During our Mid-week Lenten services on Wednesday evenings, I will offer a special prayer rather than deliver a sermon. The purpose of the prayers is to help us keep being Christian in a culture in which it’s harder and harder to be Christian, Christian in a way that matters to God and others too. The hope is that the prayers will be used to guide personal prayer not just on Wednesday evenings but each day throughout Lent and beyond, because that is the only way we can keep being Christian in a culture in which Christianity is hardly Christian at all, at least not in any way Jesus would recognize: by praying for the strength and courage to be Christian in a way that he would recognize.
Following is one of the prayers I will offer...
A Prayer for Lent
O Lord, we live in a culture of screens,
little screens,
big screens,
all kinds of screens,
and many of us can’t take our eyes off them,
heads down,
heads up,
heads that can’t turn away,
one hand never free,
one eye always eyeing,
one ear always ringing,
talking, texting, tweeting
non-stop,
at work, at home, in the mall and
grocery store too,
out to dinner with friends
all the while reading what lies on
our laps,
not really seeing the other,
not seeing the face of the other coming toward us
or seated right next to us,
the very face that might be the very face
we most need and long to see,
the very face of Christ.
O Lord, this day and each day, give us, we pray,
the courage –
yes, the courage, because that is what it takes –
the courage –
to look up from the screen,
to turn away from the screen, even
to turn off the screen,
and look, really look,
at the faces of others
and see them as the human beings that they are,
human beings who need us to be human to them,
human beings
who may be as happy as we are
or as unhappy as we are
who feel the same grief and emptiness
we feel,
who need the very same mercy and love
and kindness
shown to them
as we need shown to us,
human beings who are fighting the same battle
we all of us are fighting
and need kindness and love and mercy
to see them through.
O Lord, help us to keep looking,
looking away,
and look at others
so that we keep being Christian
in a way that matters.
Amen.
God be with you,
Jeff
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