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Nuance is a podcast of The Collaborative helping Christians to faithfully live out their faith in their work. We recognize most of life is not lived in black and white but rather lived in the gray, lived in the nuance.
You can find more including complementary spiritual exercises at www.collaborativeorlando.com/nuance.
We continue in the season of Lent, a time of preparation for Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and the celebration of Easter morning.
A poem.
In solemn days of Lent, a sacred time, where shadows lengthen, penance in its prime, a journey inward through the soul's vast space to seek the truth, find solace, and embrace. The workplace hums with life's relentless strain, where toil and sweat like drops of summer rain. In the crucible of labor, souls may weep.
as burdens heavy, secrets buried deep. Lent's solemn call, a whisper in the air to pause, reflect, release the weight we bear. Suffering, a thread that binds us all in offices and fields where shadows fall. The desk, an altar of the modern age where dreams are forged and spirits engaged.
Yet midst the hustle, let's solemn plea to find the sacred in the mundane sea. Suffering echoes in the workplace halls, where deadlines loom and duty tightly calls. Yet in this crucible, let grace unfold as lit and journey, stories are retold. For suffering shared is a burden light. In workplace shadows, hope takes flight.
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Lent a beacon of the midst of strife, an invitation to transform this life. So let the workplace be a sacred space where Lent's embrace transcends the daily race in suffering, find strength to rise above for Easter's dawn awaits the gift of love.
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reading from Genesis chapter 24 verses 12 through 20.
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Then he prayed, Yahweh, God of my master Abraham. Nope, scribe that, scratch that. We gotta know who prayed. Read full chapter. I think that's Isaac.
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It's Abraham's servant.
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Here we go again.
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reading from Genesis 24 verses 12 through 20.
And then the servant prayed, Yahweh, God of my master Abraham, make me successful today and show kindness to my master Abraham. See, I am standing beside this spring and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water. May it be that when I say to a young woman, please let down your jar that I may have a drink. And she says, drink and I'll water your camels too.
Let her be the one you have chosen for your servant, Isaac. By this, I will know that you have shown kindness to my master.
Before he had finished praying, Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel, son of Milka, who was the wife of Abraham's brother Nahor. The woman was very beautiful, a virgin. No man had ever slept with her. She went down to the spring, filled her jar, and came up again. The servant hurried to meet her and said, Please give me a little water from your jar.
drink, my Lord," she said, and quickly lowered the jar to her hands and gave him a drink. After she had given him a drink, she said, I'll draw water for your camels too, until they have had enough to drink. So she quickly emptied her jars into the trough, ran back to the well to draw more water and drew enough for all of his camels.
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public square connection.
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In Genesis 12, we see the story of Abraham's servant praying for God to help him find a wife for Isaac. The servant is specific in his prayer, asking God to send a woman who is willing to help him, and he will be a good wife for Isaac. God answers the servant's prayer and he finds Rebecca, who is willing to help him, and it was a good wife for Isaac. This story can be seen as a metaphor for
our public lives and the life of the church. The church is called to be a servant to the world and to our communities and to help people find their way to God. The church should be specific in its prayers, asking God to help it do its work in this world. The church, you and me, should also be faithful in our prayers, trusting that God will answer them.
How in this season of Lent can we look ever more deeply into ourselves and test and try and see where our hearts might rest when it comes to love of neighbor.
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And now reading from the book of Psalms 119 verse 33.
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Teach me Yahweh the way of your decrees that I may follow it to the end. Give me understanding so that I may keep your law and obey it with all my heart. Direct me in the path of your commands for there I find a light. Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain. Turn my eyes away from worthless things. Preserve my life according to your word. Fulfill your promise to your servant.
so that you may be feared. Take away the disgrace I dread for your laws are good. How I long for your precepts and your righteousness preserve my life.
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Let us pray together. Oh, Lord, God of Abraham, I pray that you will guide me today. Help me to be faithful to you and to always put you first in my life. I pray that you will help me to be a good witness for you and to bring glory to your name. I pray that you will help me to grow in my faith and to become more like Jesus. Help me, Lord.
Help me to love others as you love me and to forgive others as you have forgiven me. I pray that you will help me to be a blessing to others and to make a difference in the world. Jesus name. Amen.
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Our final reading from the Gospel of John chapter 4, beginning in verse 4.
Now Jesus had to go through Samaria, so he came to a town in Samaria called Sikkar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, will you give me a drink? His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.
The Samaritan woman said to him, you are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink? For Jews did not associate with Samaritans. Jesus answered her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have said to him and he would have given you living water. Sir, the woman said.
You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?" Jesus answered, everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water.
Welling up to eternal life. The woman said to him, Oh, sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water. He told her, go call your husband and come back. I have no husband. She replied. Jesus said to her, you were right when you say you have no husband. The fact is you have had five husbands and the man you now have is not your husband.
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What you have just said is quite true. Sir, the woman said, I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem. Woman, Jesus replied, believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the father, neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know. Oh,
we worship what we do know for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth. For they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is Spirit and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth. The woman said, I know that Messiah,
called Christ is coming when he comes, he will explain everything to us. Then Jesus declared, I, the one speaking to you, I am he.
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All right. Hold it.