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?

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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?