Set it Down

SCRIPTURE
- Leviticus 19:17-18
“You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”

REFLECTION
- Mike

MUSIC
- "Before the Throne of God Above" by Jonathan Roth
- "I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say" by Sunday 7pm Choir

NOTES
-

PRAYER OF LETTING GO
To You do I belong, O God,
into Your hands I surrender my life.
Pour out Your Spirit upon me
that I may love You perfectly,
and serve You faithfully
until my soul rests in You.

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:29

Hello and happy Monday. Today, the church celebrates the feast of Saint Bartholomew, one of the twelve apostles. We don't really know much about Saint Bartholomew as we do some of the other apostles, but you know, there's something kind of comforting in that. He followed Jesus faithfully, even without becoming one of the names whose story we hear all the time. And that's a good way to enter prayer today. Not needing to be noticed, not needing to have everything figured out, just showing up and following Christ right where we are. Let us pray. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

SPEAKER_03 1:23

O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall declare your praise.

SPEAKER_02 1:31

Psalm 54, awaken me, God. Awaken me, O blessed healer, with your holy mercy, that I might be free of fear. Hear my prayer, O God, give ear to the words of my heart.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

For nagging doubts assail me, bringing loneliness and pain. I remember not the beloved. So overwhelming are my fears.

SPEAKER_02 2:15

Yet behold, you are my helper, the upholder of my life. With you I have the strength to face my fears. Your faithfulness will help me transform them into love.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

With boundless confidence, I abandon myself into your heart. I give praise to your holy name, O God, with gratitude and joy.

SPEAKER_02 2:54

For you deliver me from my illusions, and through love my heart opens to wisdom and rests in peace. Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

You shall surely rebuke your neighbor and not bear sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. The word of the Lord. Recently, my kids went back to school, and my five-year-old son started kindergarten. He'd been looking forward to it for months, partly because he finally gets to be in the same school as his older sister. One of the things he was most excited about wasn't even school itself, it was getting his backpack. He couldn't wait to fill it with all the supplies that he would need for the year. And I can still remember that same excitement when I was a kid. Watching him pack that backpack got me thinking about today's scripture. Imagine if we all started each day wearing an empty backpack. Every time someone hurt us, every disappointment, every argument, every grudge, we picked up a rock and dropped it inside. At first, one rock wouldn't seem like much, but then another, and another. And eventually the backpack would become so heavy that every step would feel harder than the last. Our shoulders would ache, our legs would grow tired, we'd wonder why we felt so exhausted. I think resentment works a lot like that. Someone says something hurtful, and days or even weeks later, we're still carrying it. We replay the conversation in our minds. We think about what we wish we had said. We imagine how the situation should have gone. It's amazing how much space one person can take up in our hearts without even knowing it. Before he tells us to love our neighbor, he first tells us not to hate, not to seek revenge, and not to hold on to grudges. Maybe that's because he knows what those things do to us. They weigh us down. The other person may not even realize we're carrying those rocks, but we do. And over time the backpack becomes so full there's little room left for the things that actually nourish us. Peace, joy, mercy, compassion, God's presence. Forgiveness doesn't always erase the hurt. It doesn't pretend the pain never happened, but it does allow us to begin setting those rocks down one by one. Maybe that's today's invitation. Is there a rock you've been carrying for far too long? Or a hurt or a disappointment that weighs down your heart? Maybe today Jesus is inviting us to set it down, not because the other person deserves it, but because he desires something better for you. He wants your heart to have room once again for his peace.

SPEAKER_04 8:50

With trust, we pray. On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen. Let us pray. God of mercy and freedom, you know what we carry, even the things we have grown so accustomed to holding that we hardly notice their weight anymore. Give us the grace to loosen our grip on old hurts. Where forgiveness feels difficult, stay close to us and begin the work we cannot do alone. Make more room in our hearts for your peace and help us to walk a little more freely today. We ask this through Christ our Lord.

unknown 10:05

Amen.

SPEAKER_04 10:09

To you do I belong, O God, into your hands I surrender my life.

SPEAKER_03 10:16

Pour out your Spirit upon me that I may love you perfectly and serve you faithfully until my soul rests in you.

SPEAKER_04 10:29

It's kind of fitting to start our week thinking about what we're carrying. Many of us probably have enough to haul around this week without adding the extra weight of past hurts or old grudges. So as you move into the rest of your day, pay attention to what feels heavier than it needs to be. You might just find something you're ready to put down. And may God bless us in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Look for Christ in the small things until we pray again tomorrow.