Scripture Focus: Matthew 20.25-26
Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant.”

Reflection: Prayer in our Vocation
By John Tillman

In his book, Letters to Malcolm, Chiefly on Prayer, C.S. Lewis complains that he finds it ironically unhelpful to turn into a church for midday prayers.

There always seems to be someone practicing the organ or noisily going about cleaning and mopping. “Of course, blessings on her,” Lewis says. “‘Work is prayer,’ and her enacted oratio is probably worth ten times my spoken one.”

We have not held tightly to the concept of work as prayer. We see work as occupation—something that takes time we would spend elsewhere. Christians have the unique opportunity to see work as vocation—choosing to give to others on behalf of Christ.

To some, it might be a surprise that one of the primary definitions of the word “vocation” is a divine calling. One does not have to be a staff member of a church or an employee of a Christian ministry (or even a volunteer, noisily cleaning up the sanctuary and disturbing an Oxford don’s prayers) to turn grudging occupation into prayerful vocation.

One prominent example of prayerful, secular work is Fred Rogers. Despite the lack of overt religious expression on his show, Mister Rogers was an ordained minister whose specific assignment was to serve children and families through mass media. And serve them he did.

Paying tribute to Rogers’ on NBC Nightly News, reporter Bob Faw said, “The real Mister Rogers never preached…he never had to.” Following his spiritual calling in no way interfered with Rogers becoming one of the most successful and respected television professionals of all time.

For every believer, the gospel is our vocation. We learn to express it through our occupations.

Rogers’ spiritual discipline and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit made his show a vehicle for the gospel without explicit language of faith. Many of our readers work in faith-negative environments where faith is unwelcome, but that doesn’t mean each action can’t communicate a gospel-filled love to others.

In our careers, we have a choice between the drudgery of meaningless tasks and the honor of serving others around us in Christ’s name. If we need a picture of what that looks like, it may be helpful to us to turn on an episode of the neighborhood.

May we make our work our prayer.

By every action may we pray for our co-workers, for our customers, for our city, and for our world.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
Our God will come and will not keep silence; before him there is a consuming flame, and round about him a raging storm. — Psalm 50.3

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle

Today’s Readings
Jeremiah 6 (Listen – 5:10) 
Matthew 20 (Listen – 4:22)

Read more about Needing Jesus to Pray
It is not just that for which we ourselves want to pray that is important, but that for which God wants us to pray.

Read more about Cultivation Is Supernatural
A stronger faith, and a greater crop yield comes when we invest in cultivation. Cultivation is not natural. It is supernatural.

Scripture Focus: Matthew 19.13-14 
Then people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked them.
Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Reflection:  Prayer in Relationship
By John Tillman

Many have faithfully lived out Christ’s command to let the little children come to him. But perhaps no one in history has lived it out affecting as many children as Fred Rogers.

In her book, The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers, Amy Hollingsworth gives an up-close look at the foundational Christian faith that made Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood a sacrament carried on secular airwaves.

The show had an intangible quality that captivated children and defied expectations. In the recently released documentary, Won’t You Be My Neighbor, one of the show’s producers, Margy Whitmire, said, “If you take all of the elements that make good television, and do the exact opposite, you have Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”

One possible reason for the show’s intangible and unlikely success is the simple spiritual discipline of its founder. According to Amy Hollingsworth:

Everything Fred Rogers did was a prelude to—or an outcome of—prayer….the essence of prayer is relationship, and Fred understood that.

One of the greatest things Mister Rogers may have modeled for children about God, is that he listens to and accepts their concerns, their emotions, and them as their true selves. Hollingsworth relates his answer to a child about not getting what she prayed for.

“Now, you know prayer is asking for something, and sometimes you get a yes answer and sometimes you get a no answer,” he carefully explained. “And just like anything else you might get angry when you get a no answer. But God respects your feelings, and God can take your anger as well as your happiness. So whatever you have to offer God through prayer—it seems to me—is a great gift. Because the thing God wants most of all is a relationship with you, yeah, even as a child—especially as a child. Look how Jesus loved the children who came around Him,” he told her.

Prayer was the purpose of the children coming to Jesus. Jesus didn’t merely greet the children. When the Bible says he “placed his hands on them” it isn’t referring to casual pat on the back, but a purposeful, prayerful blessing. That kind of welcoming and blessing is something we can receive from God, and give to others.

As we pray, about personal problems or about weighty national issues, we would do well to keep in mind the simple teaching of Mister Rogers, that also is the teaching of Jesus—prayer is about relationship.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
You are the Lord; do not withhold your compassion from me; let your love and your faithfulness keep me safe forever. — Psalm 40.12

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle

Today’s Readings
Jeremiah 5 (Listen – 5:04) 
Matthew 19 (Listen – 4:04)

Read more about Prayer Beyond Petitions
It is more important that we know God through prayer than petition him. God answers Hezekiah’s unasked prayer through relationship.

