Thursday 20 March 2025 - Sending out new roots

Thursday 20 March 2025

Today is Thursday the 20th of March in the 2nd week of Lent. The community of Taizé sing De noche iremos: ‘By night we search for the source of living water. It is only our thirst that guides our way.’ This time of prayer is an opportunity to quench that thirst a little - my thirst for God, the source of life - a chance to drink from the spring, from the source of living water, and be refreshed. De noche iremos, de noche que para encontrar la fuente sólo la sed nos alumbra sólo la sed nos alumbra. Today’s reading is from the Prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah 17:5-10 Thus says the Lord: Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord. They shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when relief comes. They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit. The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse— who can understand it? I the Lord test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings. If you’ve ever lived in a hot, dry climate, you know what a precious thing water is. You know what shrubs in the desert look like. Why does Jeremiah use this image in today’s reading? What does the “shrub in the desert” lack, that I also lack when I put my trust in “mere mortals” instead of God? Are there ways in which I might have “trusted in mere mortals” and made “mere flesh” my “strength”? Can I think of times when I’ve done that? – and what it felt like? But then the prophet imagines the same hot, dry climate and gives us the picture of “a tree planted by water”, to describe those who “trust in the Lord”. Is this you? Is this how you want to be? Do you feel that you “send out your roots by the stream”? Or do you find it difficult to “trust in the Lord”? As you listen to the reading again, and hear the Lord say to you “I, the Lord, test the mind and the heart, to give to all according to their ways”, what thoughts occur to you? Jeremiah 17:5-10 Thus says the Lord: Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord. They shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when relief comes. They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit. The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse— who can understand it? I the Lord test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings. What would you like to say now to the Lord? What might God want to say to you today? You have given all to me To you, Lord, I return it Everything is Yours Do with it what You will Give me only Your love and Your grace That is enough for me Amen