2/18 Monday in the First Week of Lent

Isaiah 58:6-8

Is not this the fast that I choose:
   to loose the bonds of injustice,
   to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
   and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
   and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
   and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
   and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator shall go before you,
   the glory of the Lord shall be your rearguard.





An Offering from Chris McCoy:

 
Matthew Arnold
"The Buried Life"
1852


A thrift to spend our fire
        and restless force
    in tracking out our true,
        original course;
    A longing to inquire
into the mystery of this heart
    which beats
so wild, so deep in us - to know
    whence our lives come and
        where they go.

Prayer

I just love this verse.  I love the cadence of it.  I love the vision of freedom, justice, and human rights it conjures for us.  By imagining a future that is more ideal than the present, we embody the energy to move toward that ideal, intentionally aware of one another on this earth.  I pray for a more ideal and loving time.  I still pray for a time where children are not judged by the color of their skin or any mere difference, but judged by the content of their character.  Martin Luther King is alive by his example through this poetic, beautiful verse.  Amen.