Quotes for Today:
An economist is a man who states the obvious in terms of the incomprehensible. by Alfred A. Knopf
Acts of sacrifice and decency without regard to what’s in it for you create ripple effects. Ones that lift up families and communities, that spread opportunity and boost our economy. by Barack Obama (1961 – ), Arizona State Commencement Speech, 2009
There can be no real individual freedom in the presence of economic insecurity. by Chester Bowles (1901 – 1986)
If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion. by George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950)
Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment for economists. by John Kenneth Galbraith (1908 – 2006)
Isn’t it interesting that the same people who laugh at science fiction listen to weather forecasts and economists? by Kelvin Throop III
An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn’t happen today. by Laurence J. Peter (1919 – 1988)
Socialism failed because it couldn’t tell the economic truth; capitalism may fail because it couldn’t tell the ecological truth. by Lester Brown, Fortune Brainstorm Conference, 2006
An economist is a surgeon with an excellent scalpel and a rough-edged lancet, who operates beautifully on the dead and tortures the living. by Nicholas Chamfort (1741 – 1794)
In all recorded history there has not been one economist who has had to worry about where the next meal would come from. by Peter Drucker (1909 – 2005)
There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it’s only a hundred billion. It’s less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers. by Richard Feynman (1918 – 1988)
Sermon for Today:
I Would, But Ye Would Not! by Charles H. Spurgeon
NO. 2381 A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD’S DAY, OCTOBER 7TH, 1894 AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. ON LORD’S-DAY EVENING, JULY 22ND, 1888.
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest
them which are sent onto thee, how often would I have gathered
thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under
her wings, and ye would not!” — Matthew 23:37.
THIS is not and could not be the language of a mere man. It would be
utterly absurd for any man to say that he would have gathered the
inhabitants of a city together, “even as a hen gathereth her chickens under
her wings.” Besides, the language implies that, for many centuries, by the
sending of the prophets, and by many other warnings, God would often
have gathered the children of Jerusalem together as a hen gathereth her
chickens under her wings. Now, Christ could not have said that,
throughout those ages, he would have gathered those people, if he had
been only a man. If his life began at Bethlehem, this would be an absurd
statement; but, as the Son of God, ever loving the sons of men, ever
desirous of the good of Israel, he could say that, in sending the prophets,
even though they were stoned and killed, he had again and again shown his
desire to bless his people till he could truly say, “How often would I have
gathered thy children together!” Some who have found difficulties in this
lament, have said that it was the language of Christ as man. I beg to put in a very decided negative to that; it is, and it must be, the utterance of the
Son of man, the Son of God, the Christ in his complex person as human
and divine. I am not going into any of the difficulties just now; but you
could not fully understand this passage, from any point of view, unless you
believed it to be the language of one who was both God and man.
This verse shows also that the ruin of men lies with themselves. Christ puts
it very plainly, “I would; but ye would not.” “How often would I have
gathered thy children together, and ye would not!” That is a truth, about
which, I hope, we have never had any question; we hold tenaciously that
salvation is all of grace, but we also believe with equal firmness that the
ruin of man is entirely the result of his own sin. It is the will of God that
saves; it is the will of man that damns. Jerusalem stands and is preserved by
the grace and favor of the Most High; but Jerusalem is burnt, and her
stones are cast down, through the transgression and iniquity of men, which
provoked the justice of God.
There are great deeps about these two points; but I have not been
accustomed to lead you into any deeps, and I am not going to do so at this
time. The practical part of theology is that which it is most important for us
to understand. Any man may get himself into a terrible labyrinth who thinks
continually of the sovereignty of God alone, and he may equally get into
deeps that are likely to drown him if he meditates only on the free will of
man. The best thing is to take what God reveals to you, and to believe that.
If God’s Word leads me to the right, I go there; if it leads me to the left, I
go there; if it makes me stand still, I stand still. If you so act, you will be
safe; but if you try to be wise above that which is written, and to
understand that which even angels do not comprehend, you will certainly
befog yourself. I desire ever to bring before you practical rather than
mysterious subjects, and our present theme is one that concerns us all. The
great destroyer of man is the will of man. I do not believe that man’s free
will has ever saved a soul; but man’s free will has been the ruin of
multitudes. “Ye would not,” is still the solemn accusation of Christ against
guilty men. Did he not say, at another time, “Ye will not come unto me,
that ye might have life?” The human will is desperately set against God,
and is the great devourer and destroyer of thousands of good intentions
and emotions, which never come to anything permanent because the will is
acting in opposition to that which is right and true.
That, I think, is the very marrow of the text, and I am going to handle it in
this fashion.
I. First, consider from the very condescending emblem used by our Lord, WHAT GOD IS. TO THOSE WHO COME TO HIM.
He gathers them, “as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings.” Let us dwell upon that thought for a few minutes. It is a very marvellous thing that God should condescend to be compared to a hen, that the Christ, the Son of the Highest, the Savior of men, should stoop to so homely a piece of imagery
as to liken himself to a hen. There must be something very instructive in
this metaphor, or our Lord would not have used it in such a connection.
Those of you who have been gathered unto Christ know, first, that by this
wonderful Gatherer, you have been gathered into happy association. The
chickens, beneath the wings of the hen, look very happy all crowded
together. What a sweet little family party they are! How they hide
themselves away in great contentment, and chirp their little note of joy!
