Wednesday April 27 Easter 2
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Psalm 12
Everyone has abandoned truth and justice. I stand alone against this injustice. It is when God sees injustice that God acts. Save us, God, evil is prevailing.
Psalm 13
God seems to be absent, and not helping, but I long that God will. Then I will rejoice!
Psalm 14
Everybody has abandoned the God of justice. When God acts there will be great rejoicing.
Exodus 15.22-16.10 What’s Exodus about?
Moses begins the journey into the wilderness, and the people rebel for the first time. God performs a miracle to provide them with fresh water. The people complain about having no food and wishing to return to slavery. Moses promises that God will miraculously provide them with bread.
This miracle of the “manna” was applied millennia later to Jesus by John in his gospel. In John’s gospel Jesus identifies himself as manna for the world hungry for love and justice, come down from heaven like the manna in the desert.
John 15.1-11 What’s John about?
Jesus continues to deal with the question of how we relate to him after he is no longer present in a physical body. Jesus’ disciples are to live in him as branches live in a vine. They will live in him as they love—respect and pay attention to and value each other—then they will be united with him and with God.
Notice how the image of a vine assumes that there is no vine without branches—we disciples are not just added onto the vine, we are the vine. In other words, in some sense Jesus remains present but now takes the physical form of a congregation. That means that a Christian congregation is not simply a group of people following Jesus, but in some sense they are Jesus. That’s why we are called “the body of Christ.”
This week’s collect:
Eternal Giver of life and light,
the strength of those who believe
and the hope of those who doubt,
may we, who have not seen, have faith
and receive the fullness of Christ’s blessing,
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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