Scriptures and Reflection Questions for September 19

Scriptures and Reflection Questions 

Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost

Proper 20, Year C
September 19, 2010

 

 

How to use this page:

Print this and read a different passage each day and think about it.  Some questions are offered to help stimulate your reflection.  You'll find your experience of worship on Sunday will be intensified.
For a method to read and pray with the scriptures you might try to use the ancient practice of Lectio Divina (Divine Reading).  We've written some instructions on how to use Lectio with the Sunday Scriptures at the following link: Using Lectio Divina to pray the lections

We use the Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary.

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The Lessons

 

Jeremiah 8:18-9:1
Psalm 79:1-9
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Luke 15:1-10
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Jeremiah 8:18-9:1

My joy is gone, grief is upon me,

my heart is sick.

Hark, the cry of my poor people

from far and wide in the land:

"Is the LORD not in Zion?

Is her King not in her?"

("Why have they provoked me to anger with their images,

with their foreign idols?")

"The harvest is past,the summer is ended,

and we are not saved."

For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt,

I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me.

Is there no balm in Gilead?

Is there no physician there?

Why then has the health of my poor people

not been restored?

O that my head were a spring of water,

and my eyes a fountain of tears,

so that I might weep day and night

for the slain of my poor people!

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What do you grieve for our nation?  ...for our world? 

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Psalm 79:1-9   

 O God, the heathen have come into your inheritance;
they have profaned your holy temple; *

they have made Jerusalem a heap of rubble.

They have given the bodies of your servants as food for the birds of the air, *

and the flesh of your faithful ones to the beasts of the field.

They have shed their blood like water on every side of Jerusalem, *

and there was no one to bury them.

We have become a reproach to our neighbors, *

an object of scorn and derision to those around us.

How long will you be angry, O God; *

will your fury blaze like fire for ever?

Pour out your wrath upon the heathen who have not known you *

and upon the nations that have not called upon your Name.

For they have devoured Jacob *

and made his dwelling a ruin.

Remember not our past sins;
let your compassion be swift to meet us; *

for we have been brought very low.

Help us, O God our Savior, for the glory of your Name; *

deliver us and forgive us our sins, for your Name's sake.

 

St. Helena Psalter

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What sins might our nation need to confess?
In what ways do we suffer?

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 1 Timothy 2:1-7

 

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For

there is one God;

there is also one mediator between God and humankind,

Christ Jesus, himself human,

who gave himself a ransom for all

 -- this was attested at the right time. For this I was appointed a herald and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

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How do you pray for our leaders and governmental officials?

________________________________________________________

 

Luke 16:1-13

Jesus said to the disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, `What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.' Then the manager said to himself, `What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.' So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he asked the first, `How much do you owe my master?' He answered, `A hundred jugs of olive oil.' He said to him, `Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.' Then he asked another, `And how much do you owe?' He replied, `A hundred containers of wheat.' He said to him, `Take your bill and make it eighty.' And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.

"Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."_______________

In an unjust and corrupt system, a shrewd manager ends up helping everybody?
Do you live in dysfunctional systems?  If so, how do you manage? 

 

 

 

Scriptures and Reflection Questions for September 12

Scriptures and Reflection Questions
Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Proper 19, Year C
September 12, 2010

How to use this page:

Print this and read a different passage
each day and think about it. Some questions are offered to help stimulate your
reflection.  You'll find your experience of worship on Sunday will be intensified.

For a method to read and pray with the scriptures you might try to use the ancient
practice of Lectio Divina (Divine Reading).  We've written some instructions on
how to use Lectio with the Sunday Scriptures at the following link:
http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id272.html

We use the Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary.

___________________

Collect

O God, because without you we are not able to please you mercifully grant that your
Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our
Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

__________________

The Lessons

Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
Psalm 14
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Luke 15:1-10
________________________

Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28

At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem: A hot wind comes from
me out of the bare heights in the desert toward my poor people, not to winnow or
 cleanse -- a wind too strong for that. Now it is I who speak in judgment against
them.

"For my people are foolish,
they do not know me;
they are stupid children,
they have no understanding.
They are skilled in doing evil,
but do not know how to do good."
I looked on the earth, and lo, it was waste and void;
and to the heavens, and they had no light.
I looked on the mountains, and lo, they were quaking,
and all the hills moved to and fro.
I looked, and lo, there was no one at all,
and all the birds of the air had fled.
I looked, and lo, the fruitful land was a desert,
and all its cities were laid in ruins
before the LORD, before his fierce anger.

For thus says the LORD: The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make
a full end.

Because of this the earth shall mourn,
and the heavens above grow black;
for I have spoken, I have purposed;
I have not relented nor will I turn back.

________________

Jeremiah speaks a word of judgment that sounds like the reversal of the original
 creation story -- the "un-creation" of the world.

Where do you see actions that seem to tear at the fabric of creation?

_________________________________________________________

Psalm 14

The foolish have said in their hearts, "There is no God." *
All are corrupt and commit abominable acts;
there is none who does any good.

The Holy One looks down from heaven upon us all, *
to see if there is any who is wise,
if there is one who seeks after God.

Everyone has proved faithless;
all alike have turned bad; *
there is none who does good; no, not one.

Have they no knowledge, all those evildoers *
who eat up my people like bread and do not call upon God?

See how they tremble with fear, *
because God is in the company of the righteous.

Their aim is to confound the plans of the afflicted, *
but God is their refuge.

Oh, that Israel's deliverance would come out of Zion! *
When God restores the fortunes of the people,
Jacob will rejoice and Israel be glad.

St. Helena Psalter
_______________

A Psalm during a time of corruption and evil.
Where do you see signs of corruption and evil in our day?
________________________________________________________

1 Timothy 1:12-17

I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged
me faithful and appointed me to his service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer,
a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly
in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love
 that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners -- of whom I am the foremost. But
for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ
might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come
to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible,
the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
_______________

For what in your life is Jesus displaying the utmost patience?
What would Jesus like to free you from?
________________________________________________________

Luke 15:1-10

All the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the
Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners
and eats with them."

So he told them this parable: "Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing
one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one
that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders
and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors,
saying to them, `Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' Just
 so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than
over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

"Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light
 a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has
found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, `Rejoice with me,
for I have found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy in
 the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."
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How might these passages work as metaphors for God's passion for wholeness?
What is lost or separated in your life?
What is lost or separated in our society?
What is lost or separated in our world?
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