You, dear friends, who have never been converted, find very noisy
fellowship, I am afraid, in this world; you do not get much companionship
that helps you, blesses you, gives you rest of mind; but if you had been
gathered to the Lord’s Christ, you would have found that there are many
sweetnesses in this life in being beneath the wings of the Most High. He
who comes to Christ finds father, and mother, and sister, and brother, he
finds many dear and kind friends who are themselves connected with
Christ, and who therefore love those who are joined to him. Amongst the
greatest happinesses of my life, certainly, I put down Christian fellowship;
and I think that many, who have come from the country to London, have
for a long time missed much of this fellowship till, at last, they have fallen
in with Christian people, and they have found themselves happy again. O
lonely sinner, you who come in and out of this place, and say, “Nobody
seems to care about me,” if you will come to Christ, and join with the
church which is gathered beneath his wings, you will soon find happy
fellowship! I remember that, in the times of persecution, one of the saints
said that he had lost his father and his mother by being driven away from
his native country, but he said, “I have found a hundred fathers, and a
hundred mothers, for into whatsoever Christian house I have gone, I have
been looked upon with so much kindness by those who have received me
as an exile from my native land, that everyone has seemed to be a father
and a mother to me.” If you come to Christ, I feel persuaded that he will But that is merely the beginning. A hen is to her little chicks, next, a cover
of safety. There is a hawk in the sky; the mother-bird can see it, though the
chickens cannot; she gives her peculiar cluck of warning, and quickly they
come and hide beneath her wings. The hawk will not hurt them now;
beneath her wings they are secure. This is what God is to those who come
to him by Jesus Christ, he is the Giver of safety. “He shall cover thee with
his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy
shield and buckler.” Even the attraction of thy old sins, or the danger of
future temptations, thou shalt be preserved from all these perils when thou
comest to Christ, and thus hidest away under him.
The figure our Lord used is full of meaning, for, in the next place, the hen
is to her chicks the source of comfort. It is a cold night, and they would be
frozen if they remained outside; but she calls them in, and when they are
under her wings, they derive warmth from their mother’s breast. It is
wonderful, the care of a hen for her little ones; she will sit so carefully, and
keep her wings so widely spread, that they may all be housed. What a
cabin, what a palace, it is for the young chicks to get there under the
mother’s wings! The snow may fall, or the rain may come pelting down,
but the wings of the hen protect the chicks; and you, dear friend, if you
come to Christ, shall not only have safety, but comfort. I speak what I have
experienced. There is a deep, sweet comfort about hiding yourself away in
God, for when troubles come, wave upon wave, blessed is the man who
has a God to give him mercy upon mercy. When affliction comes, or
bereavement comes, when loss of property comes, when sickness comes, in
your own body, there is nothing wanted but your God. Ten thousand
things, apart from him, cannot satisfy you, or give you comfort. There, let
them all go; but if God be yours, and you hide away under his wings, you
are as happy in him as the chickens are beneath the hen. Then, the hen is
also to her chicks,the fountain of love. She loves them; did you ever see a
hen fight for her chickens? She is a timid enough creature at any other
time; but there is no timidity when her chicks are in danger. What an
affection she has for them; not for all chicks, for I have known her kill the
chickens of another brood; but for her own what love she has! Her heart is
all devoted to them. But, oh, if you want to know the true fountain of love,
you must come to Christ! You will never have to say, “Nobody loves me; I
am pining, with an aching heart, for a love that can fill and satisfy it.” The
love of Jesus fills to overflowing the heart of man, and makes him well
content under all circumstances. I would that God had gathered you all, my dear hearers. I know that he has gathered many of you, blessed be his
name; but still there are some here, chicks without a hen, sinners without a
Savior, men, and women, and children, who have never been reconciled to
God.
The hen is also to her chicks, the cherisher of growth. They would not
develop if they were not taken care of; in their weakness they need to be
cherished, that they may come to the fullness of their perfection. And when
the child of God lives near to Christ, and hides beneath his wings, how fast
he grows! There is no advancing from grace to grace, from feeble faith to
strong faith, and from little fervency to great fervency, except by getting
near to God.
The emblem used by our Lord is a far more instructive figure than I have
time to explain. When the Lord gathers sinners to himself, then it is that
they find in him all that the chicks find in the hen, and infinitely more.
II. Now notice, secondly, WHAT GOD DOES TO GATHER MEN. They are straying, and wandering about, but he gathers them. According to the text, Jesus says, “How often would I have gathered thy children together!” How did God gather those of us who have come to him?
He gathers us, first, by making himself known to us. When we come to
understand who he is, and what he is, and know something of his love, and
tenderness, and greatness, then we come to him. Ignorance keeps us away
from him; but to know God, and his Son, Jesus Christ, is eternal life.
Hence I urge you diligently to study the Scriptures, and to be as often as
you can hearing a faithful preacher of the gospel, that, knowing the Lord,
you may by that knowledge be drawn towards him. These are the cords of
love with which the Spirit of God draws men to Christ. He makes Christ
known to us, he shows us Christ in the grandeur of his divine and human
nature, Christ in the humiliation of his sufferings, Christ in the glory of his
resurrection, Christ in the love of his heart, in the power of his arm, in the
efficacy of his plea, in the virtue of his blood; and, as we learn these sacred
lessons, we say, “That is the Christ for me, that is the God for me;” and
thus we are gathered unto him.
