DAY 16

Image by Stig Nygaard

Praying for those affected by Cyclone Idai.

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A Greeting
Be gracious to me, O God,
for I am in distress; my eye wastes away from grief,
my soul and body also.
(Psalm 31:8)

A Reading
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you; and through the rivers,
they shall not overwhelm you,
because you are precious in my sight,
and honored, and I love you.
Do not fear, for I am with you;
I will bring your offspring from the east,
and from the west I will gather you.
(Isaiah 43:2;4a,5)

Music


Meditative Verse
Each one helps the other, saying to one another,
"Take courage!"
(Isaiah 41:6)

A Prayer
Compassionate God, source of all comfort,
We pray for the people whose lives have devastated
by rain and flood.
Bring them comfort, we pray.
Protect the vulnerable.
Strengthen the weak.
Keep at bay the spread of disease.
Have mercy on all those working to rescue the stranded
and to feed the hungry.
And help us to uphold them however we can.
For we ask it in Jesus name, Amen.
- adapted from a prayer offered on the website of christianaid.org.uk.

Verse for the Day
Let your steadfast love become my comfort
according to your promise to your servant.
Let your mercy come to me.
(Psalm 119:76-77)

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 Image by F Mira

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One of the enduring gifts of the prophets is that they meet us where we are, they hear our cries from age to age. Like the psalmist, the prophets groan on our behalf and in hope of restoration of a broken world. Lent is a time when we cry out to God as communities, or seek repentance and quiet restoration in our private prayer lives. This Lent we are seeing events of grief on the world stage that are capturing our compassion as well as our fear and anxiety. Those emotions are familiar to Isaiah and Jeremiah and the psalmist: to be a prophet is to hold the emotions of the world at heart. Cyclone Idai is being called one of the worst natural disasters in the history of the Southern Hemisphere. Affecting most of Mozambique, eastern regions of Zimbabwe and the southern tip of Malawi, it has impacted two and a half million people, left more than a thousand people dead in Mozambique and stranded four hundred thousand people in areas where land access has been broken or wiped out. Beira, Mozambique, home to a half million people, has been completely devastated. How do we respond? Prophets call truth to power and are unequivocating in their demands for justice. At the same time, prophets deliver the news of God’s promised restoration, of an end to injustice. It is a promise that requires us to participate, to pray and cry out on behalf of others, and move into action. International aid agencies are meeting the crisis from within their areas of specialty and could use our support. But we can also commit to paying attention long after the crisis has left our news cycles, to do what we can to help organizations and governments invest in disaster risk reduction and preparedness response. We can be the prophetic voice of change by learning what we can and supporting those who are on the front lines. What can you do today to help the steadfast love of God become a comfort to those in need?

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LC† Journey for Justice is a project of
Lutherans Connect / Lutheran Campus Ministry Toronto,
supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. Join our Facebook and find us on Instagram. Follow us @LutConnect

DAY 15

"Alfalfa Field Sunset" by Glendon Rolston

We pray for the ministry and witness of our seminaries
.

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A Greeting
Make me to know your ways, O God;
teach me your paths.
(Psalm 25:4)

A Reading
As for me, I was like a canal from a river,
like a water channel into a garden.
I said, ‘I will water my garden
and drench my flower-beds.’
And lo, my canal became a river,
and my river a sea.
I will again make instruction shine forth like the dawn,
and I will make it clear from far away.
I will again pour out teaching like prophecy,
and leave it to all future generations.
Observe that I have not laboured for myself alone,
but for all who seek wisdom.
(Sirach 24:32-34)

Music
This recording of Luther's Inshallah choir was made during a special gathering
in support of refugee resettlement in Kingston. The choir often travels from
its base in Waterloo for special gatherings and to collaborate with other choirs.

