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first tuesday of lent

Tuesday, February 12

Opening Prayer

Deal bountifully with your servant, so that I may live and observe your word. Open my eyes, so that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. My soul clings to the dust; revive me according to your word. My soul melts away from sorrow; strengthen me according to your word. Put false ways far from me; and graciously teach me your law. —Psalm 119:17-18,25,28-29

John 1:35-42 The Message

The next day John was back at his post with two disciples, who were watching. He looked up, saw Jesus walking nearby, and said, “Here he is, God’s Passover Lamb.” The two disciples heard him and went after Jesus. Jesus looked over his shoulder and said to them, “What are you after?”

They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”

He replied, “Come along and see for yourself.”

They came, saw where he was living, and ended up staying with him for the day. It was late afternoon when this happened. Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard John’s witness and followed Jesus. The first thing he did after finding where Jesus lived was find his own brother, Simon, telling him, “We’ve found the Messiah” (that is, “Christ”). He immediately led him to Jesus. Jesus took one look up and said, “You’re John’s son, Simon? From now on your name is Cephas” (or Peter, which means “Rock”).

Reading

The great and firm foundation of the spiritual life is the offering of ourselves to God and being subject to his will in all things. We must completely forget ourselves, so that we regard ourselves as an object which has been sold and over which we no longer have any rights. We find all our joy in fulfilling God’s pleasure—his happiness, his glory and the fact that he is our great and only delight. Once we have this foundation, all we need to do is spend our lives rejoicing that God is God and being so wholly abandoned to his will that we are quite indifferent as to what we do and equally indifferent as to what use he makes of our activities. — Jean-Pierre De Caussade, Abandonment to Divine Providence

Prayer of Response

Merciful God, we confess that we have not loved you with our whole heart. We have failed to be an obedient church. We have not done your will, we have broken your law, we have rebelled against your love, we have not loved our neighbors, and we have not heard the cry of the needy. Forgive us, we pray. Free us for joyful obedience, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. — Eucharist Prayer of Confession, UM Book of Worship

first monday of lent

Monday, February 11

Opening Prayer

Do not, O Lord, withhold your mercy from me; let your steadfast love and your faithfulness keep me safe forever. For evils have encompassed me without number; my iniquities have overtaken me, until I cannot see; they are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails me. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me; O Lord, make haste to help me. — Psalm 40:11-13

John 1:29-34 NASB

The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! “This is He on behalf of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’ “I did not recognize Him, but so that He might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water.” John testified saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him. “I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’ “I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.”

Prayer of Response

O Lord and Master of my life, take from me the spirit of sloth, despair, lust of power, and idle talk. But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to Thy servant. Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own transgressions, and not to judge my brother, for blessed art Thou, unto ages of ages. Amen. — Lenten Prayer of St. Ephrem

Photo by David C. Clark, ATS Florida Campus

first sunday of lent

Sunday, February 10

Opening Prayer

O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways, and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your Word, Jesus Christ your Son; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. BCP 218

Psalm 119:1-32 NRSV

Happy are those whose way is blameless,
Who walk in the law of the LORD.

Happy are those who keep his decrees,
Who seek him with their whole heart, 

Who also do no wrong,
but walk in his ways.

You have commanded your precepts
To be kept diligently.

O that my ways may be steadfast
In keeping your statutes!

Then I shall not be put to shame,
Having my eyes fixed on all your commandments.

I will praise you with an upright heart,
When I learn your righteous ordinances.

I will observe your statutes;
Do not utterly forsake me.

How can young people keep their way pure?
By guarding it according to your word.

With my whole heart I seek you;
Do not let me stray from your commandments.

I treasure your word in my heart,
So that I may not sin against you.

Blessed are you, O LORD;
Teach me your statutes.

With my lips I declare all the ordinances of your mouth.

I delight in the way of your decrees
As much as in all riches.

I will meditate on your precepts,
And fix my eyes on your ways.

I will delight in your statutes;
I will not forget your word.

Deal bountifully with your servant,
So that I may live and observe your word.

Open my eyes, so that I may behold
Wondrous things out of your law.