But God gathers many to himself by the call of his servants. You see that,
of old, he sent his prophets; now, he sends his ministers. If God does not
send us to you brethren, we shall never gather you; if we come to you in
our own name, we shall come in vain; but if the Lord has sent us, then he will bless us, and our message will be made to you by means of gathering
you to Christ. I would much rather cease to preach than be allowed to go
on preaching but never to gather souls to God. I can truly say that I have
no wish to say a pretty thing, or turn a period, or utter a nice figure of
speech; I want to win your souls, to slay your sin, to do practical work for
God, with each man, each woman, each child, who shall come into this
Tabernacle; and I ask the prayers of God’s people that it may be so. It is
thus that God gathers men to himself, by the message which he gives to
them through his servants.
The Lord has also many other ways of calling men to himself. You saw,
this morning, See Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 2034, “Peter’s
Restoration.” that Peter was called to repentance by the crowing of a
cock; and the Lord can use a great many means of bringing sinners to
himself! Omnipotence has servants everywhere; and God can use every
kind of agent, even though it appears most unsuitable, to gather together
his own chosen ones. He has called some of you; he has called some of you
who have not yet come to him. The text says, “How often! It does not tell
us how often; but it puts it as a matter of wonder, “How often!” with a
note of exclamation.
Let me ask you how often has God called some of you? Conscience has
whispered its message to the most of you. When you come to see men
dying, if you talk seriously with them, they will sometimes tell you that
they are unprepared, but that they have often had tremblings and
suspicions; they have long suffered from unrest, and sometimes they have
been” almost persuaded. “I should not think that there is a person in this
place, who has not been sometimes made to shake and tremble at the
thought of the world to come. How often has it been so with you? “How
often,” says God, “would I have gathered you!”
The Lord sometimes speaks to us, not so much by conscience, as by
providence. That death in the family, what a voice it was to us! When your
mother died, when your poor father passed away, what a gathering time it
seemed to be then! You soon forgot all about it; but you did feel it then.
Ah, my dear woman, when your babe was taken from your bosom, and the
little coffin left the house, you remember how you felt, and you, father,
when your prattling boy sang the Sunday-school hymn to you on his dying
bed, and well-nigh broke your heart, then was the Lord going forth in his providence to gather you. You were being gathered, but you would not
come; according to our text, you “would not.”
It has not always been by death that the Lord has spoken to you; for you
have had other calls. When you have been brought low, or have been out
of a situation, when, sometimes, a Christian friend has spoken to you,
when you have read something in a tract, or paper, which has compelled
you to pull up, and made you stand aghast for a while, has not all that had
a reference to this text, “How often, how often, how often would I have
gathered thee?” God knocks many times at some men’s doors. I know that
there is a call of his which is effectual; oh, that you might hear it! But there
are many other calls which come to men, of whom Christ says, “Many are
called, but few are chosen.” How often has he called you! I wish you
would try and reckon up how often the Almighty God has come to you,
and spread out his warm wide wings, and yet this has been true, “I would
have gathered you, but you would not.”
One more way in which God gathers men is by continuing still to hard
patience with them, and sending the same message to them. I am always
afraid that you, who hear me constantly, will get to feel, “We have heard
him so long and so often that he cannot say anything fresh.” Why, did I not
use to shake you, when first you heard me, and compel you to shed many
tear” in the early days of your coming to this house? And now, — well,
you can hear it all without a tremor; you are like the blacksmith’s dog, that
goes to sleep while the sparks are flying from the anvil. Down in
Southwark, at the place where they make the big boilers, a man has to get
inside to hold the hammer while they are riveting. There is an awful noise,
the first time that a man goes in he feels that he cannot stand it, and that he
will die; he loses his hearing, it is such a terrible din; but they tell me that,
after a while, some have been known even to go to sleep while the men
have been hammering. So it is in hearing the gospel; men grow hardened,
and that which was, at one time, a very powerful call, seems to be, at the
last, no call at all. Yet “till, here you are, and your hair is getting grey; here
you are, you have long passed the prime of life; here you are, you were in a
shipwreck once, or you had an accident, or you caught the fever; but you
did not die, and here you are, God still speaks to you, not saying, “Go,”
but “Come, come.” Christ has not yet said to you, “Depart, ye cursed,” but
he still cries, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest.” This is how God calls, and how he gathers men by the pertinacity of his infinite compassion, in still inviting them to come unto
him that they may obtain eternal life.
III. Well, now, a third point, and a very important one is this, WHAT MEN NEED TO MAKE THEM COME TO GOD. According to the text, God does gather men; but what is wanted on their part? Our Savior said of those that rejected him, “Ye would not.”
What is wanted is, first, the real will to come to God. You have heard a
great deal, I dare say, about the wonderful faculty of free will. I have
already told you my opinion of free will; but it also happens that that is the
very thing that is wanted, a will towards that which is good. There is where
the sinner fails, what he needs is a real will. “Oh, yes!” men say, “we are
willing, we are willing.” But you are not willing; if we can get the real
truth, you are not willing; there is no true willingness in your hearts, for a
true willingness is a practical willingness. The man who is willing to come
to Christ says, “I must away with my sins, I must away with my self-righteousness, and I must seek him who alone can save me.”