Meditative Verse
Teach me the way I should go,
for to you I lift up my soul.
(Psalm 143:8)

A Prayer
Lord God of all wisdom, shine your brilliant light on the
path of all who study at theological schools. Pour out your
teaching like prophecy and guide those who study. Bless the
learning, provide the growth, and prepare the hearts and
minds of all, that we may see you and the love and grace
you intend for a broken and hurting world. Enable us by our
 baptismal call to follow you more deeply, and to always
seek your wisdom, that we may speak your words of healing,
wholeness, justice, reconciliation, love, and peace.
We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
- by Pastor Fran Schmidt, LTS Saskatoon, Class of 2008.

Verse for the Day
But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit,
whom the Father will send in my name,
will teach you everything,
and remind you of all that I have said to you.
(John 14:26)
 
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"Sunday Morning on the Grand River" by Gary Simmons

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In today’s reading, the pre-Christian era prophet Sirach uses water imagery to show how the education of faith leaders flows from Scripture as a watery source, and from which the one who is taught becomes like a canal or river. For Christians, these words have a baptismal echo, reminding us all of our baptismal call to discipleship. Seminaries in all denominations bring a variety of theological perspectives and experience to the guidance of people who come from an equally wide variety of religious formation. Seminaries form not just pastors and priests, but deacons and pastoral counsellors and those who do lay ministry in the unique ways they are called. Seminaries provide places for development of theological reflection as they interact with other forms of public space and public conversation by offering events and gatherings that bring together religious and non-religious alike. Sirach’s use of water imagery encourages us to think of our seminaries as places where the waters of Scripture transform into that which irrigates and grows the minds of generations of leadership. Quite often in our contemporary contexts, pastors and priests and deacons act in communities to stand in solidarity with those who are caught in systems of injustice. In John 14, we hear Jesus’ last words to the disciples include the promise of the ‘Advocate’, who will come and “teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you”. Those who are trained to spiritually guide us are reminded to listen at all times to the call of the Holy Spirit in their ministry, so that the waters can continue flowing into the communities they serve and live in. How has your own life been influenced by pastoral teaching? How can you uphold the spiritual leaders in your own communities?


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The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada has two principal seminaries: Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (“LTS Saskatoon”) and Martin Luther University College in Waterloo, Ontario (“Luther”). Both seminaries train pastors and pastoral counsellors and both offer doctoral programs and a variety of graduate degrees (Luther also offers undergraduate programmes). LTS Saskatoon offers diaconal ministry training and its Graduate Theological Union offers partnerships with the United Church, Anglican and Pentecostal seminaries. In Ontario, Luther hosts three centres within its principal campus at Wilfrid Laurier University: the Kanata Centre for Worship and Global Song, the Delton Glebe Counselling Centre and the Centre for Public Ethics. Luther’s Inshallah Choir has grown over its decade-plus years to be over one hundred and thirty voices, drawn from the campus community and the wider Waterloo region. The choir celebrates multi-faith and multicultural diversity and recently published a songbook, Sing the Circle Wide.


This slideshow captures an evening of blessing the newly renovated
campus of Martin Luther University College in 2018.



LC† Journey for Justice is a project of
Lutherans Connect / Lutheran Campus Ministry Toronto,
supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. Join our Facebook and find us on Instagram. Follow us @LutConnect

DAY 11

Image by Luca Sartoni

We pray for an end to extremism and hatred and for
greater respect and understanding for different religions and cultures.


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A Greeting
In my distress I called upon the Lord;
to my God I cried for help. From God's temple my voice
was heard, and my cry reached God's ears.
(Psalm 18:6)

A Reading
My tears have been my food
day and night,
while people say to me continually,
‘Where is your God?’
These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I went with the throng,
and led them in procession to the house of God,
with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,
a multitude keeping festival.
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my help and my God.
(Psalm 42:3-6a)

Music


Meditative Verse
I am going to bring recovery and healing;
I will heal them and reveal to them abundance of prosperity and security.
(Jeremiah 33:6)

A Prayer
Eternal Spirit,
Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,
Source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all,
Loving God, in whom is heaven:

The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world!
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom
Sustain our hope and come on earth.

