Wednesday, March 27, Lent 37
‘Peace and love are always living and working within us, but we are not always in peace and love.’ Julian of Norwich
The passage for Wednesday in Holy Week using Wilda Gafney’s Lectionary is Jesus grieving over Jerusalem.
‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen, gather her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you, desolate. I tell you all, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Holy One.”
Jesus’ arms reach around everything. I love the image of God, as the mother hen, gathering her chicks under her wings. The Peace and Love of God, always living and working within us.
‘Jesus’s embrace of Jerusalem, its history and hopes, ugly realities, looming threats, sacred space, and all of its people, citizens, immigrants, pilgrims, and occupiers was all inclusive.’ (Gafney)
The way we live life out is not always an expression of that Peace and Love. Jesus’s peace and love are all inclusive, and all enveloping. How we long with Him for us all to be gathered and surrounded and know the reality of His Peace and Love within.
Let’s pray.
Oh Mother God, gather us under Your wing.
We long for peace, for love, for justice for all. We weep with You for where the demonstration of that is lacking in the world.
Your kin-dom come, and Your will be done.
Amen.