DEVOTION FOR SATURDAY OF LENT 5

March 27, 2010

OPENING PRAYER

O God, you always work to save us, and now we rejoice in the great love you give to your chosen people. Protect all who are about to become your children and continue to bless those who are already baptized. Through Jesus Christ. Amen.

PSALM 121

I lift up my eyes to the hills - from where will my help come?

     My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot be moved;

he who keeps you will not slumber.

He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

     The LORD is your keeper;

     the LORD is your shade at your right hand.

     The sun shall not strike you by day,

     nor the moon by night.

The LORD will keep you from all evil;

he will keep your life.

     The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in

     from this time on and forevermore.

READING: SAINT JOHN 16:1-33

"I have said these things to you to keep you from stumbling. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, an hour is coming when those who kill you will think that by doing so they are offering worship to God. And they will do this because they have not known the Father or me. But I have said these things to you so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you about them.

"I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, 'Where are you going?' But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts.

Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.

"I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

"A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me." Then some of his disciples said to one another, "What does he mean by saying to us, 'A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me'; and 'Because I am going to the Father'?" They said, "What does he mean by this 'a little while'? We do not know what he is talking about."

Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, "Are you discussing among yourselves what I meant when I said, 'A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me'? Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy. When a woman is in labor, she has pain, because her hour has come. But when her child is born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a human being into the world. So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.

"On that day you will ask nothing of me. Very truly, I tell you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete. I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures, but will tell you plainly of the Father. On that day you will ask in my name. I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.

"I came from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world and am going to the Father." His disciples said, "Yes, now you are speaking plainly, not in any figure of speech! Now we know that you know all things, and do not need to have anyone question you; by this we believe that you came from God." Jesus answered them, "Do you now believe? The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each one to his home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!"

MEDITATION:  Paul Scherer

Meanwhile let's bear it in mind for our safe-conduct, that the cross is no incidental privation, no personal misfortune. I've heard everything called a cross, from ill-health to a wayward son; from loneliness to an unruly temper; from somebody who pays you no attention to somebody who pays you too much. It's a kind of blasphemy. When we talk that way we are thinking more of ourselves than of anybody else, fairly eaten away with self-pity. And we dress up our complaining spirit in the garb of sainthood. The cross is any place where a saving love goes out to undergird this life of ours, and comes back with the hot stab of nails in its hands! It's the place where you try with all your might, and have nothing it may be but a hurt for your trying, and a heart that keeps stretching anyway as far as your arms can reach. When you've begun to grow muscle like that; when you're ready for the defeat life is always trying to impose on you, yet by His grace can assert your mastery still--striking out toward a lost world through the floods that have gone over you--only then may you begin to talk falteringly of a cross, and reach up unashamed to the feet of Him who still rules from it. "There they crucified him." I wish we'd quit expecting anything to come of anything else--in God's world or man's!

CLOSING PRAYER

We beseech Thee, O Lord, let our hearts be graciously enlightened by Thy holy radiance, that we may serve Thee without fear in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life; so we may escape the darkness of this world, and by Thy guidance attain the land of eternal brightness; through Thy mercy, O blessed Lord, Who dost live and govern all things, world without end. Amen.

Sarum Breviary (11th century)