With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
- Maori Lord's Prayer, found in A New Zealand Prayer Book

Verse for the Day
For your steadfast love is higher than the heavens,
and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
(Psalm 108:4)

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Image by Luca Sartoni

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For the second time this Lent, we are making space to bow our heads in prayer for those who grieve and mourn a sudden and cruel loss of human life. The intentional murder of forty-nine people at prayer in two New Zealand mosques has shocked and overwhelmed us. This massacre is an expression of extremism, the holding of extreme political or religious views. Extremism is nothing new: it has been a part of human experience since we were created and has come in diverse forms. In the eleventh century, Christians slaughtered Muslims and Jews in the crusades in Jerusalem, killing almost everyone who lived there. The rise of Nazism and the murder of six million Jewish people is another example. These manifestations are hateful but an "extreme" passionate commitment and belief can be expressed in other ways. As we considered earlier this week, individuals and organizations with a passionate commitment to justice are willing to take themselves into places of danger for the sake of improving the lives of others. Their focus is a desire to serve life, not to take life away. To serve God is a surrender to God’s love living in another person. It is acting on a desire to give of oneself for someone else’s well-being. When we serve God we enter into the heart of someone's suffering and dwell alongside it. Today’s music was written for the choir we hear performing it after the Paris terrorist attacks in 2015, and in memory of a choir member who was killed there. Wherever there is senseless murder and killing, our response can be “let my love be heard”. How will you let your love be heard in the wake of Christchurch? Is there a Muslim congregation or association that could use your support today? Even a neighbour or friend may be in need of a hug. When we hug someone, we dismantle hate. We grow love. And we live in hope.


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ELCIC National Bishop Susan Johnson offered this prayer
yesterday with the invitation to use it in Sunday services as well.

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LC† Journey for Justice is a project of
Lutherans Connect / Lutheran Campus Ministry Toronto,
supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.
Join our Facebook page and find us on Instagram. Follow us @LutConnect

DAY 8

Image by Drouyn Cambridge

In Memoriam: Peace, Aid and Justice Workers.
Honouring the prophetic passion of those lost
in the Air Ethiopia tragedy.

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A Greeting
Hear my prayer, O God, and give ear to my cry;
do not hold your peace at my tears.
(Psalm 39:12)

A Reading
‘This is my commandment, that you love one another
as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this,
to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You did not choose
me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear
fruit, fruit that will last, so that God will give you whatever
you ask in my name. I am giving you these commands so
that you may love one another.’
(John 15: 12-13; 16-17)

Music


Meditative Verse
Wait for God; be strong,
and let your heart take courage;
wait for God!
(Psalm 31:24 )

A Reflection
Love is the centre of our Christian belief (1. John 4:16).
Therefore we cannot ignore when parts of the worldwide
body of Christ are suffering due to unjust economic
structures (“If one part suffers, every part suffers with it;”
1. Corinthians 12:26). Jesus says: “I have come in order that
you might have life—life in all its fullness.” (John 10:10).
One important aspect of discipleship is clear advocacy for a
just economy and creativity to organize local supply with
reverence for life. From the beginning we were given 
responsibility for taking care of all creation. However: the cry
of the whole creation today is stronger than ever. That is why we need
a strong movement of transformative faith, and we invite you to be part of it!
- from the introduction to "Roadmap for Congregations, Communities and Churches for an
Economy of Life and Ecological Justice", a World Council of Churches resource prepared
by Rev. Norman Tendis and colleagues, which he was to present at the UN Environment
Assembly in Nairobi. The entire resource is downloadable here (linked).

A Prayer
God of mercy and love,
we pray for all who perished on the Ethiopian Airlines flight
and we pray for all who mourn their loss. We always feel
tragedies more when we have personal connections, and so
we pray for the family of  Rev. Norman Tendis of the
Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Austria
and all who mourn his loss. In the midst of tragedy, pull us
closer to you, that we may feel bound together by
your strong and loving embrace.
- ELCIC National Bishop Susan Johnson

Verse for the Day
If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me fast.
(Psalm 139:9-10)

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Desert flowers of Kenya. Image by Ninara.

