Monday March 21 Lent 3
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Psalm 80
After rescuing us from slavery in Egypt, God had planted us in new ground like a well-watered vine, and we grew and filled the whole land. But now we are being attacked by a foreign power and God’s vine is being uprooted. God, rescue us so that we may be a healthy vine again.
Genesis 44.18-34 What’s Genesis about?
Judah volunteers to become a slave in order to ensure that Benjamin, the youngest brother, is returned to his father and that his father will therefore not be brought to the grave in sorrow at having lost both his youngest sons. Without knowing it, the ten brothers are now enacting the care for each other and for their father which they had not when they attempted to murder Joseph. The dreamer, whom they had hated and intended to murder, has, through his interpretation of dreams, become the one who enables them to become loving and loyal.
Mark 5.21-43 What’s Mark about?
Jesus has calmed a storm on a lake, then inside a person, and now calms storms inside two women. The first woman was an outcast because of her constant menstrual bleeding and could never have children. She would be considered a total failure and hardly even an adult because having a child is what made a woman a full adult in that culture. Jesus then heals a little girl, who had been born the same year the older woman first became ill, and would otherwise never have become a full adult woman herself,
Jesus is healing all the things that keep us from being our full selves and coming into maturity, and particularly those who are weakest—such as women in the ancient world. These healings are more than of individual bodies—Jesus is also healing the body of society from being prejudiced and stunted.
This week’s collect:
Father of mercy,
alone we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves.
When we are discouraged by our weakness,
strengthen us to follow Christ,
our pattern and our hope;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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