Tuesday, March 10, 2009

For God Alone

Tuesday, March 10, 2009 -- Week of 2 Lent, Year One

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 948)
Psalms 61, 62 (morning) 68:1-20(21-23)24-36 (evening)
Jeremiah 2:1-13
Romans 1:16-25
John 4:43-54

The Psalm and the first two readings all give warnings toward those who abandon their trust in and obedience to God and let material pursuits be their focus.

The Psalmist tells us to trust only God. "For God alone my soul in silence waits; from God comes my salvation." He is feeling betrayed and pressured by people. "Those of high degree are but a fleeting breath; even those of low estate cannot be trusted." Power and money are no substitute. "Though wealth increase, set not your heart on it."

Jeremiah accuses the people of forsaking God. In their early days, they were faithful. But now they have been seduced by the riches of the land. Jeremiah speaks in God's voice, "for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water."

And Paul criticizes the Gentile world who could have known God "through the things he has made," through creation, for all of the earth is filled with God's presence and Spirit, for God made it all. Instead of looking beyond the creature toward the creator, they worshiped only the creation, "and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles."

John's gospel gives us an example of faith. A royal official, someone who probably served Herod Antipas, and therefore was powerful and wealthy, seeks out Jesus to heal his critically ill son. Jesus tells him it will be done. The man believed; the son was healed.

Maybe the biggest temptation we all live with is the temptation to live with our attention focused on our material concerns and our anxiety about how to gain control over life so that things will go the way we want them to go. We try to get people to do what we want them to do and to be the way we want them to be. We think money and power will give us what we need to make things well. We look only toward the resources we can see and count.

"For God alone my soul in silence waits; from God comes my salvation."

One of the reasons the church urges us to spend time in prayer and meditation is so that we will spend some time simply trusting God rather than scheming about our own plans. Each day we need to remember that God is our source and God will lead and provide. Each day we need to entrust ourselves to God rather than to our own resources. Each day we must die to all of the temptations to wrestle life into our own making; we must be reborn to receive life as a gift. Daily we need to remember that we are God's own beloved, and there is nothing we need do except remember that we are God's.

In this morning prayer, I will set my trust in God, and then begin to walk into my day. Who knows what work of healing God is already accomplishing, maybe even through my faith.

Lowell

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Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

About Morning Reflections
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


The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life
We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas

1 Comments:

At 12:32 PM, Blogger Undergroundpewster said...

Amen.

 

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