With sometimes edgy, perhaps even irreverent language, author Anne Lamott has written a number of books describing her own faith journey. In one such reflection, after a particularly sleepless night - mind racing, tossing and turning - it occurs to her to pray:
I decided to start from scratch, with a simple prayer: “Hi!”I said.
Someone or something hears. I don’t know much about its nature, only that when I cry out, it hears, and moves closer to me, and I don’t feel so alone. I feel better. And I felt better that morning, starting over.
The very notion that God hears and responds to a moment’s prayer in a restless night, or meets us with new mercy every morning - wow.
Right in the middle of the Book of Lamentations - five poems from the awful Hebrew night that was the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and exile to Babylon - right in the middle, from out of nowhere, come these four verses:
But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, God’s mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” (Lam. 3:21-24)
The never ending promise of God’s mercy new every morning comes to us in baptism. Martin Luther said that we should rise, make the sign of the cross, and say to ourselves, “I have been baptized!” With that we remember that we walk into the new day awash in God’s grace, powered by Christ’s resurrection, and companioned by the Holy Spirit. . .wow, what a gift!
Dr. H. George Anderson, former ELCA Presiding Bishop, once concluded a sermon on “Beginning” with these words: “Luther doesn’t spend a lot of time describing a saint, but in his commentary on Psalm 101:8 he does describe “the holy soul.”He says, “it stands always at daybreak, and is always arising - not because it has reached its goal or is perfect, but because, forgetting what is behind, it always begins anew and stretches forward.”
The gift of faith starts us anew and stretches us forward into each new day. New beginnings are God’s idea and promise. They provide the wellspring of hope. And I am glad for that.
We pray: You make all things new, Gracious God. Creating, beginning again, renewing - you keep us alive and living in hope. Thank you. Now help us to learn to do the same for one another, especially for sisters and brothers near and far for whom new beginnings seem a lost possibility. We pray in the name of the one who is our hope, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Contributed by Bishop Riley
Monday September 22, 2014
Liturgical Year A: Week 43
Liturgical Color: Green
Sunday Gospel reading: Proper 20
Eightteenth Sunday after Pentecost