CTK has been given the opportunity to serve the Savannah Music Festival by being part of a phone tree. We will make phone calls to ticketholders asking them to donate their tickets to the Festival, so that artists who were scheduled can get paid and the festival can survive this difficult financial time. This is a great opportunity to help serve our city by fighting for something that makes it unique. If you would like to participate, click here.
If you have not been involved in a parish group but would like to get involved in a new one, click here. This group will meet biweekly to bear one another's burdens in prayer via zoom.
To see the rest of our daily devotionals, with prayers, songs and reflections, click here. To sign up for daily emails, click here.
Prayers
Morning
Readings
Old Testament: Exodus 7:25-8:19
Psalm: 131
Prayer:
Increase, O God, the Spirit of Neighborliness among us;
that in peril we may uphold one another,
In suffering tend to one another,
and in exile befriend on another.
Grant us brave and enduring hearts
that we may strengthen one another,
until the disciplines and testing of these days are ended,
and you again give peace in our time.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
Evening
Readings
New Testament: MArk 10:17-31
Psalm: 141
Prayer: See above, or use the Lord's Prayer
Devotional on Psalm 131:
When I was in seminary, I began suffering from some sort of mystery ailment of the gastrointestinal variety. So I did what anyone would do and got on WebMD and put my symptoms in. I ran a little diagnostic to figure out what my problem was. Two options came up, after I input my symptoms. I either A) had a parasite, or B) was lactose intolerant. The cure for the parasite was to eat lots of yogurt- which has lactose. Since I love milk and cookies, I wouldn't- couldn't- give milk up. My problem had to be a parasite.
My symptoms only worsened. Which is always, always what happens when you misdiagnose your problem.
When we face difficulty or trouble in life, the question we always ask is "Why?" Why am I facing this? Why is this happening? We think that our problem is difficulty, and if we can answer the "Why" question then we can avoid that problem in the future.
Our symptoms get worse. No amount of answering "Why?" helps us to avoid suffering. Instead, we get angry and bitter as we are forced to confront the reality that our previous explanations (and all of the previous "Why's" in the history of humanity) have not helped us avoid suffering.
The Psalmist knows that our problems aren't our problem. Our problem is a lack of presence. The psalmist refuses to write down arrogant, cheap, easy answers to the "Why" question (v. 1). Instead, he contents himself with being like a child with his mother, and a weaned child no less (v.2) . A weaned child isn't getting anything out of his mother; he is just delighting in the safety of her presence. And that is what we, God's people, have the opportunity to do. To solve THE problem, not of our problems, but in the midst of our problems. To find the comfort, security, and hope, of God's presence. As NT Wright wrote recently:
"It is no part of the Christian vocation, then, to be able to explain what’s happening and why. In fact, it is part of the Christian vocation not to be able to explain—and to lament instead. As the Spirit laments within us, so we become, even in our self-isolation, small shrines where the presence and healing love of God can dwell. And out of that there can emerge new possibilities, new acts of kindness, new scientific understanding, new hope."
For discussion:
1. How does it feel when someone you know is always giving you advice about how to solve your problem?
2. Why do we look for this from our religion?
3. How can we begin to seek God's presence in the midst of our problems?