Tuesday, November 03, 2015

A Layman’s Take on Today’s Readings: Lectionary 486


Key
Bold = verse commented upon
Blue = comment
Today’s readings give us examples of the love and peace God has for us and how we can receive them. They also show us some things that get in the way of receiving them.
Brothers and sisters: We, though many, are one Body in Christ and individually parts of one another. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us exercise them: if prophecy, in proportion to the faith; if ministry, in ministering; if one is a teacher, in teaching; if one exhorts, in exhortation; if one contributes, in generosity; if one is over others, with diligence; if one does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
Let love be sincere; hate what is evil, hold on to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; anticipate one another in showing honor. Do not grow slack in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, endure in affliction, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the holy ones, exercise hospitality. Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Have the same regard for one another; do not be haughty but associate with the lowly.
We can receive—and deliver—God’s love God’s by fellowshipping with other believers. The more we deliver God’s love to other believers the more we will experience God’s love.
O LORD, my heart is not proud, nor are my eyes haughty. I busy not myself with great things, nor with things too sublime for me.
Nay rather, I have stilled and quieted my soul like a weaned child. Like a weaned child on its mother’s lap, so is my soul within me.
O Israel, hope in the LORD, both now and forever.
This sounds like what is described in Matthew 5:3 & 5, Matthew 6:25-34 and Luke 12:22-33.
Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest, says the Lord. God wants to give us rest. See Isaiah 55.  We simply have to come to Him and he will give us that wonderful gift.  
One of those at table with Jesus said to him, “Blessed is the one who will dine in the Kingdom of God.” He replied to him, “A man gave a great dinner to which he invited many. When the time for the dinner came, he dispatched his servant to say to those invited, ‘Come, everything is now ready.’ The same generosity we see in Isaiah 55.
But one by one, they all began to excuse themselves. The first said to him, ‘I have purchased a field and must go to examine it; I ask you, consider me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have purchased five yoke of oxen and am on my way to evaluate them; I ask you, consider me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have just married a woman, and therefore I cannot come.This is the same dynamic underlying Matthew 13:7 & 22 and Luke 8:7 & 14.  
The servant went and reported this to his master. Then the master of the house in a rage commanded his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in here the poor and the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ The poor in spirit per Matthew 5:3.  The servant reported, ‘Sir, your orders have been carried out and still there is room.’
The master then ordered the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedgerowsand make people come in that my home may be filled. For, I tell you, none of those men who were invited will taste my dinner.'" The same dynamic we see in John 15:4 & 6.  

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