Skip to main content

I'm In

A few weeks ago, I was using voice-to-text to compose some prayers. After I was finished speaking the whole list, I was proof-reading the document and realized that everywhere I said “Amen”, the voice-to-text wrote “I’m in”.

“Amen” essentially means “may it be so”, but what would it look like to end our prayers with “I’m in”. What would change if we rose from our knees, left our prayer closets, closed our devotionals, and moved with purpose toward the goals for which we had just prayed. 

Lord, in your mercy: 
Grant justice to the oppressed and disenfranchised (I’m in)
Cast down the mighty from their thrones (I’m in) 
Console the grieving and welcome the prodigal (I’m in) 
Welcome strangers and attend to the marginalized (I’m in) 
Grant the space for the silenced to speak… and listen (I’m in) 
Fill the hungry with good things and send the rich away empty (I’m in) 
Forgive others as I am forgiven (I’m in)
Be merciful as God in heaven is merciful (I’m in) 
Gently steward the creation God so loves (I’m in) 
Do not neglect to meet together with other faithful folks (I’m in) 
Clothe the naked, visit the imprisoned, bring healing to the sick, accompany the lonely (I’m in)  

The readings for Ash Wednesday are meant to return us to a place of prayer in word and deed. We ask God to grant us clean hearts, for the purposes of restoring us to right relationship with our Creator, the people around us, and the whole world. Right relationship is a place of action, not a state of mind. The action of service changes us. The action of prayer changes us. The work of listening, accompanying, being curious changes us. It is not the motions themselves; it is the presence of the Holy Spirit in those movements that cause holy shifts within us. This is not the same thing as salvation, so I am in no way implying works-righteousness. 

I’m talking about God’s work of sanctification- making us holy, shaping us to be the people we’ve been made, equipped, and called to be. The Lenten season is the time to return to that and to ask ourselves, “Can I say, ‘I’m in”?” 

Do I want to be more like Christ in my heart, in my words, in my actions? 

The reality of resurrection is already true. We’re not waiting to re-enact Easter, but the observation of Lent allows us to prepare to be embraced by that holy joy once again. If, with the Spirit’s help, we’re not able to say “I’m in” to the discipline and devotion of Lent, we will truly be open to the “I’m in” of Easter? 

Good news delivered by women? 
The harrowing of hell? 
Appearances to doubters and deniers? 
Inclusive invitations to community? 
The call to be changed by mystery? 

The ”I’m in” to Lent, to discipline and devotion, is preparation for responding in kind to everything else God is doing and will do. 

We will not do this work alone. God goes with us all the way. 

So, what do you say? 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Latibule

I like words and I recently discovered Save the Words , a website which allows you to adopt words that have faded from the English lexicon and are endanger of being dropped from the Oxford English Dictionary. When you adopt a word, you agree to use it in conversation and writing in an attempt to re-introduce said word back into regular usage. It is exactly as geeky as it sounds. And I love it. A latibule is a hiding place. Use it in a sentence, please. After my son goes to bed, I pull out the good chocolate from my latibule and have a "mommy moment". The perfect latibule was just behind the northwest corner of the barn, where one had a clear view during "Kick the Can". She tucked the movie stub into an old chocolate box, her latibule for sentimental souvenirs. I like the sound of latibule, though I think I would spend more time defining it and defending myself than actually using it. Come to think of it, I'm not really sure how often I use the ...
2 comments
Read more

Religious Holidays in Anchorage

You may have read in the Anchorage Daily News about a new policy regarding certain religious holidays and the scheduling of school activities. If not, a link to the article is here . The new rules do not mean that school will be out on these new holiday inclusions, but that the Anchorage School District will avoid scheduling activities, like sporting events, on these days. The new list includes Passover, Rosh Hashanah , Yom Kippur , Eid al - Fitr and Eid al - Adha . They are added to a list which includes New Year's, Orthodox Christmas and Easter, Good Friday, Easter, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas. The new holidays may be unfamiliar to some: Passover is a Jewish celebration, in the springtime, that commemorates the events in Egypt that led up to the Exodus. The name of the holiday comes specifically from the fact that the angel of death "passed over" the houses of the Israelites during the plague which killed the eldest sons of the Egyptians. Passover is a holiday ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Would I Do?

Palm Sunday Mark 11:1-11 One of my core memories is of a parishioner who said, "I don't think I would have been as brave as the three in the fiery furnace. I think I would have just bowed to the king. I would have bowed and known in my heart that I still loved God. I admire them, but I can tell the truth that I wouldn't have done it." (Daniel 3) To me, this man's honesty was just as brave. In front of his fellow Christians, in front of his pastor, he owned up to his own facts: he did not believe he would have had the courage to resist the pressures of the king. He would have rather continued to live, being faithful in secret, than risk dying painfully and prematurely for open obedience to God.  I can respect that kind of truth-telling. None of us want to be weighed in the balance and found wanting. For some of us, that's our greatest fear. The truth is, however, that I suspect most of us are not as brave as we think we are. The right side of history seems cle...
Post a Comment
Read more