Good News - Week of 5/27/2018

PRAYER OF THE WEEK
I praise you, O God, for your infinite grace and unending love, and for the joy they bring to me. Amen.

Mark 2:23 - 3:6

NOTES ON THE SCRIPTURES

1 Samuel 3:1-10, (11-20): The child, Samuel, who is serving God with the Eli the priest, hears God’s voice in the night. He mistakenly thinks it is Eli, but then Eli explains it is God, and instructs him to say, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.” Then God gives Samuel a message of judgement against Eli’s family because of his corrupt sons. In the morning Samuel tells Eli the prophecy.

Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18: The Psalmist celebrates the God who has searched him and knows him, who sees him in all the parts of his life, and who goes before and follows him. This God created all the intricate parts of his body – wonderfully – and formed him in his mother’s womb, recording all the days of his life in God’s book.

2 Corinthians 4:5-12: God’s apostles don’t preach themselves but Christ crucified. The light of Christ shines in their hearts, but they are like fragile clay jars to show that the power is from God. They endure many different kinds of suffering and persecution, but the life of Christ is at work within them even as their bodies are dying. Our present struggles are nothing compared to the glory that awaits and that lasts forever.

Mark 2:23-3:6: Jesus’ disciples pick grain to eat as they are walking along, and the Pharisees challenge Jesus on this, because it was the Sabbath. But Jesus points them to David eating the sacred bread from the temple. Then he tells them that the sabbath was created for people, not people for the Sabbath, and he is Lord of the Sabbath. Then Jesus heals a man with a damaged hand and challenges the critics who want to accuse him of working on the Sabbath. But they do not respond.
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Reflections
The overarching theme this week is that God values and dignifies human beings immensely. In the old Testament reading we see the dignity God gives to the boy Samuel by speaking to him and through him. God’s word through Samuel confronts the corruption in Eli’s sons, and that speaks to God’s commitment to preserve and fight for the dignity and freedom of all people. In the Deuteronomy reading, the Sabbath command is rooted in God’s liberation of God’s people, and in the call to respect the dignity of all people. The Psalms both speak to this dignity and love that God gives humanity in the celebration of God’s deep knowing of us, and in the all ton praise God for God’s liberation. In the Corinthians reading the apostle reminds his readers of the glory that God has placed within then fragile clay jars of our physicality. Finally, in the Gospel, Jesus performs miracles that bring healing and dignity to people, disregarding the law that prohibits him from doing that on the Sabbath. The message this week is one of hope and inspiration as we are reminded of God’s deep love for humanity, and God’s determination to move humanity, and the whole cosmos, to a place of dignity, justice, mutual care, and deep interconnectedness.