Liturgy, Reflection, & Benediction 2025.04.27

Liturgy

Lord, we come to you saturated with suffering.
Be thou our vision.
Both our own and that of others.
Be thou our vision.
Parents are losing their homes.
Children are going hungry.
The systems we have trusted in
are being stripped to their wobbly stilts.
Be thou our vision.
We are so sure of how to help,
and yet so often our efforts
fall flat or cause new harm.
Each time we believe we have fixed your image,
that we have arrived at righteousness,
shatter our certainty with your presence.
Be thou our vision.
Jesus, you are our Messiah.
You always bring a deliverance different
than what your followers expect,
and you pay the price of their expectations.
In this and every time,
let our deepest longing be for you:
to see you clearly,
to follow you even when you surprise us.
To embody your love for the world
and the stooped posture you took
to be ever closer to your creation.
In the name of the Ruler, the High Priest, and the Spirit
who stoop to be near us,
Amen

(Vox Prayer Team)

Scripture

We invite you to hear from the Gospel according to John 12:1-8

1 Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of
Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2 There they gave a dinner
for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him.
3 Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed
Jesus’s feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the
fragrance of the perfume.
4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray
him), said, 5 “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and
the money given to the poor?” 6 (He said this not because he cared about
the poor but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used
to steal what was put into it.)
7 Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for
the day of my burial. 8 You always have the poor with you, but you do not
always have me.”

The Good News of the Lord.
Thanks be to God!
The grass withers and the flower fades,
but the Word of the Lord endures forever. Amen.
Amen.

Homily & Reflection

Podcast: Giving Up Politics For Lent

• Has purity thinking affected how I relate to other with different political views?
• What are some ways I can practice detaching my sense of self from my political views?
• How can I lean into Christ as the true source of my identity?

Benediction

Christ, give us the grace to see you rightly this week.
Be our wisdom, our best thought,
our presence, our light.
May you comfort us as we
wake and sleep, work and rest,
with the ever-good news of who you are.
Give us the strength to see ourselves rightly this week.
Help us insist less on our own purity,
and instead humbly turn to you for all things,
so caught up in your just vision for the world
that we are willing to be proven wrong.
Let us go forth like perfume:
Aware that our days are short
and our lives are only a lingering moment in history.
Let us make this world beautiful while we can.
In the name of the Triune One
Who eternally extends Their love to us,
Amen.
(Vox Prayer Team)

[Photo by Joshua Fuller]