Setting People Free: Week 6 of Ordinary Time
Look: La Mort, Arcabas - Source
Listen: I Love You Lord (Psalm 116), Mission House, feat. Jess Ray, Taylor Leonhardt, Andrew & Skye Peterson - Lyrics | Spotify | YouTube
Listen to my playlist for Ordinary Time, pt. 1: World and Church
Read: Ezekiel 2:1-7; Psalm 123; 2 Corinthians 12:2-10; Mark 6:1-6
Readings for the rest of the week*: Psalm 116; 1 Kings 17:17-24; Luke 13:14-17; Acts 8:4-9:43; Acts 28:1-10
(The weekly readings during Ordinary Time come from Living the Christian Year by Bobby Gross. If you’d prefer to keep tracking with the Daily Office Lectionary from the 1979 BCP, you can find those passages here.)
Pray: Book of Common Prayer, Collect for the Sixth Week After Pentecost
Grant us, O Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always those things that are right, that we, who can do no good thing apart from you, may by you be enabled to live according to your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Do: This week, we’re thinking about what it means to join Jesus in God’s mission to set people free. In the safety of God’s presence, ask the Spirit to help you prayerfully sit with the following questions from Living the Christian Year (p. 258):
Think of one person you know who is in need, perhaps a neighbor or coworker or friend.
What could you do this week to help that person experience freedom or relief from whatever presses down on him or her? Pray for? Pray with? Phone or e-mail? Go visit? Help out? Give money? Go to bat for?
Choose one thing that you can do that will embody Christ’s liberating love.
*During Ordinary Time this year, I’ll be sharing readings from the excellent devotional guide, Living the Christain Year: Time to Inhabit the Story of God by Bobby Gross. While it’s not necessary to purchase the book to follow along with us, it’s an excellent resource we’ve dog-eared so often the pages are falling out of our copy!