Men talk about being willing to be saved, and dispute about free will; but
when it comes to actual practice, they are not willing. They have no heart
to repent, they will to keep on with their sin, they will to continue in their
self-righteousness; but they do not will, with any practical resolve, to come
to Christ. There is need of an immediate will. Every unconverted person
here is willing to come to Christ before he dies; I never met with a person
yet who was not; but are you willing to come to Christ now? That is the
point. “To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” But you
answer, “Our hearts are not hardened, we only ask for a little more time.”
A little more time for what? A little more time in which to go on rebelling
against God? A little more time in which to run the awful risk of eternal
destruction?
So, you see, it is a real will and an immediate will that is needed.
With some, it is a settled will that is wanted. Oh, yes, they are ready! They
feel directly the preacher begins to speak; they are impressed curing the
singing of the first hymn. There is a revival service, and in the after-meeting
they begin telling you what they have felt. Look at those people on
Wednesday. They have got over Monday and Tuesday with some little
“rumblings of heart”; but what about Wednesday? They are as cold as a
cucumber; every feeling that they had on Sunday is gone from them, they have no memory of it whatever. Their goodness is as the morning cloud,
and as the early dew it passes away. How some people do deceive us with
their good resolves, in which there is nothing at all, for there is no settled
will!
With others, what is lacking is a submissive will. Yes, they are willing to be
saved; but then they do not want to be saved by grace; they are not willing
to give themselves up altogether to the Savior; they will not renounce their
own righteousness, and submit themselves to the righteousness of Christ.
Well, that practically means that there is not any willingness at all, for
unless you accept God’s way of salvation, it is no use for you to talk about
your will. Here is the great evil that is destroying you, and that will destroy
you before long, and land you in hell: “Ye would not, ye would not.” Oh,
that God’s grace might come upon you, subduing and renewing your will,
and making you willing in the day of his power!
IV. My last point is a very solemn one. I shall not weary you with it. WHAT WILL BECOME OF MEN WHO ARE NOT GATHERED TO CHRIST? What will become of men of whom it continues to be said, “Ye would not?”
The text suggests to us two ways of answering the question. What
becomes of chicks that do not come to the shelter of the hen’s wings?
What becomes of chicks that are not gathered to the hen? Well, the hawk
devours some, and the cold nips others; they miss the warmth and comfort
that they might have had. That is something. If there were no hereafter, I
should like to be a Christian. If I had to die like a dog, the joy I find in
Christ would make me wish to be his follower. You are losers in this world
if you love not God; you are losers of peace, and comfort, and strength,
and hope, even now; but what will be your loss hereafter, with no wing to
cover you when the destroying angel is abroad, no feathers beneath which
you may hide when the dread thunderbolts of justice shall be launched, one
after another, from God’s right hand? You have no shelter, and
consequently no safety.
“He that hath made his refuge God,
Shall find a most secure abode,”
but he who has not that refuge shall be among the great multitude who will
call to the rocks and the mountains to fall upon them, to hide them from
the face of him that sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. O sirs, I pray you, run not the awful risk of attempting to live without the shelter of God in Christ Jesus!
But the text suggests a second question, What became of Jerusalem in the
end? “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy
children together, but ye would not!” Well, what happened to Jerusalem,
after all? I invite you, who are without God, and without Christ, to read
Josephus, with the hope that he may be of service to you. What became of
the inhabitants of that guilty city of Jerusalem? Well, they crucified the
Lord of glory, and they hunted out his disciples, and yet they said to
themselves, “We live in the city of God, no harm can come to us; we have
the temple within our walls, and God will guard his own holy place.” But
very soon they tried to throw off the Roman yoke, and there were different
sets of zealots who determined to fight against the Romans, and they
murmured and complained, and began to fight amongst themselves.
Before the. Romans attacked Jerusalem, the inhabitants had begun to kill
one another. The city was divided by the various factions, three parties
took possession of different portions of the place, and they fought against
one another, night and day. This is what happens to ungodly men;
manhood breaks loose against itself, and when there are inward
contentions, one part of man’s soul fighting against another part, there is
an internal war of the most horrible kind. What is the poor wretch to do
who is at enmity with himself, one part of his nature saying, “Go,” another
part crying, “Go back,” and yet a third part shouting, “Stop where you
are?” Are there not many of you who are just like battle-fields trampled
with the hoofs of horses, torn up with the ruts made by the cannon wheels,
and stained with blood? Many a man’s heart is just like that. “Rest?” says
he, “that has gone from me long ago.” Look at him in the morning after a
drinking bout; look at him after he has been quarrelling with everybody;
look at the man who has been unfaithful to his wife, or that other man who
has been dishonest to his employer, or that other who is gambling away all
that he has. Why, how does he sleep, poor wretch? He does not rest; he
dreams, he starts, he is always in terror. I would not change places with
him, nay, not for five minutes. The depths of poverty, and an honest
conscience, are immeasurably superior to the greatest luxury in the midst
of sin. The man who is evidently without God begins to quarrel with
himself.
