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Morning Devotion for the Season of Lent

March 11, 2024

The Invitatory

Rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord you God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and repents of evil.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.

Reading: Psalm 30: 6, 11-13

6 Weeping may spend the night, *

but joy comes in the morning.

11 Hear, O Lord, and have mercy upon me; *

O Lord, be my helper."

12 You have turned my wailing into dancing; *

you have put off my sack-cloth and clothed me with joy.

13 Therefore my heart sings to you without ceasing; *

O Lord my God, I will give you thanks for ever.

Meditation: Jo Ann B. Jones

No person or act of religious significance appearing on the liturgical calendar for this date, I wondered what had occurred in world history of note. On March 11, 2002, two columns of light soared skyward from Ground Zero in New York as a temporary memorial to the victims of the September 11 attacks six months earlier. It has now been two decades since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon and the crash of Flight 93 – where only the courage of passengers and crew possibly prevented an even deadlier terror attack.

For most who are old enough to remember, it is a day that is impossible to forget. In many ways, 9/11 reshaped how Americans think of war and peace, their own personal safety and their fellow citizens. And today, the violence and chaos in a country half a world away brings with it the opening of an uncertain new chapter in the post-9/11 era.

This occurrence in 2022 caused me to think, how then do we recognize that joy came in that morning in 2002, particularly as the families of those killed that day were still experiencing their grief so freshly. It would be most difficult for them to avoid feeling hatred for the “enemies” at that time; however, one need not do so. The word covers all situations of opposition. Rather than dwell on details of the dangerous situation how uplifting to offer thanksgiving for God’s intervention that saved so many others. That life-threatening situation is no more. The hope made evident in these few verses says, neither is the fear of death.

For the survivors and the rest of a grieving nation, these words of praise are the occasion for gratitude that this has taken place through God’s gracious act - as painful and difficult to bear are the losses of that day. Time allows us to recognize that not everyone experienced being snatched from the clutches of death like that. The survivors are recipients of God’s salvation. Either way, this underscores that God’s saving action is special that inspires gratitude. This conviction is, admittedly, difficult to reconcile with the death and destruction of September 11, 2001.

In order to reckon with all of this we first must be sensitive to the pattern of time. Weeping is at night, joy in the morning. This seems to recall the pattern of time in Genesis - there was evening and there was day…..This is a reminder of God’s constancy and presence. And in each of the succeeding days in the Creation story, God created something new. Do we only allow our understanding of God to means that he only created something new in the seven days of creation? I would hope not!

We are invited to recognize that the promise of joy in the morning is for the realization that this has been accomplished through God’s gracious act throughout all time. As human beings we are all in need of God’s help. We do cry out. God hears and responds. In this case in this Psalm, the Lord removed the specter of death from the psalmist’s path. It is of immeasurable comfort and confidence to acknowledge while we may experience God’s favor and God’s anger, his anger is momentary. In marked contrast his favor lasts for life. Even for those survivors of September 11,2001 and those still mourning the dead, they come to realize that no sorrow is eternal. Joy does come in the morning. We are left with an abundance of gratitude for this gift of gracious, abiding and faithful love.

Prayer for Support - Mrs. Phoebe Griswold

Jesus reach for me.

Spirit strengthen me.

God catch me.