called back home

Good afternoon sisters and brothers,

Today's reading looks at both the judgment and redemption of Israel. It's a hint to what God values and how we should act. Notice the emphasis on doing justice for the weak and oppressed. Notice also that God wants to turn Israel (and our) heart back to justice even though we often go astray. God is always trying to bring us back to the right path; that's what Christmas is all about.

God bless,
Sam

Isaiah 1:16-31

¹⁶Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, ¹⁷learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.¹⁸Come now, let us argue it out, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. ¹⁹If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; ²⁰but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

²¹How the faithful city has become a whore! She that was full of justice, righteousness lodged in her— but now murderers! ²²Your silver has become dross, your wine is mixed with water. ²³Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not defend the orphan, and the widow’s cause does not come before them. 

²⁴Therefore says the Sovereign, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel: Ah, I will pour out my wrath on my enemies, and avenge myself on my foes! ²⁵I will turn my hand against you; I will smelt away your dross as with lye and remove all your alloy. ²⁶And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning.

Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city. ²⁷Zion shall be redeemed by justice, and those in her who repent, by righteousness. ²⁸But rebels and sinners shall be destroyed together, and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed. ²⁹For you shall be ashamed of the oaks in which you delighted; and you shall blush for the gardens that you have chosen. ³⁰For you shall be like an oak whose leaf withers, and like a garden without water. ³¹The strong shall become like tinder, and their work like a spark; they and their work shall burn together, with no one to quench them.

feeding and being fed

Good evening friends,
Today's reading tells the story of the Prophet Elijah in a time of drought. God sent Elijah to being the drought on Israel to expose King Ahab's sins of injustice and idolatry. For the first year of the drought, Elijah lived by a stream and God sent ravens to bring him food. But then the stream went dry and God sent Elijah to a gentile town, Zarapheth, to find a new way to live there. The story is a portrait of God's strange provision and the deep love of a mother for her son in impossible circumstances. Jesus points to this story in his first sermon in his hometown to show that God's special care isn't just for the people of Israel.

May God bless you in surprising ways this week,
Sam

1 Kings 17:8-16

⁸Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, ⁹“Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there; for I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” ¹⁰So he set out and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the town, a widow was there gathering sticks; he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink.” ¹¹As she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” ¹²But she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.” 

¹³Elijah said to her, “Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterwards make something for yourself and your son. ¹⁴For thus says the Lord the God of Israel: The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the Lord sends rain on the earth.” ¹⁵She went and did as Elijah said, so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days. ¹⁶The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.

a longer term plan

Good afternoon friends,
I hope your week has been a good on. We've read how Ruth has been gleaning in Boaz's field to keep her and Naomi alive. Now Naomi looks for a way to give Ruth some longer term security, which in this case means a husband. Her unconventional match-making makes for a good read. When you read threshing floor, think fishing trip: some time when men get together to work and celebrate. The next-of-kin stuff is hard for us to understand, but the short version is that in biblical Israel the next of kin had the obligation to buy the land for family in need so the land stayed in the family. In a case like Ruth's where she is a widow without children, her husband's next of kin also has the obligation to marry her so she can be provided for and to provide an heir for her dead husband. That way his family line and land are preserved and the widow would be cared for.

Blessings on your weekend,
Sam

Ruth 3:1-14

Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, I need to seek some security for you, so that it may be well with you. ²Now here is our kinsman Boaz, with whose young women you have been working. See, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. ³Now wash and anoint yourself, and put on your best clothes and go down to the threshing floor; but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. ⁴When he lies down, observe the place where he lies; then, go and uncover his feet and lie down; and he will tell you what to do.” ⁵She said to her, “All that you tell me I will do.”

⁶So she went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law had instructed her. ⁷When Boaz had eaten and drunk, and he was in a contented mood, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Then she came stealthily and uncovered his feet, and lay down. ⁸At midnight the man was startled, and turned over, and there, lying at his feet, was a woman! ⁹He said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I am Ruth, your servant; spread your cloak over your servant, for you are next-of-kin.”

