lenten blog | March 12, 2022

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for March 12th:  Psalm 27, 118:26-29; and Matthew 23:37-39.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Tonight Standard Time comes to a close and we lose an hour of sleep.  The extra daylight of Daylight Saving Time at the end of the day is appreciated, but it does hit me when I lose that hour of sleep.  Maybe I’m too much a creature of habit.  I try to go to bed earlier to compensate for that lost hour, but then I can’t seem to fall asleep.  I can’t make up that lost hour and the next morning, always a Sunday morning, is a bit groggy at the start.

I don’t know if the ones in the pews can tell or not, but it sure feels like I’m not firing on all cylinders on that first morning of Daylight Saving Time.  I feel, though, that as the Service progresses that I am less and less out of sorts, and again I don’t know if the ones in the pews can tell or not.  Church gives me a boost.  I look forward to worship.  I love starting my week with that sacred hour. 

The Psalmist tells us today:  “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.  We bless you from the house of the Lord.”  These are words from the Temple’s hymns in ancient Jerusalem.  3,000 years ago the People of God were singing their blessings “from the house of the Lord.”  And still in 2022, on March 13th, even in the fog of Daylight Saving Time’s first morning, we are invited to continue in that unbroken tradition of blessing and being blessed “from the house of the Lord.”

Amid all the uncertainty of our world at present, the constancy of “from the house of the Lord” is comforting.  It truly is a sanctuary.  Not as in a place to hide, but as a place to be refreshed.  The news is so distressing that people have told me they need to take breaks from it.  I pray that “from the house of the Lord” we may find the will and the strength to be able to better deal with the reality that is our world.

Today’s Gospel is Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem.  It is a Gospel story that we will look into further at worship tomorrow.  If an hour of time can just disappear over night tonight and yet we survive, then I ask you to consider giving up another hour of your weekend free time to gather with others “from the house of the Lord” and I think we can survive that too.  Who knows, maybe like me you will find that hour to be a blessing, a chance to find deeper meaning and a more enduring hope in an awfully chaotic and dangerous world.

If you would like to join us in person, please know that we take seriously the promise we share in one way or another at the start of each worship Service that “Whoever you are, you are welcome here.”  And if you would like to join us online, please send an email to [email protected] for the login.   
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.