Three Items
Monday, March 26, 2007 -- Week of 3 Lent
(The Annunciation of Our Lord, tr)
"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.
Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117
An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html
Today's Readings for the Daily Office (p. 956)
Psalms 31 (morning) 35 (evening)
Jeremiah 24:1-10
Romans 9:19-33
John 9:1-17
The blind man sees. The religious leaders are blind.
Salvation (wholeness) is a gift. The ones trying to earn their religious status can rest.
The defeated exiles are with God. God goes with them into their captivity.
One of John's favorite metaphors is light. Jesus is the light of the world. The light overcomes the darkness. If you wish to see, come to the light.
Today he tells the story of Jesus' healing the blind by, bringing light to him. Jesus, the light of the world, is manifest.
But there is a technicality. It is the Sabbath. The 10 Commandments expressly forbid working on the Sabbath. It has long been a traditional interpretation of the commandments that to make mud, place it on another's eyes, and accomplish a healing is work. Save it for the other six days. Look it up. It's in your Bible. The religious authorities take offense. "This man is not from God, for he does not observe the Sabbath." (In John's Gospel, the Biblical literalists are always blind to the surprising way grace is present in Jesus.)
Conventional belief also held that there was an ethical reason behind blindness. If someone were blind, it was the punishment for some sin, either that person's or another's. Jesus rejects this traditional interpretation, and heals the blind man for the glory of God. Now it is the blind man who truly sees the light. "He is a prophet," he says of Jesus. The blind man sees. The religious leaders are blind.
Paul insists that salvation is a gift. It is a gift that is within us -- "the word is near you, on your lips and in your heart." You do not have to perform up to a certain standard to earn your status before God. It is a gift for everyone, "for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek." It is as easy as trust. Salvation (wholeness) is a gift. The ones trying to earn their religious status can rest.
Once again today Jeremiah takes sides. He also says something which will be crucial for the survival of Jewish faith and identity during the exile.
Jeremiah has unsuccessfully urged Jerusalem's leaders to forego alliance with Egypt and to align themselves with Babylon. Now Babylon has invaded and defeated the holy city. The King and all of the elites as well as anyone with skills or trade is carried off to live in a foreign land under exile. The peasants are left behind with a puppet king.
Jeremiah offers encouragement for these defeated exiles. God will regard them as good. "I will set my eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up, and not tear them down; ...I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord; and they shall be my people and I will be their God."
Some people believed that the Divine was territorial. The gods in one land do not have powers and authorities in other lands. Jeremiah is clear. God will be with these defeated exiles in their foreign land. Even though they will be far away from the Temple, the center of their worship, the center of their universe. God will still be with them for good. The defeated exiles are with God. God goes with them into their captivity.
Lowell
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posted by Lowell @ 7:36 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Salvation is always the ending of the minds fascinated identification with the dead and unchanging image of what it was. It is the complete reversal of the
"natural" order of things a METANOIA - the Greek word for repentance, meaning precisely a turning around of the mind, so that it no longer faces into the past, the land of the shadow of death, but into the Eternal Present.
So long as the mind is captivated by memory, and really feels itself to be that past image which is "I" it can do nothing to save itself; it's sacrifices are of no avail, and it's Law gives no life.
After years of therapy, I had a metamorphosis - I asked Jesus to have mercy on me & forgive me my sins. He delivered me from my inequities. Praise the Lord!!
Peace Be With You
Patrick
Patrick,
Thanks for your post. The gift of salvation is extraordinarily simple. I like the way Paul Tillich put it in a famous sermon on St. Paul's gospel: "Simply accept the fact that you are accepted." Or elsewhere -- "I let go of the past and strain forward toward the future."
God is -- right here, right now.
Peace,
Lowell
I like How God put it in His famous love story to us. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
God is -- right then, right now
Reg
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