By-and-by, one morning, they who looked over the battlements of
Jerusalem cried, “The Romans are coming, in very deed they are marching
up towards the city.” Vespasian came with an army of 60,000 men, and,
after a while, Titus had thrown up mounds round about the city, so that no
one could come in or go out of it. He had surrounded it so completely that
they were all shut in. It was, as you remember, at the time of the Passover,
when the people had come from every part of the land, a million and more
of them; and he shut them all up in that little city. So, a time comes, with
guilty men, when they are shut up; this sometimes happens before they die,
they are shut up, they cannot have any pleasure in sin as they used to have,
and they have no hope. They seem cooped up altogether; they have not
been gathered by God’s love, but now, at last, they are gathered by an
avenging conscience, they are shut up in God’s justice.
I shall never forget being sent for, in my early days, to see a man who was
dying. As I entered the room, he greeted me with an oath; I was only a
youth, a pastor about seventeen and a half years of age, and he somewhat
staggered me. He would not lie down on his bed; he defied God; he said he
would not die. “Shall I pray for you? “I asked. I knelt down, and I had not
uttered many sentences before he cursed me in such dreadful language that
I started to my feet, and then again he cried, and begged me to pray with
him again, though it was not any good. He said, “It is no use; your prayer
will never be heard for me, I am damned already;” and the poor wretch
spoke as though he really were so, and were realizing it in his own soul. I
tried to persuade him to lie down upon his bed. It was of no avail; he
tramped up and down the room as fast as he could go, he knew that he
should die, but he could not die while he could keep on walking, and so he
kept on. Then again I must pray with him, and then would come another
awful burst of blasphemy, because it was not possible that the prayer
should be heard. It does not often happen that one sees a person quite as
bad as that; but there is a condition of heart that is not so visible, but which
is quite as sad, and which comes to men dying without Christ. They are
shut up; the Roman soldiers are, as it were, marching all round the city,
and there is no escape, and they begin to feel it, and so they die in despair.
But then, when the Roman soldiers did come, the woes of Jerusalem did
not end. There was a famine in the city, a famine so dreadful that what
Moses said wag fulfilled, and the tender and delicate woman ate the fruit of
her own body. They came to search the houses, because they thought there
was food there; and a woman brought out half of her own babe, and said, “Well, eat that, if you can,” and throughout the city, they fed upon one
another; and oh, when there is no God in the heart, what a famine it makes
in a man’s soul! How he longs for a something which he cannot find, and
that all the world cannot give him, even a mouthful to stay the ravenousness of his spirit’s hunger!
And this doom will be worse still in the next world. You know that
Jerusalem was utterly destroyed, not one stone was left upon another; and
this is what is to happen to you if you refuse your Savior, you will be
destroyed, you will be an eternal ruin, no temple of God, but an everlasting
ruin. Destroyed, — that is the punishment for you; destroyed from the
presence of the Lord, and the glory of his power, and so abiding for ever,
with no indwelling God, no hope, no comfort. How terrible will be your
doom unless you repent!
“Ye sinners, seek his grace
Whose wrath ye cannot bear;
Fly to the shelter of his cross,
And find salvation there.”
I pray you, do so, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake! Amen.
Hymn for Today:
“It Came upon the Midnight Clear” by Edmund H. Sears, 1810-1876
1. It came upon the midnight clear,
that glorious song of old,
from angels bending near the earth
to touch their harps of gold:
“Peace on the earth, good will to men,
from heaven’s all-gracious King.”
The world in solemn stillness lay,
to hear the angels sing.
2. Still through the cloven skies they come
with peaceful wings unfurled,
and still their heavenly music floats
o’er all the weary world;
above its sad and lowly plains,
they bend on hovering wing,
and ever o’er its Babel sounds
the blessed angels sing.
3. And ye, beneath life’s crushing load,
whose forms are bending low,
who toil along the climbing way
with painful steps and slow,
look now! for glad and golden hours
come swiftly on the wing.
O rest beside the weary road,
and hear the angels sing!
4. For lo! the days are hastening on,
by prophet seen of old,
when with the ever-circling years
shall come the time foretold
when peace shall over all the earth
its ancient splendors fling,
and the whole world send back the song
which now the angels sing.
Through the Bible in One Year:
Ruth 1 to 4
1 In the days when the Judges were governing, a famine occurred in the country and a certain man from Bethlehem of Judah went-he, his wife and his two sons — to live in the Plains of Moab.
2 The man was called Elimelech, his wife Naomi and his two sons Mahlon and Chilion; they were Ephrathites from Bethlehem of Judah. Going to the Plains of Moab, they settled there.
3 Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died, and she and her two sons were left.
4 These married Moabite women: one was called Orpah and the other Ruth. They lived there for about ten years.
5 Mahlon and Chilion then both died too, and Naomi was thus bereft of her two sons and her husband.
6 She then decided to come back from the Plains of Moab with her daughters-in-law, having heard in the Plains of Moab that God had visited his people and given them food.
7 So, with her daughters-in-law, she left the place where she was living and they took the road back to Judah.
8 Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, ‘Go back, each of you to your mother’s house.
9 May Yahweh show you faithful love, as you have done to those who have died and to me. Yahweh grant that you may each find happiness with a husband!’ She then kissed them, but they began weeping loudly,
10 and said, ‘No, we shall go back with you to your people.’
11 ‘Go home, daughters,’ Naomi replied. ‘Why come with me? Have I any more sons in my womb to make husbands for you?
