sin

visit with us, too

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
​The Meeting of Mary and Elisabeth, Bloch 1866, wikimedia commons
 
Lord Jesus, this advent season we remember
  the visitation of Mary and Elizabeth
    both women miraculously pregnant.
We delight as we recall John the Baptist leaping for joy
    inside Elizabeth’s womb!

Make plans to visit with us too,
   that we might be filled with joyful expressions!
Impart within us the same awareness that John had
    that we might always sense your presence.
Bless us with the same knowledge
    that you are truly the lamb of God
        who takes away the sin of the world;
    that you are the Messiah, and we are not;
    and that you must increase, and we must decrease.

Invite us to join with John and prepare for your coming.

Eric Mathews
_______________________________

Luke 1:41-44

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting,
    the baby leaped in her womb,
    and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
In a loud voice she exclaimed:
    Blessed are you among women,
        and blessed is the child you will bear!
    But why am I so favored,
        that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
    As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears,
        the baby in my womb leaped for joy.

_____________________________

When have you rejoiced in God’s presence most vividly?
What aspect of your life needs to decrease 
    so that the influence of Jesus can increase?

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Jesus, you are stronger

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

 

O Lord Jesus Christ,
There is so much to drag us back:
    empty pursuits, trivial pleasures, unworthy cares.
There is so much to frighten us away:
    a pride too cowardly to submit to being helped,
    cowardly apprehensiveness which evades danger
        to its own destruction,
    anguish for sin which shuns holy cleansing
        as a disease shuns medicine.
 
But You are stronger than these.
    so draw us now more strongly to Yourself.
We call You our Savior and Redeemer,
    since You came to earth to redeem us 
    from the slavery from which we were bound
    or had bound ourselves.
 
This is Your work,
    which You completed,
    and which you will continue to complete
    until the end of the world;
for since You Yourself have said it,
     therefore You will do it –
lifted up from earth, You will draw all unto Yourself.
 
Søren Kierkegaard, 1813 – 1855, Danish philosopher and theologian
from The Prayers of Kierkgaard, freely modified
 
______________________________
 
 
But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, 
    not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. 
He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 
    whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior

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things I know that I should not wish for

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
Do Not Covet (THE COMMANDMENTS)
image by loswl via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
 
Father, I know that I should not wish for my neighbor’s (nicer) house, 
    or my neighbor’s (more beautiful/ handsome) spouse.  
I must not think to myself that I should have anything belonging to someone else –
    not ever the smallest thing. Not even their dog.
 
In the other nine commandments you have forbidden 
    all injuries and evil practices against my neighbors.  
Now you charge me to beware of thinking any evil thoughts against them.
 
And for this reason I have great reason to praise you.  
You care about my home and everything I own, even my dog, 
    and you command everyone else never to wish they had all my things, 
    instead of me.
 
The apostle said we should be 
    “casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” 
It is true, and I find it true. 
In this way you care for us, and so you would have us care for one another.
 
But gracious Lord, I must confess that I have forgotten 
    and have broken this commandment, and I still do every day.  
I am wishing and coveting every minute of every hour.  
I could have been content, 
    but I have always thought my neighbor had too much, and I too little.  
And the dregs of these things, Lord, are not quite out of my heart.  
I deserve your severe justice.
 
But keep in mind the frailty of my flesh, 
    the corruptions of my nature, and the many temptations.  
Remember how I am able to do nothing of myself – 
    and how I would come to nothing if left to myself.  
Be merciful and pardon me in this way also, for the sake of your son. 
Amen.
 
John Bradford, 1510-1555, English reformer and martyr
 
___________________________
 
 
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; 
you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, 
or his male servant, or his female servant, 
or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.

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enlighten us to see the beam

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

Parable of the Mote and the Beam, Domenico Fetti, via Wikimedia Commons

 
Lord, enlighten us to see the beam that is in our own eye,
    and blind us to the mote that is in our brother’s.  
Let us feel our offences with our hands,
    make them great and bright before us like the sun,
    make us eat them and drink them for our diet.  
Blind us to the offences of our beloved,
    cleanse them from our memories,
    take them out of our mouths forever.  
Help us at the same time with the grace of courage,
    that none of us be cast down when we sit lamenting
    amid the ruins of our happiness or our integrity:
Touch us with fire from the altar,
    that we may be up and doing to rebuild our city.

Robert Louis Stevenson, 1850-1894, Scottish Novelist, published by his wife
The HarperCollins Book of Prayers


Matthew 7:3-4

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, 
    but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 
Or how can you say to your brother, 
    ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ 
     when there is the log in your own eye? 

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wash me with your tears

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
Jesus Wept by Daniel Bonnell
 
Lord, we show you our wounds so that you may heal us.
And even if we do not, you know,
    and you wait to hear our voice.
Do away our scars by tears,
    like the woman in the gospel who washed your feet with hers.
 
You know how to help the weak,
    when there is no one who can prepare the feast,
    or bring the ointment,
    or carry along a spring of living water.
You come yourself to the grave.
 