I live as an alien in the land;
Do not hide your commandments from me.

My soul is consumed with longing
For your ordinances at all times.

You rebuke the insolent, accursed ones,
Who wander from your commandments; 

Take away from me their scorn and contempt,
For I have kept your decrees.

Even though princes sit plotting against me,
Your servant will meditate on your statutes.

Your decrees are my delight,
They are my counselors.

My soul clings to the dust;
Revive me according to your word.

When I told of my ways, you answered me;
Teach me your statutes.

Make me understand the way of your precepts,
And I will meditate on your wondrous works.

My soul melts away for sorrow;
Strengthen me according to your word.

Put false ways far from me;
And graciously teach me your law.

I have chosen the way of faithfulness;
I set your ordinances before me.

I cling to your decrees, O LORD;
Let me not be put to shame.

I run the way of your commandments,
For you enlarge my understanding.

John 1:19-28 ESV

And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.” (Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” John answered them, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

first saturday of lent

Saturday, February 9

Opening Prayer

Lord, your Holy Incarnation is more than we can comprehend. In the Incarnation you have done more than we can ask or imagine. Glory to you, oh, Christ our God. We sing your praises and ask that you would strengthen us during this fast and use it to knit our hearts unto holy obedience and reverence for you. Fill us with a spirit of joy, love, and repentance as we think on your Holy Incarnation!

Exodus 29:42-46 NIV

“For the generations to come this burnt offering is to be made regularly at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting before the LORD. There I will meet you and speak to you; there also I will meet with the Israelites, and the place will be consecrated by my glory.

“So I will consecrate the Tent of Meeting and the altar and will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests. Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. They will know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. I am the LORD their God.”

John 1:14-18 NASB

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. John testified about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’” For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.

Reading

He was a man, but God. David’s offspring, but Adam’s Maker. A bearer of flesh, but, even so, beyond all body. From a mother, but she a virgin. Comprehensible, but immeasurable…He got baptized, but he washed sins clean, but he was proclaimed by the Spirit, in a voice of thunder, to be the Son of the One Uncaused. As a man he took rest, and as God he put to rest the sea. His knees were wearied, but he bolstered the strength and knees of the lame...He was the sacrifice, but the high priest: making an offering, but himself God. He dedicated his blood to God, and cleansed the entire world. And a cross carried him up, while the bolts nailed fast sin…He had company with the dead, but he rose from the dead, and the dead, the bygone, he raised up: there a mortal’s poverty, here the incorporeal’s wealth. Don’t you dishonor, then, his divinity on account of his human things, but for the divine’s sake, hold in renown the earthy form into which, thoughtful towards you, he formed himself, the incorruptible Son. — St. Gregory of Nazianzus, “On God and Man”

Prayer of Response

Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy!

first friday of lent

Friday, February 8

Opening Prayer

Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins and give us, we beseech thee, the liberty of that abundant life which thou hast manifested to us in thy Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God now and for ever. Amen.BCP 164

John 1:6-13 NJB

A man came, sent by God. His name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness to the light, so that everyone might believe through him. He was not the light, he was to bear witness to the light. The Word was the real light that gives light to everyone; he was coming into the world. He was in the world that had come into being through him, and the world did not recognize him. He came to his own and his own people did not accept him. But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believed in his name who were born not from human stock or human desire or human will but from God himself.

Reading

Thus doth God himself answer that weighty question what it is to be born of God…It is so to believe in God through Christ as ‘not to commit sin’, and to enjoy, at all times and in all places, that ‘peace of God which passeth all understanding’. It is so to hope in God through the Son of his love as to have not only the ‘testimony of a good conscience’, but also ‘the Spirit of God bearing witness with your spirits that ye are children of God’: whence cannot but spring the ‘rejoicing evermore in him through whom ye have received the atonement’. It is so to love God, who hath thus loved you, as you never did love any creature: so that ye are constrained to love all men as yourselves; with a love not only ever burning in your hearts, but flaming out in all your actions and conversations, and making your whole life one ‘labour of love’, one continued obedience to those commands, ‘be ye merciful, as God is merciful’; ‘Be ye holy, as I the Lord am holy’; ‘Be ye perfect, as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.’ — John Wesley, “The Marks of the New Birth”