12 Go home, daughters, go, for I am now too old to marry again. Even if I said, “I still have a hope: I shall take a husband this very night and shall bear more sons,”
13 would you be prepared to wait for them until they were grown up? Would you refuse to marry for their sake? No, daughters, I am bitterly sorry for your sakes that the hand of Yahweh should have been raised against me.’
14 They started weeping loudly all over again; Orpah then kissed her mother-in-law and went back to her people. But Ruth stayed with her.
15 Naomi then said, ‘Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her god. Go home, too; follow your sister-in-law.’
16 But Ruth said, ‘Do not press me to leave you and to stop going with you, for wherever you go, I shall go, wherever you live, I shall live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.
17 Where you die, I shall die and there I shall be buried. Let Yahweh bring unnameable ills on me and worse ills, too, if anything but death should part me from you!’
18 Seeing that Ruth was determined to go with her, Naomi said no more.
19 The two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. Their arrival set the whole town astir, and the women said, ‘Can this be Naomi?’
20 To this she replied, ‘Do not call me Naomi, call me Mara, for Shaddai has made my lot bitter.
21 I departed full, and Yahweh has brought me home empty. Why, then, call me Naomi, since Yahweh has pronounced against me and Shaddai has made me wretched?’
22 This was how Naomi came home with her daughter-in-law, Ruth the Moabitess, on returning from the Plains of Moab. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
1 Naomi had a kinsman on her husband’s side, well-to-do and of Elimelech’s clan. His name was Boaz.
2 Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, ‘Let me go into the fields and glean ears of corn in the footsteps of some man who will look on me with favour.’ She replied, ‘Go, daughter.’
3 So she set out and went to glean in the fields behind the reapers. Chance led her to a plot of land belonging to Boaz of Elimelech’s clan.
4 Boaz, as it happened, had just come from Bethlehem. ‘Yahweh be with you!’ he said to the reapers. ‘Yahweh bless you!’ they replied.
5 Boaz said to a servant of his who was in charge of the reapers, ‘To whom does this young woman belong?’
6 And the servant in charge of the reapers replied, ‘The girl is the Moabitess, the one who came back with Naomi from the Plains of Moab.
7 She said, “Please let me glean and pick up what falls from the sheaves behind the reapers.” Thus she came, and here she stayed, with hardly a rest from morning until now.’
8 Boaz said to Ruth, ‘Listen to me, daughter. You must not go gleaning in any other field. You must not go away from here. Stay close to my work-women.
9 Keep your eyes on whatever part of the field they are reaping and follow behind. I have forbidden my men to molest you. And if you are thirsty, go to the pitchers and drink what the servants have drawn.’
10 Ruth fell on her face, prostrated herself and said, ‘How have I attracted your favour, for you to notice me, who am only a foreigner?’
11 Boaz replied, ‘I have been told all about the way you have behaved to your mother-in-law since your husband’s death, and how you left your own father and mother and the land where you were born to come to a people of whom you previously knew nothing.
12 May Yahweh repay you for what you have done, and may you be richly rewarded by Yahweh, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge!’
13 She said, ‘My lord, I hope you will always look on me with favour! You have comforted and encouraged me, though I am not even the equal of one of your work-women.’
14 When it was time to eat, Boaz said to her, ‘Come and eat some of this bread and dip your piece in the vinegar.’ Ruth sat down beside the reapers and Boaz made a heap of roasted grain for her; she ate till her hunger was satisfied, and she had some left over.
15 When she had got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his work-people, ‘Let her glean among the sheaves themselves. Do not molest her.
16 And be sure you pull a few ears of corn out of the bundles and drop them. Let her glean them, and do not scold her.’
17 So she gleaned in the field till evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned and it came to about a bushel of barley.
18 Taking it with her, she went back to the town. Her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. Ruth also took out what she had kept after eating all she wanted, and gave that to her.
19 Her mother-in-law said, ‘Where have you been gleaning today? Where have you been working? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!’ Ruth told her mother-in-law in whose field she had been working. ‘The name of the man with whom I have been working today’ she said, ‘is Boaz.’
20 Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, ‘May he be blessed by Yahweh who does not withhold his faithful love from living or dead! This man’, Naomi added, ‘is a close relation of ours. He is one of those who have the right of redemption over us.’
21 Ruth the Moabitess said to her mother-in-law, ‘He also said, “Stay with my work-people until they have finished my whole harvest.” ‘
22 Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, ‘It is better for you, daughter, to go with his work-women than to go to some other field where you might be ill-treated.’
23 So she stayed with Boaz’s work-women, and gleaned until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she went on living with her mother-in-law.
1 Her mother-in-law Naomi then said, ‘Daughter, is it not my duty to see you happily settled?
2 And Boaz, the man with whose work-women you were, is he not our kinsman? Tonight he will be winnowing the barley on the threshing-floor.
3 So wash and perfume yourself, put on your cloak and go down to the threshing-floor. Don’t let him recognise you while he is still eating and drinking.
4 But when he lies down, take note where he lies, then go and turn back the covering at his feet and lie down yourself. He will tell you what to do.’
5 Ruth said, ‘I shall do everything you tell me.’
6 So she went down to the threshing-floor and did everything her mother-in-law had told her.
7 When Boaz had finished eating and drinking, he went off happily and lay down beside the pile of barley. Ruth then quietly went, turned back the covering at his feet and lay down.
