Monday, March 09, 2009

A Visit with Three Friends

Monday, March 9, 2009 -- Week of 2 Lent, Year One
Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, c. 394

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 948)
Psalms 56, 57, [58] (morning) 64, 65 (evening)
Jeremiah 1:11-19
Romans 1:1-15
John 4:27-42

In a nice play on words, Jeremiah sees a shaqed -- an almond tree, and the word comes to him that God is shoqed -- watching. Then Jeremiah has a vision of "a boiling pot, tilted away from the north." God is watching, calling the kingdoms of the north to invade Judah and Jerusalem as a consequence of all of their wickedness. God tells Jeremiah to be "a fortified city, an iron pillar, and a bronze wall, against ...the kings of Judah, its princes, its priests, and the people of the land. They will fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you."

It is a terrible and lonely calling to deliver truth that is bad news and divine judgment. Especially for such a sensitive soul as Jeremiah. But that is his calling. In him we will re-live the tragedy of Israel's failure -- its invasion, destruction and exile. We will see hope scattered throughout, but it is predominately a story of tragedy.

Jeremiah tells his people that they have brought tragedy upon themselves. It is their fault that causes them such suffering. He encourages them to survive the disaster and to believe that God will ultimately turn their suffering into joy.

We hear Jeremiah voices today, telling us that the choices we have made have thrust our nation into war and into an extended economic recession, even possibly depression. Our tragedy is of our own making. In some way it is what we deserve. Maybe by reading Jeremiah during Lent we can hear a voice of understanding who will help us live through our own suffering and tragedy today.
________

In our other two stories, we have important messages borne to us by women.

We begin today our reading of Paul's great letter to the Romans. It is of interest that the letter is probably being delivered by his friend and fellow worker Phoebe (16:1). Paul gives her the title "minister" -- diakonos -- a term Paul also uses of Christ (15:8) and of himself (1 Cor. 3:5).

Paul opens his letter saying how confident he is of the gospel as God's trustworthy message of power to transform our lives. Our proper response to God's gift is faith -- faith is the means (through faith) and the end (for faith) of life before God. Trust God, and your life will be found trustworthy. Faith becomes faithful.

John's story is an illustration of faith. In the aftermath of Jesus' visit with the Samaritan woman at the well, many Samaritans hear her story and are drawn to Jesus. They ask Jesus to stay with them. He does. They hear him and have their faith deepened by their first-hand experience of hearing and knowing Jesus themselves.

Often our own growth happens in a similar way. We hear something that moves us or makes sense to us. We receive the faith of others. Then, we invite Jesus to stay with us, we open ourselves to a more direct experience of God through worship, prayer or service. Then our faith is deepened by our first-hand experience of knowing God, knowing Jesus, directly in our own lives.

This whole encounter with the Samaritans is made more interesting when we remember that the antipathy between Jews and Samaritans was so profound. Samaritans never invited Jews to stay with them, but worked to make any Jewish travel through their territory as inhospitable as possible. For a Jew, to have a Samaritan's shadow to fall across their footpath would render that Jew unclean. Jesus subverts and transcends these social, historic divisions and prejudices.

Jeremiah: an invitation to understand our suffering.
Paul: an encouragement into faith.
John: an illustration of the growing of faith which reconciles.

Lowell
_____________________________________________

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

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home