Read more about Free to Become Like Children
Jesus has granted us the ability to become like little children and to run freely to him.

Scripture Focus: Matthew 18.1-5
1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
2 He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. 3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

Reflection: Invisible Status
By John Tillman

The disciples were constantly grasping for status. 

Over and over the gospel accounts give us insight into the ways they jostled one another, trying to be better than the rest, bigger than the rest, closer to Jesus, more “righteous,” more powerful…

“Who is the greatest?” they ask, each hoping it will be himself.

Jesus urged his disciples, and he urges us, to lay down all such status-addicted, scrambling, scuffling struggle. When they pressed around him longing for greatness, Jesus called to himself someone they never would have expected—a child. 

Children, and women, were so low status that they were invisible to the statisticians, politicians, and religious leaders of the day, but Jesus sees those who are made invisible by culture. Jesus kicks over our definition of greatness.

Jesus calls “the greatest” those others call “the least.”
Jesus moves the invisible to the best seats at the feast.

Jesus calls the ignored who no one thought should come.
Jesus gives a hand up to those under a thumb.

Jesus calls attention to ones we are too blind to see.
Jesus hears the pleas of those crushed beneath our knees.

Jesus gives strength to those we mock for being weak.
Jesus elevates the lowly from the valleys to the peaks. 

Jesus makes great those accepting they are small.
He will be our everything when we make him our all.

We don’t have to convince Christ of our potential based on past performance. There is no need to demonstrate return on investment. His investment in us is already assured. It is his own work and word that will not return void without fulfilling its purpose in us.  He accepts us not based on our past but on the future he will guide us towards.

When we come to Jesus, we must leave behind any thoughts of status. Thanks be to God.

“I hear you have a soft spot for fools and little children and I’m glad. ‘Cause I’ve been both of those.” — from “Farther On” by Russ Taff

Divine Hours Prayer: The Small Verse
The Lord is my shepherd and nothing is wanting to me. In green pastures He has settled me. — The Short Breviary

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle

Today’s Readings
Jeremiah 4 (Listen – 5:23) 
Matthew 18 (Listen – 4:25)

Read more about Dirty Feet
Jesus…turned everything upside down. Surely, shouldn’t the servants be washing their master’s feet?

Read more about Blessed is the One :: A Guided Prayer
But we rely, Lord, not on our striving, but on Jesus Christ…Jesus is the Blessed One, whose leaf does not wither.

Scripture Focus: Matthew 17.22-23
22 When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. 23 They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.” And the disciples were filled with grief.

Reflection: Way of the Cross — A Guided Prayer
By John Tillman

Through the rest of this week, pray the words of scripture interspersed with those of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In this prayer we struggle, along with Peter, and Jesus himself, to accept the way of suffering.

Imagine Christ, victorious. A champion. Beneficent. Are you comfortable with the victorious Messiah?

A Christ who brings earthly victory enjoys near-universal welcome.

God’s way in the world leads to the cross and through the cross to life. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” Matthew 16.21

Imagine Christ, humiliated. Crushed. Suffering. How uncomfortable does the suffering servant make you?

Everyone rejected the suffering Christ—even the closest of his disciples.

“Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ‘Never, Lord!’ he said. ‘This shall never happen to you!’”

“Jesus turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.’” Matthew 16.22-23

How easy it is, in times of confusion like today to fight in the name of Christ against the real Christ. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Often our discomfort with the suffering Christ is connected to our current level of comfort.
In our afflictions, we are glad to find the suffering Christ joining us.
But in our bliss and blessings, we do not wish to join him on his path.

Ask the Holy Spirit to help you assess your level of comfort, your level of acceptance of the suffering Christ, and your willingness to step into suffering, embracing it as the path to life.

For this reason, do not be alarmed, do not be afraid—be faithful! But what does being faithful mean here other than standing and falling with the word of Christ, with his preaching of the kingdom of peace. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Pray through these words of Christ:
“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. “Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” Matthew 16.24-35

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
Early in the morning, I cry out to you, for in your word is my trust. — Psalm 119.147

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle

Today’s Readings
Jeremiah 3 (Listen – 4:40) 
Matthew 17 (Listen – 3:46)

Read more about Looking Back at Good Friday
Good Friday is not just one day of the year. It is a day relived in every day of the world, and of our lives in the world.

Read more about Proclaiming The Lord’s Death and Ours
His renunciation of the empire as a kingdom of this world takes place not at Golgotha but at the very beginning. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer