This year during Lent we’re hearing from five different women. Women who remain largely invisible to us until we catch a glimpse of them as they step out from the shadows and into the light that surrounds Jesus.Imagining their stories requires that we read between the lines of Scripture. In her book, The Women Around Jesus, Elizabeth Moltmann-Wendell speaks of the importance of using our imaginations in approaching the Biblical tradition:
“If we are to regain the access we have lost, the spontaneity of which we have been deprived, we must learn once again to think, feel, live and act in in terms of a total sense of living. To do this, we shall have to rediscover a forgotten art of using our imagination in our theology…such imagination is the power of the Holy Spirit to bring new life to whatever has become fossilized.”
Some of the women we’ll encounter are wealthy. Some are poor. Some are Jewish. Some are Gentile. In every case, the gospel writer provides scant details about these women whose lives intersect with Jesus and so its left to us to imagine their backstories and how their encounter with him might have left them changed. Look to this post for an updated recordings each week as we move through each of the five portrayals:
Happy Listening!
Pastor Erik
Peace Wednesday 1, Peter’s motherinlaw
Peace Wednesday 2, Mother of James and John
Peace Wednesday 3, Syrophoenician Woman
Patrick grew up in a somewhat privileged family, on the west coast of Britain during the waning days of the Roman empire. And though his father was a Christian deacon and his grandfather a priest, Patrick, as a child, was not very religious. But when he was kidnapped as a teenager by Irish raiders, his life was turned upside down.
Sold to an Irish chieftain, Patrick found himself in exile—herding sheep and living in isolation and deprivation in the north of Ireland. It was there, during six long years of captivity, that he discovered the voice of God speaking to him from within. Responding to that voice, he fell into a rhythm of prayer each day. It was this same voice that inspired Patrick, six years later, to make his risky escape from slavery.
Walking 200 miles through forests and bogs, he found his way to a port and onto a ship, and, eventually, was reunited with his family. This experience of exile seeded a spiritual conversion within Patrick and he started on a new path of love for God, for his neighbor, and even for his enemies.
Much to the consternation of his family and the amazement of his former owners, he returned to Ireland years later as a missionary to preach and practice the love and mercy of God.
The hymn of St. Patrick is often referred to as a lorica or breastplate prayer. “Lorica” means a protective sheath, and loricas were to be chanted while dressing, arming oneself for battle, before travel, and as a protection against spiritual enemies. This prayer expresses Patrick’s faith and zeal in a powerful and memorable way as he invokes the power of the Holy Trinity, the powers of heaven and earth, and Christ himself, to accompany him in all circumstances and guard him from the powers of evil.
In recent years Patrick’s prayer has become precious to me. Reciting it daily helps to keep me grounded as I attend the challenges each day brings. As restrictions aimed at limiting the spread of COVID-19 broaden and personal concerns for protection deepen, spiritual resources that ground us become more and more important. Reciting St. Patrick’s Breastplate Prayer doesn’t magically protect us, but it can help us plant ourselves on faith’s firm footing as each day begins. I share it this with you now with the invitation that you seek out, in your own way, spiritual resources that will serve to ground you in these times.[1]
I bind unto myself today the strong name of the Trinity
by invocation of the same, the Three in One and One in Three.
I bind this day to me for ever, by pow’r of faith, Christ’s incarnation,
his baptism in the Jordan River, his cross of death for my salvation,
his bursting from the spiced tomb, his riding up the heav’nly way,
his coming at the day of doom, I bind unto myself today.
I bind unto myself today the virtues of the starlit heaven,
the glorious sun’s life-giving ray, the whiteness of the moon at even,
the flashing of the lightning free, the whirling wind’s tempestuous shocks,
the stable earth, the deep salt sea, around the old eternal rocks.
Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.
I bind unto myself the name, the strong name of the Trinity
by invocation of the same, the Three in One and One in Three,
of whom all nature has creation, eternal Father, Spirit, Word.
Praise to the Lord of my salvation: salvation is of Christ the Lord!
[1] By the year 690 his hymn was being sung in churches and monasteries throughout Ireland and has been ever since. When Cecil Francis Alexander was asked to make a metrical version of the hymn, she wrote a paraphrase based on a 12 century manuscript which was sung for the first time on St. Patrick’s Day in 1889. This hymn form made its way into our Evangelical Lutheran Worship hymnal #450. For another version of the Breastplate, sung to The Deer’s Cry, listen to this lovely lyrical version sung by Irishwoman Rita Connolly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeVEGOPjJXQ
March 8, 2020
Sisters and Brothers,
Pastor Erik here, sending grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Creator, from Jesus the Christ, and from the Holy Spirit, who holds us in community even when we’re unable to be physically together in one place.
We are living through an extraordinary time right now, as our region and the world grapple with the spreading coronavirus—COVID-19. It’s a time of high anxiety with many unknowns. In conformity with recommendations made by the Health Department, we have cancelled our education classes and worship service for today, March 8th, as well as our Wednesday evening meal and prayer service on March 11th.
Since we cannot be together this morning in worship, I wanted to share some encouragement with you today by reflecting on this moment through the lens that the Scriptures and our faith provide. And so, attached to this post you’ll find a message I recorded this morning. I invite you to open the recording some time today, and listen to what I want to share with you.
I will be at the church from 9:30am to Noon today, Sunday March 8, in the event you’d like to talk or pray.
Peace be with you.
Pastor Erik
What does this mean?