Mal Calladine writes:
So the six weeks of praying through the Lord's Prayer line by line is over! Six weeks of deep dive, and now our focus starts to change. We are into the final few days of Lent, and now in a similar way to Jesus we turn our eyes towards the cross, and the extraordinary few days we now call Easter.
Over these final three days, my plan each day is to bring 1one attention-getter for me from doing these daily Lent reflections… to tell the story of who and what got me thinking, and suggest how it could apply for each of us on each of these final days of remembering ourselves into the Easter story…
Today is a day of Preparation as Jesus prepared for the Passover Meal that he would "not eat again until it finds its fulfilment in the Kingdom of God’ (Luke 22:14-16). The incredibly rich symbolism of the Jewish Passover being given new meaning by Jesus taking those elements and giving them ‘a new command’…
Tonight as a church community we’ll be remembering this event – you can still join us (either as a participant or spectator) and sign up here for the Zoom link.
If you want to know what’s in store tonight – it might look a bit like this!
Tonight, after the initial candle lighting, questions and explanations (where we remember the journey out of slavery of God’s people), we get to the meal itself.
At that point we join the story – told in John 13 – of Jesus washing his friends' feet. During a Passover meal everyone is expected to wash each other’s hands, feet or just pray for them (if online in a breakout room!), as we prepare to eat the symbolic Passover lamb. And we’ll do that tonight.
And that brings me to what I want to embrace today about living into the Lord's Prayer. As you may have seen after each week of reflections, each Wednesday we had a video interview with the people who had led us through the week, to get to ask them more of what the experience had been like for them. On the week I interviewed the Green family, after we’d stopped recording, I asked Jaz how she thought she was going to take the Lord’s Prayer with her from now on. Her answer really hit me. She said, "In these COVID times I've been learning to have to wash my hands properly a lot more. I've learned to do it for at least 20 seconds, round the back and between the fingers. And I've found that praying the Lord's Prayer is just about the perfect length to do whilst I wash my hands properly!” What a challenge - hand washing and praying can be combined!!
So tonight I’ll encourage people before the meal to pray for each other and, if in the same room, wash their hands or feet. And if they don't know what else to pray for that person, to pray the Lord’s Prayer over them as they wash their hands.
And how could you apply this today? Both in your own hand washing, or those you want to bless, encourage (and clean!)? As you wash your hands, or your children’s, when it's bath time or get ready for meal time, take the chance to pray the Lord’s Prayer.
And as you are reminded of others who you want to serve and spiritually wash their feet, pray the Lord’s Prayer over them…
revelation of God as Father to them, and blessing of their connection with Him
for His rule and kingdom to come with them
that they would both receive and give forgiveness
be provided for in all the ways they need
that they’d know real guidance and his leading
and be protected from all evil
and from this structure, for each line to pray specifically into what you know of their situation…
May we serve and wash each other in the Lord's Prayer today! Happy Washing!