The Second Sunday
in Lent.
Psalm 38. Domine, ne in furore.
PUT me not to rebuke, O Lord, in thine anger; *
neither chasten me in thy heavy displeasure:
2 For thine arrows stick fast in me, * and thy hand
presseth me sore.
3 There is no health in my flesh, because of thy
displeasure; * neither is there any rest in my bones, by reason of my sin.
4 For my wickednesses are gone over my head, * and are
like a sore burden, too heavy for me to bear.
5 My wounds stink, and are corrupt, * through my
foolishness.
6 I am brought into so great trouble and misery, *
that I go mourning all the day long.
7 For my loins are filled with a sore disease, *
and there is no whole part in my body.
8 I am feeble and sore smitten; * I have roared for
the very disquietness of my heart.
9 Lord, thou knowest all my desire; * and my
groaning is not hid from thee.
10 My heart panteth, my strength hath failed me, *
and the light of mine eyes is gone from me.
11 My lovers and my neighbours did stand looking
upon my trouble, * and my kinsmen stood afar off.
12 They also that sought after my life laid snares
for me; * and they that went about to do me evil talked of wickedness, and
imagined deceit all the day long.
13 As for me, I was like a deaf man, and heard not;
* and as one that is dumb, who doth not open his mouth.
14 I became even as a man that heareth not, * and
in whose mouth are no reproofs.
15 For in thee, O Lord, have I put my trust; * thou
shalt answer for me, O Lord my God.
16 I have required that they, even mine enemies,
should not triumph over me; * for when my foot slipt, they rejoiced greatly
against me.
17 And I truly am set in the plague, * and my
heaviness is ever in my sight.
18 For I will confess my wickedness, * and be sorry
for my sin.
19 But mine enemies live, and are mighty; * and
they that hate me wrongfully are many in number.
20 They also that reward evil for good are against me;
* because I follow the thing that good is.
21 Forsake me not, O Lord my God; * be not thou far
from me.
22 Haste thee to help me, * O Lord God of my
salvation.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son * and to the
Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, * world without end. Amen.
The Collect.
ALMIGHTY God, who seest that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves;
Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls; that we may be
defended from all adversities which may happen to the body and from all evil
thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
{The Collect from the First Day of Lent is to be read every day in Lent after the Collect appointed for the Day.}
The Collect.
ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made and dost forgive the sins of all them that are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins, and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Old
Testament Reading: 1 Kings 8.37-43
Psalter:
Psalm 6, 38 | 119.33-72
Epistle
Reading: 1 Thessalonians 4.1-8
Gospel Reading: St. Matthew 15.21-28
For my weekly pastoral letter to my congregation, I sent the following:
Last week I watched two interviews with Ben Sasse and shared one of those interviews with the Session and a few friends. I was delighted to see that Dr. Timothy D. Padgett of the Colson Center, published this short piece on “Break Point” yesterday. Here is a portion of what he wrote.
“Ben Sasse is an accomplished man. He’s a devout Christian and proud husband and father. He has a PhD in History from Yale. He’s served for a decade or more in higher ed and another decade representing Nebraska in the U.S. Senate (…). He’s also a dying man.
Back in December, he announced on X that he had pancreatic cancer. As he noted in a recent interview with The Hoover Institution’s Peter Robinson, this is a disease with a 97% mortality rate, and he has a particularly aggressive case. His doctors gave him 90 days; he’s hoping to get a little more time with experimental treatments. This kind of thing can focus someone’s thinking about what really matters in life. As he put it, “[W]hether you have 90 days, or 12 months, or 12 years, or 75 years left to live, we’re all gonna be pushing up daisies.” But knowing that he has fewer days ahead than he’d expected, he said he’s determined to “redeem the time.”
(…) Senator Sasse seamlessly and richly discussed the ideas of mortality, theology, education, technology, community, family, identity, and many other fields. What’s particularly interesting, given the years he dedicated to public service, he has one of the healthiest attitudes toward politics. He inculpated professional politicians of being more interested in becoming TikTok stars than doing their jobs and mourned the fact that for wider portions of the population, politics had become their meaning in life: Don’t pretend that politics is the center of the world. The center of your world is where you’re raising your kids. It’s where you worship. It’s where you go to work next to somebody on the line for decades, or the farm next door. These words are important, mostly because so many have sidelined them. It’s what the French philosopher Jacques Ellul called “the political illusion”: the idea that all problems are, at root, political and therefore must have political solutions. Everything is politics instead of everything is those you love and serve.
We see this in our daily lives more and more. It’s why people film themselves weeping after an election goes the “wrong” way. And why some cut off relationships with loved ones because they support the “wrong” candidate or aren’t as ideological as the mob demands. They don’t post the “right” things on social media, go to the right marches, and aren’t outraged enough about the cause of the day. So much of this is the downside of our increasingly online world. As Sasse put it: We have gazillions of people screaming all the time on the internet, and we pretend they’re representative. They’re not all representative. The loudest people have the most ridiculously outsized voice in American life.
For much of our culture, politics has taken on the role once played by religion. It can offer the same, though counterfeit, sense of meaning, morality, and justice. This is ironic because our little gods of political idolatry are too small that so many of us come unglued when they’re threatened (…). When asked if his efforts in politics were worth it, Sasse replied: Theoretically, absolutely. There is no doubt that a framework for ordered liberty is necessary. Power and coercion and restraint of evil are not the center of anybody’s loves, or they shouldn’t be. The worldview is pretty distorted if politics can become the central thing. And yet, because the world is broken, it’s important work. Politics matters, and those called to work in that world serve God and their neighbors in doing so. But it’s not the only thing in life, or even the most important thing. Far from it (…).”
Pastor Mike
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