8 In the middle of the night, he woke up with a shock and looked about him; and there lying at his feet was a woman.
9 ‘Who are you?’ he said; and she replied, ‘I am your servant Ruth. Spread the skirt of your cloak over your servant for you have the right of redemption over me.’
10 ‘May Yahweh bless you, daughter,’ he said, ‘for this second act of faithful love of yours is greater than the first, since you have not run after young men, poor or rich.
11 Don’t be afraid, daughter, I shall do everything you ask, since the people at the gate of my town all know that you are a woman of great worth.
12 But, though it is true that I have the right of redemption over you, you have a kinsman closer than myself.
13 Stay here for tonight and, in the morning, if he wishes to exercise his right over you, very well, let him redeem you. But if he does not wish to do so, then as Yahweh lives, I shall redeem you. Lie here till morning.’
14 So she lay at his feet till morning, but got up before the hour when one man can recognise another; and he thought, ‘It must not be known that this woman came to the threshing-floor.’
15 He then said, ‘Let me have the cloak you are wearing, hold it out!’ She held it out while he put six measures of barley into it and then loaded it on to her; and off she went to the town.
16 When Ruth got home, her mother-in-law asked her, ‘How did things go with you, daughter?’ She then told her everything that the man had done for her.
17 ‘He gave me these six measures of barley and said, “You must not go home empty-handed to your mother-in-law.” ‘
18 Naomi said, ‘Do nothing, daughter, until you see how things have gone; I am sure he will not rest until he has settled the matter this very day.’
1 Boaz, meanwhile, had gone up to the gate and sat down, and the relative of whom he had spoken then came by. Boaz said to him, ‘Here, my friend, come and sit down’; the man came and sat down.
2 Boaz then picked out ten of the town’s elders and said, ‘Sit down here’; they sat down.
3 Boaz then said to the man who had the right of redemption, ‘Naomi, who has come back from the Plains of Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our brother, Elimelech.
4 I thought I should tell you about this and say, “Acquire it in the presence of the men who are sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you want to use your right of redemption, redeem it; if you do not, tell me so that I know, for I am the only person to redeem it besides yourself, and I myself come after you.”‘
5 Boaz then said, ‘The day you acquire the field from Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the man who has died, to perpetuate the dead man’s name in his inheritance.’
6 The man with the right of redemption then said, ‘I cannot use my right of redemption without jeopardising my own inheritance. Since I cannot use my right of redemption, exercise the right yourself.’
7 Now, in former times, it was the custom in Israel to confirm a transaction in matters of redemption or inheritance by one of the parties taking off his sandal and giving it to the other. This was how agreements were ratified in Israel.
8 So, when the man with the right of redemption said to Boaz, ‘Acquire it for yourself,’ he took off his sandal.
9 Boaz then said to the elders and all the people there, ‘Today you are witnesses that from Naomi I acquire everything that used to belong to Elimelech, and everything that used to belong to Mahlon and Chilion
10 and that I am also acquiring Ruth the Moabitess, Mahlon’s widow, to be my wife, to perpetuate the dead man’s name in his inheritance, so that the dead man’s name will not be lost among his brothers and at the gate of his town. Today you are witnesses to this.’
11 All the people at the gate said, ‘We are witnesses’; and the elders said, ‘May Yahweh make the woman about to enter your family like Rachel and Leah who together built up the House of Israel. Grow mighty in Ephrathah, be renowned in Bethlehem!
12 And through the children Yahweh will give you by this young woman, may your family be like the family of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.’
13 So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. And when they came together, Yahweh made her conceive and she bore a son.
14 And the women said to Naomi, ‘Blessed be Yahweh who has not left you today without anyone to redeem you. May his name be praised in Israel!
15 The child will be a comfort to you and the prop of your old age, for he has been born to the daughter-in-law who loves you and is more to you than seven sons.’
16 And Naomi, taking the child, held him to her breast; and she it was who looked after him.
17 And the women of the neighbourhood gave him a name. ‘A son’, they said, ‘has been born to Naomi,’ and they called him Obed. This was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
18 These are the descendants of Perez. Perez fathered Hezron,
19 Hezron fathered Ram, Ram fathered Amminadab,
20 Amminadab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon,
21 Salmon fathered Boaz, Boaz fathered Obed,
22 Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David.(New Jerusalem Bible)
Daily Office for Friday, January 27, 2012:
Psalm 40
1 [For the choirmaster Of David Psalm] I waited, I waited for Yahweh, then he stooped to me and heard my cry for help.
2 He pulled me up from the seething chasm, from the mud of the mire. He set my feet on rock, and made my footsteps firm.
3 He put a fresh song in my mouth, praise of our God. Many will be awestruck at the sight, and will put their trust in Yahweh.
4 How blessed are those who put their trust in Yahweh, who have not sided with rebels and those who have gone astray in falsehood.
5 How much you have done, Yahweh, my God — your wonders, your plans for us — you have no equal. I will proclaim and speak of them; they are beyond number.
6 You wanted no sacrifice or cereal offering, but you gave me an open ear, you did not ask for burnt offering or sacrifice for sin;
7 then I said, ‘Here I am, I am coming.’ In the scroll of the book it is written of me,
8 my delight is to do your will; your law, my God, is deep in my heart.
