Monday March 20 Lent 4
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Psalm 89 Part 1
God’s faithfulness in creation is the basis for our trust in God’s justice and care for us. Just as God created order from chaos in creation, so we can rely upon God to create order out of chaos in human society. God’s original goodness intended for humanity and the world, is that everyone have a place and dignity and worth. Accomplishing that is the work of justice, often translated into traditional English as “righteousness.”
Jeremiah 16: 10-21 What’s Jeremiah about?
God continues to insist that there will be terrible consequences for the people having abandoned God’s call to justice and fairness—the “other gods” are gods which stood for various kinds of greed. God will send fishers and hunters to ensure every person is caught and taken into slavery in the north where Babylon was located. Verses 14 and 15 are a short section of hope (possibly originally located in another part of the manuscript) assuring the people that God will rescue them from the disaster they have brought on themselves.
John 6: 1-15 What’s John about?
Jesus takes a tiny amount of food and feeds 5,000 people with 12 baskets left over. This feeding happens just before the Passover at which Jesus will be executed—John is saying that Jesus’ gift of himself in his execution is what will feed the world with life because such overflowing power to feed everyone, as at the wedding with which this gospel starts, will be completed in overflowing love on the cross. That overflowing generosity undergirding everything, is what rescues us from despair and desperation. That new life will enable us to embody the maturity we see in Christ.
This week’s collect:
Almighty God,
through the waters of baptism
your Son has made us children of light.
May we ever walk in his light
and show forth your glory in the world;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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