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Luke 7:11-17 - Lectionary for Trinity 16

9/24/2020

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9/24/20
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the historic one-year lectionary.

Weeping. We usually think of it as a sign of sorrow, of mourning, of desolation. I’ve spent some time living in areas of this country which we would consider “the South.” When a person has died, all the friends and relatives gather and weep together - loud, long, and sorrowful. This was the case in the Hebrew custom of the early 1st century. There would even be “professional mourners” who would add to the displays of sorrow when someone died. In a town such as Nain, large enough to have a gate, there may have been quite a number of people weeping and mourning. Here a widow, already with few societal resources, has lost her son.

Jesus’ interruption, then, would have been shocking. Let’s say simply that in all the funerals I have conducted, nobody has ever halted the procession to the graveside and taken charge of the events. Yet that’s exactly what Jesus does. He tells the mother not to weep and he stops the funeral procession.

It’s actually amazing that they didn’t keep on going, ignore him, or even attempt to restrain him or hit him. Jesus did something which was completely unacceptable in the culture. But he did it anyway.

In Jesus there is life. As we considered in Psalm 30, weeping gives way to joy. Or, in the case of some cultures, the weeping of sorrow gives way to the weeping of joy. Imagine the reunion of mother and child.

This incident is also a picture of our future. Given enough time, every last one of us will die. There will be some weeping (I hope). But there will be resurrection, and, with trust in Christ, we can look forward to a reunion with our loved ones and a blessed eternal union with our Lord Jesus. So it is right that Jesus should interrupt our lives, tell us not to weep, and show himself to be the God of resurrection. He is able to do all that is needed to bring us to our heavenly Father.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

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Ephesians 3:13-21 - Lectionary for Trinity 16

9/23/2020

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9/23/20
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the historic one-year lectionary.

We’ve all heard it. What we truly need is love. Love for one another, our world tells us, will cause us to get over all the troubles we have with each other. It will boost everyone’s income, keep the economy cooking, end violent crime, get everyone to work together to find cures for illness, and probably unlock our unlimited human potential.

Sorry, that’s a false religion. It’s the religion of man. What love is our world looking for? Where are they looking for it? Look deep within yourself to find those resources.

The apostle Paul has a very different opinion. In Ephesians 3:14-19 we bow before God asking that God the Son, Jesus Christ, will be established in our hearts, thus giving us his love. Our love isn’t going to work. It’s broken, and has been broken since Genesis chapter three. Not that we can’t do some things that look kind of like love. But, on the whole, it’s broken.

If we want to have love working in our lives, we must be rooted and grounded in Jesus. Then he will show us how His love works. It is limitless. It casts out fear. It cannot be stopped. It gives forgiveness, life, and eternal salvation. It can even motivate us to love and serve our neighbors.

I admit I’m tired of the guilt trip that many in my society try to throw at me. If only Christians would act like Christians and love people they wouldn’t be the root of all the problems that have ever existed in our world. But if they aren’t going to act like the vision of love we have for them, we’ll keep screaming at them, trying to marginalize them in society, and threatening to eliminate them entirely.

Oh, that’s love? I must have misunderstood the way love is defined.

I’m going to keep looking for the love that is rooted in Christ, that has redeemed me from sin and death even though I had no merit of my own. I’ll look for the love that set me free to love and serve my neighbor. And while some of my neighbors are thinking of ways to be hateful to me, I’ll try to do good in this world. After all, that’s what Jesus has done for me.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

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Psalm 30 - Lectionary for Trinity 16

9/22/2020

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9/22/20
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the historic one-year lectionary.

Psalm 30 speaks repeatedly of the difference between mourning and rejoicing, death and life, despair and hope. I think we all need to hear about these distinctions, and hear of them frequently. If you are like I am, you confront trials regularly. Some days, as God predicted to Adam in Genesis 3, bring for thorns and thistles in the sweat of our brows. 

Don’t get me wrong. I am glad that my trials are mostly in the category we would call “developed world problems.” But they are still trials. They can haunt our lives, inflict physical and mental pain, and rob us of joy.

I know as soon as I say something like that, there will be someone who is ready to say, “Oh, really? You don’t know suffering. I know what suffering is. You have no idea and no place to talk about it.” 

The fact is, I don’t have a place to talk about it, but God does. In our Psalm for this week, while we don’t have information about the specific trials, the Psalmist is clear that hardships lead to weeping and even to despair. The Bible doesn’t give us a plan to compare what kind of trouble counts and what doesn’t. It’s trouble. It hurts. It counts.

What hope does the Psalmist give us? The troubles may or may not go away. However, as we trust in the Lord, though we are weeping and troubled now, He will eventually bring joy and hope. It might not be in the next morning, according to our clock. But in the last day, God will bring full and final recovery. In the meantime, He remains the God of mercy and grace. He’s going to give us some of that.

Chiefly, we recognize that God in Christ has already visited us in our time of need. He has done all that is necessary to break down the wall of separation that our sin has created between us and God. He gives his hope, his forgiveness, and his life to us as free gifts. He brings healing through earthly means and, sometimes, through supernatural intervention. And he promises that as he rose from the dead, in the last day, he will raise us as well. 

Our sorrow might last for a while. But in Christ, we are partakers of the promise of complete rescue, which brings us joy. This is our confidence.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

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1 Kings 17:17-24 - Lectionary for Trinity 16

9/21/2020

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9/21/20
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the historic one-year lectionary.

Over the past three decades (plus some) that I have been involved in Christian ministry, I’ve heard many Christians express disappointment, some resentment, and even some fear of ill treatment at the hands of those who would complain against them. Our passage in 1 Kings 17 calls this to mind. You may recall that last week’s Old Testament lectionary reading was the passage that came immediately before this one. In it, during a time of famine, Elijah was sent by God to a widow and her son. They were down to the last handful of flour and a little oil, and were planning to make a piece of bread to eat before they would starve to death. God multiplied the oil and flour so that they and Elijah would be able to eat throughout the time of famine. God saved their lives through his miraculous care shown in the mediation of his prophet.

In this week’s passage, the son becomes ill and dies. What is the response of the widow who has just been brought through a famine by God? She asks why the prophet has brought this plague on her household. 

In times of pain and suffering virtually anybody will lash out at someone. In this instance, the prophet is a handy target. He didn’t cause the illness or the death. And he prayed to bring the young man back to life. Elijah was a faithful prophet before God and was used for the good of God’s people. He was exactly the kind of man who would be present for the suffering widow. As a result, he presented himself as an easy target.

During hard times, such as we have all seen in our lives, Christians are regularly accused of being hard-hearted, soft-headed, involved in the wrong causes, too involved, not involved enough, being in the way, not being available, and any number of other things. If there’s an accusation to be lodged, it will be. Faithful Christians rightly say they are being treated wrongly when they are used as targets for angry or fearful people to lash out at. 

What is our response? As Elijah did, we bring our neighbor’s troubles before God, asking that He will bring healing and restoration. Sometimes he does. We are there to walk through the dark places together with those who are hurting. This means we will often feel the brunt of their anger and fear. It’s all right, Christian. They are lashing out at God, not so specifically at you. And you are not answerable to the person who treats you with anger. You are answerable to God. Be found faithful in Christ and all will be well.

It isn’t easy living in a sin-cursed world. But it’s the world we are living in. While we are here, we walk in the light of Christ, and we shine His light into the darkness. The God of all mercy and grace will be with us and will use us to love and serve our neighbors. He’s still the good Lord.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

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