Prayer of Response

Amen, Lord Jesus! May everyone who prepareth his heart yet again to seek thy face receive again that Spirit of adoption, and cry out, Abba, Father! Let him now again have power to believe in thy name as to become a child of God; as to know and feel he hath redemption in thy blood, even the forgiveness of sins’, and that he ‘cannot commit sin, because he is born of God’. Let him be now ‘begotten again unto a living hope’, so as to ‘purify himself, as thou art pure’! And ‘because he is a son’, let the Spirit of love and of glory rest upon him, cleansing him ‘from all filthiness of flesh and spirit’, and teaching him to ‘perfect holiness in the fear of God’! — John Wesley, “The Marks of the New Birth”

first thursday of lent

Thursday, February 7

Opening Prayer

Deal bountifully with your servant, so that I may live and observe your word. Open my eyes, so that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. My soul clings to the dust; revive me according to your word. My soul melts away from sorrow; strengthen me according to your word. Put false ways far from me; and graciously teach me your law. — Psalm 119:17-18, 25, 28-29

John 1:1-5 TNIV

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Reading

If now he was ever with the Father, if He himself created all things, if He brought all things into existence, and keeps together all things, (for this he meant by Life), if He enlightens all things, who so senseless as to say, that the Evangelist desired to teach an inferiority of Divinity by those very expressions, by which, rather than by any others, it is possible to express its equality and not differing? Let us not then confound the creation with the Creator, lest we too hear it said of us, that they served the creature rather than the Creator; for although it be asserted that this is said of the heavens, still in speaking of the heavens he positively says, that we must not serve the creature, for it is a heathenish thing.

Let us therefore not lay ourselves under this curse. For this the Son of God came, that He might rid us from this service; for this He took the form of a slave, that He might free us from this slavery; for this He was spit upon, for this He was buffeted, for this He endured the shameful death. Let us not, I entreat you, make all these things of none effect, let us not go back to our former unrighteousness, or rather to unrighteousness much more grievous; for to serve the creature is not the same thing as to bring down the Creator, as far at least as in us lies, to the meanness of the creature…. Let us then glorify Him as we have received from our fathers, let us glorify Him both by our faith and by our works; for sound doctrines avail us nothing to salvation, if our life is corrupt. Let us then order it according to what is well-pleasing to God, setting ourselves far from all filthiness, unrighteousness, and covetousness, as strangers and foreigners and aliens to the things here on earth. — St. John Chrysostom, “Homily IV on John 1:1”

Prayer of Response

Father we ask that you would guide us into all righteousness and that we would flee from evil. As we meditate on your incarnation stir our hearts with love for you and for our neighbor. Help us to love your commandments and to follow your decrees with all of our strength. Preserve us in this fast and deepen our love for your glorious Son Jesus Christ our bridegroom, for it is in his name we pray by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

ash wednesday

Wednesday, February 6

Opening Prayer

Almighty and Everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen. BCP 217

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21^NRSV

Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Joel 2:12-17NRSV

Yet even now, says the Lord,
Return to me with all your heart,
With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;

Rend your hearts and not your clothing.
Return to the Lord, your God,
For he is gracious and merciful,
Slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,
And relents from punishing.

Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,
And leave a blessing behind him,
A grain offering and a drink offering
For the Lord, your God?

Blow the trumpet in Zion;
Sanctify a fast; Call a solemn assembly;
Gather the people. Sanctify the congregation;
Assemble the aged;
Gather the children, Even infants at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room,
And the bride her canopy.

