Confessing at the Tomb
Which tomb am I decorating while I tell myself, “I’m not like them”?
The scribes and Pharisees whitewashed the tombs of the prophets and said, “If we had lived in those days, we would not have done it.” They admitted their ancestors’ sin but quietly left themselves out of it. And at that very moment, they were plotting to kill the One standing in front of them.
We say similar things. “Our church isn’t like other churches.” “I’m not like those people.” The moment we nod along at someone else’s failure, we may be decorating another tomb of our own.
This week: When you hear about someone’s failure, in the news or around you, swap the verdict for a quiet prayer: “Lord, I could have done the same.”
Lord, we are people who could sin just as they did. We will not hide behind decorated tombs, but stand honestly before your grace.
Answering the Call
Is there a call from the Lord that keeps coming, and that I have put on mute?
God sent the prophets, then John the Baptist, and at last his own Son. Yet Jerusalem would not pick up, and in the end killed those who made the calls. Jesus remembered every one of them: “How often I have longed to gather your children.”
We have unanswered calls too: the verse that pricked our conscience, the face that came to mind during worship, the gentle word a friend in church risked saying. Calls we let ring out because we were busy, or because they were uncomfortable.
This week: Write down one word or prompting you have been putting off. Choose a day to spend five quiet minutes in prayer before it.
Lord, that call was not to condemn me but to call me back in love. Today, I will answer.
Making Room Under the Wings
Are we, as people gathered under the same wings, making room for one another?
Jesus longed to gather Jerusalem as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. Boaz said to Ruth, who had come alone from another land, “under whose wings you have come to take refuge.” Yet the Pharisees wanted to be the hen spreading her wings, not chicks sheltering beneath them.
The church is not the hen that gathers others in; we are chicks gathered together under the same wings. Someone from another country, someone new to faith, someone returning after years away: we simply arrived a little earlier. We all shelter under the same wings.
This week: At Sunday worship, sit beside someone you don’t yet know well, ask their name afterwards and share a cup of tea together.
Lord, I am not the one who shelters; I am the one being sheltered. So today, I will make a little room beside me.
Prayer
Father God, who came looking for Adam when he hid, thank you that today you come looking for us too and ask, “Where are you?”
We confess the days we hid behind decorated tombs and told ourselves, “We are not like them.” We confess the calls we put on mute, though you rang again and again, and the hearts that wanted a seat of honour rather than shelter beneath your wings.
Yet we praise you, Lord Jesus, for wanting us to the very end. You bore on the cross the judgement we deserved, you left your tomb empty, and today you still gather us under your wings. We trust that even our repentance is not our own achievement, but fruit your Spirit grows in us.
This week, help us to confess honestly at the tombs we have decorated, to answer when you call, and to make room for our neighbours under the same wings.
In the name of Jesus Christ, who came looking for us first. Amen.