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Anytime there is a disaster that claims lives, we struggle to understand its meaning. For many of those on board Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, that confrontation with senseless suffering was a common consideration of their everyday lives in working toward improving the well-being of communities, and in caring for creation. It will take a long time to fully absorb the impact of these losses. Journeying to Nairobi, Kenya from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the aid, development and justice workers and other travelers were moving between two key centres of UN humanitarian activity in Africa. Many of them were en route to the UN Environment Assembly, currently underway. They came from a rich range of cultures and traditions and beliefs. “Love is the centre of our Christian belief,” begins today’s Reflection. A profound and incalculable amount of love for the world and its suffering has departed this life. The work of these individuals, collectively and through the ongoing projects of the organizations they belonged to and partnered with, is the legacy we are gifted with. The challenge to us is how they can inspire us, too, to continue their work for change. When Jesus tells those gathered in the last days of his life that a friend is one who lays down his life for another friend, we may feel that such extreme devotion is not something we are capable of. But, a number of these advocates often faced that risk. In the reflection. Rev. Tendis and colleagues are reminding us that we are called by Jesus to love one another, and to give that love all that we have. Upholding those whose hands and feet and minds and hearts are changing the lives of others, means finding ways to roll up our own sleeves, so that God's love can continue to be working through us. The final reading from Psalm 139 make clear that God’s love accompanies us every step of the way and, working through us, is a transformative agent of change. These two verses were the last Facebook post of Carleton University Institute of African Studies Professor Pius Adesanmi, as he boarded the flight. May all victims, and all those who mourn them, feel God’s loving embrace. Let's work together to honour those who died, by helping to bring to life their dreams for the future.

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Here are just some of the names, nationalities and projects:

UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR)
Nadia Adam Abaker Ali, Sudan.  Health Specialist, Sudan's East Darfur.
Jessica Hyba, Canada. Senior External Relations Officer, Mogadishu.
Jackson Musoni, Rwanda. Associate Field Coordinator in Sudan’s East Darfur.

UN World Food Programme:
Ekta Adhikari, Nepal.
Maria Pilar Buzzetti, Italy.
Virginia Chimenti, Italy.
Harina Hafitz, Indonesia.
Zhen-Zhen Huang, China.
Michael Ryan, Ireland. UN WFP Global Deputy Chief Engineer.

UN Food and Agriculture Organization:
Joanna Toole, United Kingdom. Animal welfare advocate.

Youth Delegates to the United Nations Environment Assembly:
Shikha Garg, India. Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
Stéphanie Lacroix, Canada. United Nations Association - Canada Service Corps.
Danielle Moore, Canada. Activist for Indigenous rights, climate change, food security and the Manitoba Energy Justice Coalition.
Micah Messant, Canada. United Nations Association - Canada Service Corps.
Angela Rehhorn, Canada. Canadian Wildlife Federation Canadian Conservation Corps.
(All of the Canadians were ocean conservation activists.)

UN International Organization for Migration
Anne-Katrin Feigl, Germany. Junior Professional Officer, Migrant Protection.

UN Economic, Social and Cultural Council
Pius Adesanmi, Canada. Carleton University Institute of African Studies,
advocate and award-winning prose writer. Nigerian delegate to the Council.

Faith-Based Organizations

Catholic Relief Services:
Sara Chalachew, Getnet Alemayehu, Sintayehu Aymeku, Mulusew Alemu,
Ethiopia. Procurement, logistics and finance.

World Council of Churches
Rev. Norman Tendis, Germany/Austria. Consultant for the Economy of Life programme.

Some Other Aid Individuals

Tamirat Mulu Demessie, Ethiopia. Save the Children Technical adviser on child protection in emergencies.
Karim Saafi, African Diaspora Youth Forum in Europe.
Josefin Ekermann, Sweden. Civil Rights Defenders.
Jordi Dalmau, Spain. Almar Water Solutions. General manager of the Mombasa desalination plant in Kenya.
Karoline Aadland, Norway. Red Cross Programme Finance Co-Ordinator for Africa.
Paolo Dieci, Italy. Aid advocate with the International Committee for the Development of Peoples.
Victor Shangai Tsang, Hong Kong. UN Environment Gender Marker System.