Between the vestibule and the altar
Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep. Let them say, “Spare your people, O Lord,
And do not make your heritage a mockery,
A byword among the nations.
Why should it be said among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’”

Reading

Let us get up then, at long last, for the Scriptures rouse us when they say: It is high time for us to arise from sleep. Let us open our eyes to the light that comes from God, and our ears to the voice from heaven that every day calls out this charge: If you hear his voice today, do not harden your hearts. And again: You that have ears to hear, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. And what does he say? Come and listen to me, sons; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Run while you have the light of life, that the darkness of death may not overtake you. —The Rule of St. Benedict

Prayer of Response

O Lord and Master of my life, take from me the spirit of sloth, despair, lust of power, and idle talk. But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to Thy servant. Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own transgressions, and not to judge my brother, for blessed art Thou, unto ages of ages. Amen. — Lenten Prayer of St. Ephrem

Asbury Farm Reader Introduction

"In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word,
making a salvation-garden of your life."
James 1, The Message

It seemed like another ordinary day on the farm. A season of cultivation and soil preparation was giving way to another season of sowing. Suddenly something like an episode out of the “X-Files” began to happen around us. A caravan of white vehicles converged on a neighboring field. Out poured a team of men and women with white lab coats, pointy glasses and full pocket protectors. They were from the State University Department of Agriculture. Sticking long probes into the ground, they extracted hundreds of soil samples, carefully labeled them into separate containers, and put them into the vans.
The following week they arrived at the farm again where they staked out the field in sections with small red flags. At the end of each section they posted a sign with the name of a variety of wheat seed. They were conducting a demonstration plot. For years the professors worked in the laboratory to develop a new series of disease resistant, high yield wheat seed. The time for testing the seed had come. 
Never in all my family’s years of farming had watching wheat grow been so interesting. Never before had such care been expended on one field. And never before had the harvest been so anticipated. We were not disappointed. The yields on this demonstration plot of wheat seed far exceeded anything we had ever conceived of in our wildest imaginations. 
What a great image for our seminary: Asbury Farm, a demonstration plot for the Kingdom of God. Seminary, after all, comes to us from the Latin term, Seminarius, meaning seed bed. This reader, like the preceding ones, aims to help our community practice the means of grace. As we read Scripture together, the Spirit sows the Word of God in our lives while sowing our lives in the seedbed of God’s Story.
The fifteenth chapter of John proffers a unique term for this idea, giving it an agrarian twist:  Abide. The word “abide” captures the essence of the means of grace, inviting us inside the rich relationships between Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 
I will forever remember a walk with a friend in Wilmore a few years back. As we walked, we discussed the fifteenth chapter of John and particularly this notion of abiding. For so long in my own understanding abide meant to take more initiative in seeking God, to read more, to pray harder, to fast faster and so forth. Basically, it meant to rev up the treadmill of my devotional efforts in order to be nearer to God. Hule, my friend, shared his own journey, recounting a breakthrough discovery through a recent preaching experience. It happened on the college campus where he taught. In the “secrets-of-the-vine-esque” sermon he described abiding as the task of the branch to “stay connected” to the vine. He put it like this: “Jesus is the vine. We are the branches. Our job is to suck the sap out of the vine. That makes us sapsuckers!” Following the sermon, a student approached Hule for a conversation. The young woman, a PhD Botany student, affirmed the message yet offered a stunning critique. She said, “You got the part about the vine and the branches wrong. The branches don’t suck the sap out of the vine. It’s more like hypostasis. The vine literally forces its substance into the branches.” We want the secrets of the vine when the secret is the Vine. It’s simple and yet all consuming.  “Abide in me and I will abide in you.” Abiding reveals the grace-filled way of the Word of God.
Our 2008 Lent-Easter Reader journeys us together through the inspired, illuminating, living active Word of God. Each day unfolds another bit of John’s Gospel along with the writings of trusted guides who have stood the test of time. Mark, highlight, underline. Make notes in the margins. Engage the text. Let it shape your prayers. This spring we will add the enhancement of a weekly podcast, welcoming some of our faculty members to offer devotional commentary on the Gospel. Additionally, enjoy the photo essay unfolding through this reader by Florida campus student, David Clark.
Remember our goal: submission, not mastery. I am fond of this saying I frequently repeat to my children and to myself: “Bit by bit, day by day the Word of God will light our way.” Let us open our hearts and minds welcoming the substance of the Vine, the Word of God, in the power of the Spirit to the end that we may become like our Lord Jesus Christ. Welcome to the Asbury Farm Reader.

Abiding with You,
John David Walt, Jr.
Dean of the Chapel

Spring Reader 2008 launches here on February 6th!