The Importance of Giving Thanks: Lent, Week 4, Thursday

My friend Karen says: "Yes, our sons have been told they either write thank you notes or the gifts are returned for not being thankful....we may be some of the last of a dying breed!"


Luke 17:11-19 Ten lepers call out for mercy as Jesus passes by. Jesus said "Go show yourself to the priest" And as they went they were cleansed. One, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus feet and thanked him - he was a Samaritan. 


Jesus said, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was their no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?"


Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit in me.


Exodus 5:1-14, 22 - end Moses and Aaron return to Egypt and met first with the elders of the Israelites, then Pharaoh, showing signs and wonders. The elders rejoiced, the king revoked his orders and the Israelites were expected to gather their own straw and make the same number of bricks as before. The elders retracted their praise. Moses recoiled, despondent and murmuring.


You have given your people knowledge of salvation, O God, by the forgiveness of their sins.


Hebrews 11:17-22 The faith of the patriarchs comes from sacrifice and spiritual tests. 


The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit a broken and contrite heart.

Jeremiah 40:7 - end Gedaliah was appointed as governor of the remnant of Judah after Nebuchadnezzar took the Israelites into captivity. Though viewed as a Babylonian collaborator, he restored order and prosperity based on his faith that God, not man, had placed him in this position to protect the remnant.


Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he may be near.


With faith and love and in union with Christ,
let us offer our prayer before the throne of grace.


Have mercy on your people, 
for whom your Son laid down his life.


Bring healing and wholeness to people and nations,
and have pity on those torn apart by division.

Strengthen all who are persecuted for your name's sake.

and deliver them from evil.

Look in mercy upon all who suffer,

and hear those who cry out in pain and desolation.

Bring comfort to the dying,

and gladden their hearts with the power of your glory.

Give rest to the departed and bring them, with your saints, to glory everlasting.

As we rejoice in the triumph of the cross,

we pray that the whole creation may find fulfillment 

in the eternal kingdom of God.

May Christ the King give us his blessing of peace. Amen.


Lent, Week 4, Thursday 

Snakes: Lent, Week 4, Sunday, Year B

Through Jesus Christ our Lord; who was in every way tempted as we .are, yet did not sin; by whose grace we are able to triumph over every evil, and to live no longer unto ourselves, but unto him who died for us and rose again. 

Numbers 21:4-9                              Ephesians 2:1-10                          John 3:14-21

 I grew up in the Panhandle of Texas.  Just beyond our house was a vacant lot.  By late July or early August the grass was tall, dry and rattled in the hot, dry wind.  But, at the back of the lot was a small concrete slab shaded by an elm tree; perfect for playing marbles.  I knew I wasn’t supposed to go there. I was barefoot. Watching for sticker patches.  Watching for red ant beds.

I became irritable and cross.  I felt something slither across my foot.  There was the rattler end of a diamondback disappearing into the grass.  My next step would put me in a rattlesnake nest filled with hatchlings, small but many, and poisonous.  I screamed.  Daddy came.  I expected a spanking. I got picked up and embraced with incredible love.  Saved.

The children of Israel were up to their stiff necks in deadly snakes.  God suddenly had their full attention.  Suffer your consequences but “look up and be healed.” (Numbers 21:4-9 MSG)

The Ephesians were up to their necks in disobedience. “It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy … he embraced us … made us alive in Christ.”  (Ephesians 2:1-10 MSG)

Jesus said to Nicodemus “In the same way that Moses lifted the serpent in the desert…it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up – and everyone who looks up to him…will gain a real life, eternal life.”  (John 3:14-21 MSG) Saved.  

Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen