During Lent, we learn to pay attention. We forego certain things, such as eating certain foods or indulging in certain activities, so we may have more mental or emotional bandwidth to see Christ’s work in our lives.

Lent begins today. Many of us will have ashes smudged on our heads tonight. The ashes remind us of our humanity, and the cross reminds us of the crucifixion. Together, they are the mark of Jesus; God has become human and has taken our lives into his. Christ has taken our weakness, brokenness, and sinfulness into himself and given us life. When the ashes land on your head, be reminded that this is a somber moment, but at its core is the joy of God. It is a bright sadness.

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Poet John Ciardi says, “We are what we pay attention to.” He’s riffing on William Blake’s words, “We become what we behold.” Unfortunately, our attention is divided a million times over by demands that are both legitimate and vain. Lent empowers us to discern good from bad and better from the best.

… is proclaimed in the Orthodox worship service when the Gospel is read. It is the final phrase of a dialogue between priest and congregation, preparing them to hear the Scripture. In 21st-century language, it means something like "Pay attention" or "Listen!"

For the six weeks of Lent, our calendar says, "Stand aright! Let us attend." Time itself will call upon us to pay attention to God, to the work of the Spirit, to the actions of Jesus—to everything.

Above all, the ashes on our foreheads remind us of the irresistible love of God. “Stand aright! Let us attend.” God’s love has come to us in Jesus of Nazareth.

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Nathan Hansen brings the message this week by reflecting on how Christopher Nolan, William Blake, traveling with Wheatlanders, and sandwich pictures reveal the work of Christ.

Jesus’ transfiguration transcends time and space, bringing God’s plans to fulfillment in Christ. Nate’s excellent message is the perfect conclusion to Epiphany, the season of Christ’s unveiling.

Kelly Chewning brings us a message from the story of Joseph, tying together the beauty of God working with the small and insignificant with the power of the resurrection. This is a powerful message worthy of all our attention and even repeated listens!

Merciful and ever-loving Father, You have called us into fellowship with your beloved Son. May our hearts be open to holy affection and our minds readied to receive and cherish your truth. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, one God, forever and ever. AMEN. - The Paraclete Psalter: A Book of Daily Prayer, pg. 251

Jeremiah 17:9 is notorious. Maybe you’ll recognize it in the New King James Version,

It has been weaponized. Some of us have had it used against us. It’s a clobber passage, one of those verses used by Christian leaders to coerce fellow Christians into proper behavior.

Taken by itself and out of context, it sounds hopeless. Our hearts lie to God and ourselves. We can’t even know what is true. Not only that, we are wicked, or, as the NRSV puts it, “perverse.” I have a hard time reading it without a feeling of dread.

However, the Septuagint, the original Greek translation of the Old Testament and the one used in the New Testament, renders this passage differently. It says,

We can’t explain the differences between the two translations here. But, we can take some hope in seeing that Christians have translated this passage differently. This provides a hopeful opening. The heart is deep, complex, and maybe even beautiful. We are made in God’s image, after all.

Of course, the Septuagint doesn’t say that the heart is immune to deception. It doesn’t let the human heart off the hook. Our own eyes prove that humanity is capable of evil. Even under the best circumstances, our hearts need help. Human hearts need healing.

And this week’s prayer offers a cure.

The cure for our deep (or devious) hearts is not moral exertion, perfection(ism), or punishment. It is love. From stem to stern, the Bible describes God as a lover, one who is ready and happy to give to humanity. He is gentle as Adam and Eve leave the garden,1 he feeds Israel in the wilderness,2 he lays his heart bare in the prophets,3 and, most transparently, he embraces the son who rejected him in the Parable of the Prodigal Son.4

God loves. God is ready to give. Perhaps it would be good to think of God as attached. If this is the case, then healing comes through God's affection, and what is required of us is to receive that affection, accept his acceptance, and be embraced by God again.

What stands in the way of you opening “your heart to holy affection?” What are some ways that we can help one another do just that?

Genesis 3:21-24

Exodus 16:13-16

Hosea 11:7-9, Jeremiah 31:19-21, Isaiah 57:15-19

Luke 11:15-32

Some of us have had Jeremiah 17:9 used against us. It’s a “clobber passage.” A verse of Scripture that sometimes gets used as a weapon, a tool to get teenagers to behave, to get adults to act the way they are “supposed” to, and to generally shame people into living right. Is that what God really intends?

Perhaps not; here are a few ways this passage has been translated.

The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse—who can understand it? – NRSV

The Mind is more crooked than anything: it’s grave—who can know it? – The 1st Testament Trans. by John Goldingay

The heart is deep beyond all things, and it is the man, and who can know him? - LXX (the Septuagint)

What if this passage is more of a reminder of the depth and complexity of human life? A depth and complexity affected by sin, for sure, both our own and others. Could it be a reminder of our need to receive, or re-receive, the acceptance of God in Jesus Christ?

We closed with this prayer from The Paraclete Psalter. May our hearts indeed be open to “holy affection.”

Merciful and ever-loving Father, You have called us into fellowship with your beloved Son. May our hearts be open to holy affection and our minds readied to receive and cherish your truth. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, one God, forever and ever. AMEN.

(What We Pray is a series of brief reflections on the words Wheatland prays in our worship service and morning prayer.)

The Suffrages are a series of short prayers arranged in a call-and-response format toward the end of the Morning Office.

V. Show us your mercy, O Lord;
R. And grant us your salvation.
V. Clothe your ministers with righteousness;
R. Let your people sing with joy.
V. Give peace, O Lord, in all the world;
R. For only in you can we live in safety.

V. Lord, keep this nation under your care;
R. And guide us in the way of justice and truth.
V. Let your way be known upon earth;
R. Your saving health among all nations.
V. Let not the needy, O Lord, be forgotten;
R. Nor the hope of the poor be taken away.
V. Create in us clean hearts, O God;
R. And sustain us with your Holy Spirit.

The suffrages are like arrows, short requests shot to heaven. We cannot remember everything or everyone we could pray for. Gratefully, God does. He even hears the requests we don’t remember to lift.

Praying these one-phrase prayers reminds us to entrust to God those things we are acutely aware we cannot control: peace on earth, the needs of our nation, cries for justice, the needs of the poor, and our own hearts. Especially, our hearts.

Praying prayers written by other people does not mean that we give up praying our own words. But, like the Suffrages, these brief prayers can become the ladders our hearts climb as we communicate with God. Or, better, the bow that sends our own arrows up to heaven.

Preaching is not just for the professionals, thank God. The work of preaching is the work of the congregation. Sometimes an entire group preaches a sermon to just one person. Sometimes one person preaches to an entire group. And, preaching is always for the life of the world.

After his vision of the Lord in his throne room, Isaiah knows that his preaching is more than just words. That same experience allows him to keep preaching to a field of dead, burned out stumps. Because, the “holy seed in the stump.”

Likewise, the church keeps on preaching because the “holy seed” has been, and is being, raised from the dead in that field of burned out stumps.

For the Love of Links is a mishmash, a patchwork, a veritable gallimaufry of gems and near-misses from the interwebs; swinging from the sublime to the profane. Enjoy!

… is a bold new film that honors the memory and celebrates the faithfulness of the Coptic Martyrs killed by ISIS in Libya in 2015. It is shortlisted for an Academy award, and it will premier on February 15. — the 21

It is an act of love; wasting time in the right way. A.J. Swoboda knocks it out of the park with this brilliant, and instructive, reflection on quality time with God and one another. — The God of Quality Time

There’s a lot of discussion on the interwebs about the Bible. Here is a reliable review of why some books do not belong in the Bible; and how some of them almost didn’t get included. AKA, the Antilegomena.

This one veers into what may be the political realm, so proceed at your own risk. It is a thoughtful, respectful reflection on what God wants for our country; and, why he wants it. — 6 reflections on what God wants for the world

Matthew Milliner is an always interesting writer and this long(ish) essay displays just that. He discusses, and compares, the life and work of Alan Watts with Thomas Merton. Take a few minutes and enjoy this thoughtful contribution. — Hive Mind: Alan Watts, Thomas Merton, and the Church of the East

While they are not my team, I am officially rooting for the Chiefs! On this Superbowl weekend, I am reminded, again, that my team hasn’t won a Superbowl this millenium. This writer doesn’t root for my team but gets what it’s like to love a team that loses. — Sports Dynasties Are Good

… is the darkest of all the Psalms. Richard Beck reflects on how rich praying a dark psalm can be. — Psalm 88

Bob Dylan is back. The recent biopic has brought Dylan back to all our minds, and even better, he’s coming to Wichita. Enjoy his song, “Property of Jesus.” Here are the lyrics—Bob Dylan Songs

(What We Pray is a series of brief reflections on the words Wheatland prays within our weekly worship and during morning prayer.)

We often preach to ourselves as we pray. In one of our communion liturgies, we make the words above our own. Pay close attention to this sentence.

Deliver us from the presumption of coming to this Table for solace only, and not for strength; for pardon only, and not for renewal.

Communion is a special occasion of fellowship with God in Jesus Christ. If the word intimate can describe our relationship with God, the Eucharist defines that intimacy. In the communion service our attention is focused on Jesus. We pray to him with the liturgy and with our own words, and we eat bread and drink wine that Jesus describes as his body. It’s hard to be closer to someone than that. Intimacy is right.

And while that is all true, if we are careless, we may begin to think that receiving the Eucharist is all about “Jesus and me.” We may get the notion that the intimacy of the setting leaves out all the people that Jesus brings with him. And just who does Jesus bring to the table with him?

THE WHOLE WORLD.

So, in the prayers that prepare us to receive from him, we ask God to “deliver us” from the well-intentioned but not always well-thought-through act of receiving the bread and cup for ourselves only, forgetting that it is “for the life of the world.” John 6:32-33 says,

32 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

A few verses later, in vv. 48-51, Jesus says,

I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. 50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”

Our time spent in intimate communion with Christ, through prayer and worship, but especially in the Eucharist is not for us alone. Our participation in the Lord’s Supper is an act of mission. It is one of the ways we get in on God’s work in the world. Perhaps the most important way.

Next time you come to the table, listen for the part of our prayers that calls on us to participate in Christ’s mission for the whole world. Pray for strength and comfort; for resolve and rest. Pray for the life of the world.

After a surreal week of shock and grief, it is essential to remind ourselves of God's love. The love of God is not wishful thinking but a constant in a world gripped with tragedy. It is the self-sacrificial presence of Christ among his people.

1 Corinthians 13 should not be saved for weddings. It’s not romantic, it’s not an unattainable objective, and it’s not a map for self-improvement. It describes what God is. (See also I John 4:8, 16) I Corinthians 13 does not tell us what to do; it tells us what we are—beloved.