...and many others. May they rest in God's peace.

Image by Ninara.

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LC† Journey for Justice is a project of
Lutherans Connect / Lutheran Campus Ministry Toronto,
supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. Join our Facebook and find us on Instagram. Follow us @LutConnect

DAY 1 - ASH WEDNESDAY

Image Source

"In peace let us pray to the Lord."


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A Greeting
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
(Psalm 51:15)

A Small Verse
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit,
returned from the Jordan
and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness.
(Luke 4:1)

A Reading
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from your presence,
and do not take your holy spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and sustain in me a willing spirit.
(Psalm 51:10-12)

Music


Meditative Verse
Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love.
(Psalm 51:1)

A Reflection
One morning in early January, as we lined up to be counted before beginning work in the courtyard, we were instead marched outside and ordered into a covered truck. It was the first time that we had left the compound. No announcement was made as to our destination, but I had an idea of where we were headed. A few minutes later we emerged from the truck in a place that I had first seen when I was on the island in 1962: the lime quarry … We assumed it was another way of enforcing discipline ... an attempt to crush our spirits. But those first few weeks at the quarry had the opposite effect on us. Despite blistered and bleeding hands, we were invigorated. I much preferred being outside in nature, being able to see grass and trees, to observe birds flitting overhead, to feel the wind blowing in from the sea. Within a few days, we were walking to the quarry and [could] smell the eucalyptus blossoms, spot the occasional springbok or kudu grazing in the distance. Although some of the men regarded the march as drudgery, I never did.
- from Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela

Verse for the Day
You desire truth in the inward being;
therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
(Psalm 51:6)

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Image Source

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In her Saturday prayers on Twitter, ELCIC National Bishop Susan Johnson invites us to deepen the connection we can make between our prayers, our desire to be disciples, and our capacity to meet the suffering of the world. Over the next forty days, we will feature one of these prayers each day (and sometimes linger on one for a few days). The first tweet on Saturdays is always the invitational, “In peace, let us pray to the Lord.” What do we pray for? In today’s song, we hear ‘Ukuthula’, a longing call for the peace that comes after the passion of Jesus, the peace that flows from salvation. It is also the deep peace of a restored world. The hand gestures of the singers reflect the changing words of longing for 'gratefulness', 'faith', 'victory' and 'comfort'. In the coming days, we will experience all of these. Peace in silence is where we find ourselves today, in our own wildernesses, and peace in the world is where we are journeying in hope. During this time, we will follow the stories of prophets old and new, from whom we hear a call to justice and who provide us with inspiration. Some will be well-known, like Nelson Mandela, and others less so. Mandela spent eighteen prison years at Robben Island, off the coast of South Africa near Cape Town. In the reflection above, we hear him describe walking from inside the prison to outdoors where he was required to labour in hot sun at a lime quarry. Instead of being crushed in spirit, he is deepened in his resolve to make change "for all humanity". Later as President, Mandela would initiate a Truth and Reconciliation Committee that confronted the legacy of apartheid through exchanges of listening, repentance and in some cases, forgiveness. Lent begins with repentance. In the cry of the Psalmist and in the cry of the singers, we hear the request for God to make a clean and ‘right’ heart within us. We are asking for a return to the wholeness we had when we were created by God. What does that look like for you? What is the vision you carry for a new and right world, both within yourself and in the communities you care about? Together we will put one foot in front of the other and start the journey. Jesus walks with us into the wilderness, and indeed leads us on the way.

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It is possible to virtually tour the inside of Robben Island prison.
This link brings you to the threshold between inside and out.
In the next forty days we will dwell with people inside the prisons of
their circumstances, and envision with them something else.

Click the link, then follow the arrows or click and drag to navigate.
https://goo.gl/maps/Q57ktLPKXj92

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LC† Journey for Justice is a project of
Lutherans Connect / Lutheran Campus Ministry Toronto,
supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.
Join us on Facebook and find us on Instagram. Follow us @LutConnect