Morning Prayer, Friday before Second Sunday in Lent — March 10, 2017

Opening

O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth shall proclaim your praise. (Psalm 51:15)
Glory to the Father, and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now,
and will be forever. Amen.

Invitatory

The Sun of righteousness will arise with healing in his wings. (Malachi 4:2)
Oh, come, let us worship and praise.

Psalm 95:1-7

Come, let us sing to the Lord:
let us shout for joy to the rock of our salvation.
Let us come before God’s presence with thanksgiving
and raise a loud shout to the Lord with psalms.
For you, Lord, are a great God,
and a great ruler above all gods.
Come, let us sing to the Lord:
let us shout for joy to the rock of our salvation.
In your hand are the caverns of the earth;
the heights of the hills are also yours.
The sea is yours, for you made it;
and your hands have molded the dry land.
Come, let us sing to the Lord:
let us shout for joy to the rock of our salvation.
Come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the Lord our maker.
For the Lord is our God,
and we are the people of God’s pasture
and the sheep of God’s hand.
Come, let us sing to the Lord:
let us shout for joy to the rock of our salvation.

Invitatory

The Sun of righteousness will arise with healing in his wings.
Oh, come, let us worship and praise.

Psalm 121

I lift up my eyes to the hills;
from where is my help to come?
My help comes from the Lord,
the maker of heaven and earth.
The Lord will not let your foot be moved
nor will the one who watches over you fall asleep.
Behold, the keeper of Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep;
the Lord watches over you;
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
the sun will not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.
The Lord will preserve you from all evil
and will keep your life.
The Lord will watch over your going out and your coming in,
from this time forth forevermore.

O God, maker of heaven and earth, you help us in times of distress and watch over us day and night. Hold us securely in your mercy, that in the midst of fear and danger we may depend on you, our sure deliverer; through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.

Song “Holy God, Holy and Glorious,” by Susan Briehl (ELW 637)

1    Holy God, holy and glorious, glory most sublime,
you come as one among us into human time,
and we behold your glory.

2    Holy God, holy and powerful, power without peer,
you bend to us in weakness; emptied you draw near,
and we behold your power.

3    Holy God, holy and beautiful, beauty unsurpassed,
you are despised, rejected; scorned, you hold us fast,
and we behold your beauty.

4    Holy God, holy and only wise, wisdom of great price,
you choose the way of folly: God the crucified,
and we behold your wisdom.

5    Holy God, holy and living one, life that never ends,
you show your love by dying, dying for your friends,
and we behold you living.

Numbers 21:4-10

[Moses and the Israelites] set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There’s no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.” Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.” So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it up on a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live. Then, the Israelites set out and camped in Oboth.

John 3:1-17 (gospel reading for Second Sunday in Lent, Year A)
A curious Pharisee visits Jesus by night to learn from the teacher his friends reject. Jesus speaks to him about life in the Spirit and the kingdom of God.

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jewish people. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.”

Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the dominion of God without being born from above.”

Nicodemus said to Jesus, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?”

Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Nicodemus said to Jesus, “How can these things be?”

Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son-of-Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son-of-Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God loved the world in this way, that God gave the Son, the only begotten one, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

Word of God, word of life. Thanks be to God.

Reflection “Look on the cross and live”

Numbers 21 and John 3 intrigue me. In each of them, God creates healing for the people. Healing from impatience. Healing from grief. Healing from budgetary shortfalls or miserable food. Healing from spiritual confusion or cultural myopia. And when I say healing, I mean the sozo salvation kind of healing Jesus is famous for: holistic restoration of the un-restorable and and reconciliation of the irreconcilable, both within and without. Sozo is a deep and complete healing, the Greek word for ‘restore to wholeness, heal, save’.

Amazingly, in the Israelites’ journey through the wilderness, God uses the serpent for this sozo healing, the very creature who cajoled Adam and Eve in the garden to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In Jesus Christ on the cross, God becomes the bronze serpent — “just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son-of-Man be lifted up.” God enters into our misery, shortfalls, and suffering so much so that God takes all this on, completely: “for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night, asking for words of clarification first hand. What he receives is a word of grace. And a word of preparation. As Jesus answers, he knows that facing all your serpents — revealing truth — comes at a price, and so Jesus “looks ahead to his crucifixion and prepares Nicodemus to see in his cross not just a similarity to a story from Israel’s past but the pattern of God’s relentless commitment to work good from evil and wrest life from death” (David Lose). 

The Israelites looked at a bronze serpent; we look the cross upon which Christ died: The Israelites who were bitten by serpents looked at the bronze serpent and lived, remembering how God had delivered them from slavery in Egypt and was steadfastly journeying with them through the wilderness. We who are bitten by sin and brokenness look at the cross, where Christ was crucified and, drawing all people to himself, exhibited self-giving love to the whole world. We look at this cross, and live. Indeed every Good Friday, we behold and live. We hear and respond: “Behold the life-giving cross, on which was hung the Savior of the whole world. Oh, come, let us worship Him.”

Scriptural Dialogue

One does not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. (Matthew 4:4)

Gospel Canticle “Song of Zechariah”

In the tender compassion of our God
the dawn from on high shall break upon us.

Blessed are you, Lord, the God of Israel,
you have come to your people and set them free.
You have raised up for us a mighty Savior,
born of the house of your servant David.
In the tender compassion of our God
the dawn from on high shall break upon us.

Through your holy prophets,
you promised of old to save us from our enemies,
from the hands of all who hate us,
to show mercy to our forebears,
and to remember your holy covenant.
This was the oath you swore to our father Abraham:
to set us free from the hands of our enemies,
free to worship you without fear,
holy and righteous before you, all the days of our life.
In the tender compassion of our God
the dawn from on high shall break upon us.

And you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High,
for you will go before the Lord to prepare the way,
to give God's people knowledge of salvation
by the forgiveness of their sins.
In the tender compassion of our God
the dawn from on high shall break upon us,
to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet into the way of peace.
In the tender compassion of our God
the dawn from on high shall break upon us.

Prayers

The Lord be with you. And also with you.
Let us pray. We give thanks to you, heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ your dear Son, that you have protected us through the night from all harm and danger. We ask that you would also protect us today from sin and all evil, so that our life and actions may please you. Into your hands we commend ourselves: our bodies, our souls, and all that is ours. Let your holy angels be with us, so that the wicked foe may have no power over us. Amen.

Lord’s Prayer

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil. For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever. Amen.

Blessing

May God who has called us forth from the dust of the earth, and claimed us as children of the light, strengthen you on your journey into life renewed. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord’s face shine upon you with grace and mercy. The Lord look upon you with favor
and give you + peace. Amen.

A greeting of peace may be shared by all.

Copyright © 2017 Augsburg Fortress. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission under Augsburg Fortress Liturgies Annual License #SAS011448. New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. “Holy God, Holy and Glorious” (ELW 637) Text: Susan R. Briehl, © 2002 GIA Publications.