So come to this grave of mine, Lord Jesus,
    that you would wash me with your tears.
With my dry eyes I have no such tears
    as to be able to wash away my offenses.
With your tears I will be saved, if I am worthy of your tears.
 
With them you will call me out of the tomb of this body and say, 
    “Come forth.”
Then my thoughts will not be kept pent up
    in the narrow limits of this body,
    but may go forth to you, and move to the light,
    that I may think no more on the works of darkness,
    but on the works of light.
 
Ambrose of Milan, c.339-397, Bishop of Milan
 
___________________________
 
 
When Jesus saw her weeping,
    and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping,
    he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.
“Where have you laid him?” he asked.
“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
Jesus wept.
Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
 
When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, 
    “Lazarus, come out!”
The dead man came out, 
    his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, 
    and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, 
    “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

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I fly to you for refuge

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
photo by jonathan emili via pexels.com
 
 
I fly to you for refuge, blessed Christ, my only redeemer and savior.
My sins are certainly great.
But greater still is the payment you have made for them.
 
Great is my unrighteousness, but greater by far is your righteousness.
I admit my sin.
Please, in your grace, would you pay its penalty?
I reveal the sin, in your mercy conceal it.
With remorse I uncover it; please hide it, in your grace.
 
There is nothing in me but sin that deserves your condemnation.
But in you there is nothing but grace that gives me a blessed hope of salvation.
 
I hear a voice in scripture which tells me to hide in the clefts of the rock.
You are the rock that cannot be moved, and your wounds are those clefts.
In them I will hide from the accusations of the world.
 
My sins cry aloud to heaven for vengeance,
    but still more loudly cries out your blood shed for my sins.
 
My sins accuse me before God, 
    but your suffering is mightier for my defense.
My horribly wicked life calls for my condemnation,
    but your holy and righteous life pleads more powerfully still for my salvation.
I appeal from the throne of your justice to the throne of your mercy.
I have no desire to come before your judgment –
    unless your holy merit intervenes between me and your sentence.
 
Have mercy on us, only God of mercy,
    and turn our stony hearts to you! Amen!
 
Johann Gerhard, 1582 – 1637, Lutheran church leader and theologian
 
___________________________
 
 
Let all that I am wait quietly before God,
    for my hope is in him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation,
    my fortress where I will not be shaken.
My victory and honor come from God alone.
    He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me.
O my people, trust in him at all times.
    Pour out your heart to him,
    for God is our refuge. 

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to sweep out the corners

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
image by Louis Henri de Fontenay
 
 
God, we come
with hesitant steps
and uncertain motives
to sweep out the corners
where sin has accumulated,
and uncover the ways
we have strayed from Your truth.
 
Expose the empty and barren places
where we don’t allow you to enter.
Reveal our half-hearted struggles
where we have been indifferent
to the suffering of others.
 
Nurture the faint stirrings of new life,
where your spirit has begun to grow.
Let your healing light transform us
into the image of Your Son.
For You alone can bring new life
and make us whole.
 
Christine Sine, Australian physician and contemplative activist
 
_______________________________
 
 
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my anxious thoughts.
Point out anything in me that offends you,
    and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

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my neighbor has injured me

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
Photo by Rana via Pexels
My Lord Jesus Christ, 
    my neighbor has injured me,
    hurt my honor by talking about me,
    and interfered with my rights.
O God, hear my complaint.
    I would gladly feel kindly toward my neighbor,
        but I cannot.
    How totally cold and insensible I am.
 
O Lord, 
    I am helpless and forsaken.
    If you change me, I will be sincere.
O dear God, 
    change me by your grace,
        or I must remain as I am.
Amen.
 
Martin Luther, 1483-1546, German Reformer
 
________________
 
 
Even my close friend,
    someone I trusted,
one who shared my bread,
    has turned against me.

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Separate us from forgiven sins

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
image, Steve  F, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
 
Father, when You forgive sins, 
You separate them as far from us as the east is from the west
 
Bury them in the bottom of the deepest sea
and put up a sign for the devil that says,
NO FISHING.
 
Corrie Ten Boom, 1892-1983, Dutch Holocaust Survivor and author
 
______________________
 
 
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
    so great is his love for those who fear him;
 as far as the east is from the west,
    so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
 

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a prayer for freedom

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
image by Zulmaury Saavedra via unsplash
 
Dear God,
 
I used to think that freedom meant I could do anything 
    or have anything I wanted.
That just made me a slave to my own desires.
Soon I found myself trapped 
    in destructive habits, hurtful relationships and even powerful addictions.
That is not freedom. That’s bondage.
 
When I learned about Jesus, I saw the truth:
I am a needy person who needs a merciful God.
Only you provide what I’m looking for.
Only you can provide that path to freedom.
Thank you for teaching me that freedom is found 
    in living a life consistent with truth,
    in a way that keeps my heart, mind, body, and soul all free.
True freedom comes when the reality of your holiness
    overpowers my sinful inclinations
    and fills my life with the fullness of your liberating love.
 
Ronald Beers, Chief Publishing Officer for Tyndale
_______________________
 
 
But the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin, 
  so we receive God’s promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ.

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