourden Rd., Albany, Ohio 45710 (dr.bobingram@gmail.com). Used by permission.