¹⁰He said, “May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter; this last instance of your loyalty is better than the first; you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich. ¹¹And now, my daughter, do not be afraid, I will do for you all that you ask, for all the assembly of my people know that you are a worthy woman. ¹²But now, though it is true that I am a near kinsman, there is another kinsman more closely related than I. ¹³Remain this night, and in the morning, if he will act as next-of-kin for you, good; let him do it. If he is not willing to act as next-of-kin for you, then, as the Lord lives, I will act as next-of-kin for you. Lie down until the morning.” ¹⁴So she lay at his feet until morning, but got up before one person could recognize another; for he said, “It must not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor.”

Call me Mara

Good evening friends,
Some great discussion at South Presbyterian tonight about collaborative ministry. There will be some cool things cooking in Rochester in the coming months. We'll talk more about some of that at the annual meeting, but truly a blessing to be dreaming together.

We read yesterday about Naomi and her husband immigrating to Moab in search of food and about how her husband and sons died in Moab. Not long after that, Naomi heard that the famine in Israel was over, so she got ready to return, but wants to send her daughters in law back to their homes so they can get started making a new life. The heartbreak in the story is powerful, but one thing we learn in scripture is that God can bring beauty out of pain. A big part of the beauty in this story is the relationship among the women.

God bless,
Sam

Ruth 1:10-22

¹⁰They said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.” ¹¹But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters, why will you go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? ¹²Turn back, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. Even if I thought there was hope for me, even if I should have a husband tonight and bear sons, ¹³would you then wait until they were grown? Would you then refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, it has been far more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the Lord has turned against me.” ¹⁴Then they wept aloud again. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

¹⁵So she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” ¹⁶But Ruth said, “Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; Where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. ¹⁷Where you die, I will die— there will I be buried. May the Lord do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!” ¹⁸When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her.

¹⁹So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them; and the women said, “Is this Naomi?” ²⁰She said to them, “Call me no longer Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt bitterly with me. ²¹I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty; why call me Naomi when the Lord has dealt harshly with me, and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?” ²²So Naomi returned together with Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, who came back with her from the country of Moab. They came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.

persistent prayer

Good morning sisters and brothers,
Jesus tells a simple parable to remind us why we need to keep praying, even when it doesn't seem to be getting us anywhere. Persistence is an important part of prayer; as we persist in our prayers we may find ourselves changed too. Another part of the parable that Jesus doesn't comment on is that the widow prays for justice when she is oppressed. What we pray for matters, and part of growing in faith is learning how to pray in a way that reflects Christ's spirit within us.

God bless,
Sam

Luke 8:1-8

Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. ²He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. ³In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’ ⁴For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, ⁵yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’”

⁶And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. ⁷And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? ⁸I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

the widow's mite

Good morning sisters and brothers,
Today is Veterans' Day, so as we turn to God in the morning let's remember our service men and women serving far from home and those who have served in the past. No matter how you feel about the wars we are fighting and have fought before, we owe a debt of gratitude and care for those who have served. As a society we don't always live up to that obligation, so let's hear the day as a call to work for fair treatment for our returning veterans. If you're free this morning there is a Veteran's Day service at Irondequoit Town Hall at 10:45, but wherever you are today you can lift up a prayer of thanksgiving and comfort for our veterans.

Today's reading is familiar to many of us. Widows in Jesus' time were especially vulnerable because women's economic opportunities were very limited and their voice in society was almost absent. At the same time, scripture says over and over that God is especially receptive to the cries of widows, orphans, and other vulnerable people. This story of the widow's contribution comes right after Jesus has accused the religious leaders of "devouring widows' homes." Looking at the two passages together we see that this widow, and many others, have supported the temple (and church) even when they could barely afford to do so, but the religious leaders haven't always cared for these vulnerable members of society enough. May we always hear the voices of those in need.

God bless,
Sam

Luke 21:1-4
He looked up and saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasury; 2he also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. 3He said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; 4for all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.”