Here is the Holy Wednesday prayer and reflection from my church. Leaders from the church are doing videos for each day of Holy Week, going through our prayerbook liturgy for the day and offering some personal reflections. You can also find the audio version on our podcast.
Confess
Christ himself bore our sins in his body on the tree
that we might die to sins and live for righteousness.
By his wounds we are healed.
Let us confess our sins
.— from 1 Peter 2.24
Gracious God,
in Jesus Christ you teach us to love our neighbors,
but we build dividing walls of hostility.
You show us how to love one another as sisters and brothers
but we hide ourselves from our own human family.
You ask us to seek out the stranger and welcome the guest,
but we lock ourselves up inside our own fear.
You want us to share your abundant gifts with the poor,
but we cling tightly to our possessions and our privilege.
You call us to proclaim good news to all people,
but we waste our words and hide our light.
Have mercy on us, loving God.
Forgive our sin, open our hearts, and change our lives.
By your Spirit, make us holy and whole—
one people, united in faith, hope, and love;
through Jesus Christ, our reconciler and redeemer. Amen.
~ Silent Confession & Reflection ~
Read
Selection from Mark 14.1-11
It was two days before the Passover and the festival of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him; for they said, “Not during the festival, or there may be a riot among the people.”
While he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head. But some were there who said to one another in anger, “Why was the ointment wasted in this way? For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor.” And they scolded her. But Jesus said, “Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me. For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.”
Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. When they heard it, they were greatly pleased, and promised to give him money. So he began to look for an opportunity to betray him.
Practice
Consider who the outsiders and disenfranchised are in your community. Who’s voice is not represented where you live? Who doesn’t have the cultural or political power? Choose one of these groups and find out something about them. What do they need? What do they have to give? Where might God be calling you to walk in his compassion with them?
For Families: Invite your children into this exploration and ask their ideas for how to care for some of these groups well.
the long way home 