9 I proclaimed the saving justice of Yahweh in the great assembly. See, I will not hold my tongue, as you well know.
10 I have not kept your saving justice locked in the depths of my heart, but have spoken of your constancy and saving help. I have made no secret of your faithful and steadfast love, in the great assembly.
11 You, Yahweh, have not withheld your tenderness from me; your faithful and steadfast love will always guard me.
12 For troubles surround me, until they are beyond number; my sins have overtaken me; I cannot see my way. They outnumber the hairs of my head, and my heart fails me.
13 Be pleased, Yahweh, to rescue me, Yahweh, come quickly and help me!
14 Shame and dismay to all who seek to take my life. Back with them, let them be humiliated who delight in my misfortunes.
15 Let them be aghast with shame, those who say to me, ‘Aha, aha!’
16 But joy and happiness in you to all who seek you! Let them ceaselessly cry, ‘Great is Yahweh’ who love your saving power.
17 Poor and needy as I am, the Lord has me in mind. You, my helper, my Saviour, my God, do not delay.(New Jerusalem Bible)
Psalm 54
1 [For the choirmaster On stringed instruments Poem Of David When the Ziphites went to Saul and said,'Is not David hiding with us?'] God, save me by your name, in your power vindicate me.
2 God, hear my prayer, listen to the words I speak.
3 Arrogant men are attacking me, bullies hounding me to death, no room in their thoughts for God.Pause
4 But now God is coming to my help, the Lord, among those who sustain me.
5 May their wickedness recoil on those who lie in wait for me. Yahweh, in your constancy destroy them.
6 How gladly will I offer you sacrifice, and praise your name, for it is good,
7 for it has rescued me from all my troubles, and my eye has feasted on my enemies.(New Jerusalem Bible)
Psalm 51
1 [For the choirmaster Of David When the prophet Nathan had come to him because he had gone to Bathsheba] Have mercy on me, O God, in your faithful love, in your great tenderness wipe away my offences;
2 wash me clean from my guilt, purify me from my sin.
3 For I am well aware of my offences, my sin is constantly in mind.
4 Against you, you alone, I have sinned, I have done what you see to be wrong, that you may show your saving justice when you pass sentence, and your victory may appear when you give judgement,
5 remember, I was born guilty, a sinner from the moment of conception.
6 But you delight in sincerity of heart, and in secret you teach me wisdom.
7 Purify me with hyssop till I am clean, wash me till I am whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear the sound of joy and gladness, and the bones you have crushed will dance.
9 Turn away your face from my sins, and wipe away all my guilt.
10 God, create in me a clean heart, renew within me a resolute spirit,
11 do not thrust me away from your presence, do not take away from me your spirit of holiness.
12 Give me back the joy of your salvation, sustain in me a generous spirit.
13 I shall teach the wicked your paths, and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodshed, God, God of my salvation, and my tongue will acclaim your saving justice.
15 Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will speak out your praise.
16 Sacrifice gives you no pleasure, burnt offering you do not desire.
17 Sacrifice to God is a broken spirit, a broken, contrite heart you never scorn.
18 In your graciousness do good to Zion, rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then you will delight in upright sacrifices,-burnt offerings and whole oblations — and young bulls will be offered on your altar.(New Jerusalem Bible)
Genesis 17:15-27
15 Furthermore God said to Abraham, ‘As regards your wife Sarai, you must not call her Sarai, but Sarah.
16 I shall bless her and moreover give you a son by her. I shall bless her and she will become nations: kings of peoples will issue from her.’
17 Abraham bowed to the ground, and he laughed, thinking to himself, ‘Is a child to be born to a man one hundred years old, and will Sarah have a child at the age of ninety?’
18 Abraham said to God, ‘May Ishmael live in your presence! That will be enough!’
19 But God replied, ‘Yes, your wife Sarah will bear you a son whom you must name Isaac. And I shall maintain my covenant with him, a covenant in perpetuity, to be his God and the God of his descendants after him.
20 For Ishmael too I grant you your request. I hereby bless him and will make him fruitful and exceedingly numerous. He will be the father of twelve princes, and I shall make him into a great nation.
21 But my covenant I shall maintain with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear you at this time next year.’
22 When he had finished speaking to Abraham, God went up from him.
23 Then Abraham took his son Ishmael, all the slaves born in his household or whom he had bought, in short all the males among the people of Abraham’s household, and circumcised their foreskins that same day, as God had said to him.
24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when his foreskin was circumcised.
25 Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when his foreskin was circumcised.
26 Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised on the very same day,
27 and all the men of his household, those born in the household and those bought from foreigners, were circumcised with him.(New Jerusalem Bible)
Hebrews 10:11-25
11 Every priest stands at his duties every day, offering over and over again the same sacrifices which are quite incapable of taking away sins.
12 He, on the other hand, has offered one single sacrifice for sins, and then taken his seat for ever, at the right hand of God,
13 where he is now waiting till his enemies are made his footstool.
14 By virtue of that one single offering, he has achieved the eternal perfection of all who are sanctified.
15 The Holy Spirit attests this to us, for after saying:
16 No, this is the covenant I will make with them, when those days have come. the Lord says: In their minds I will plant my Laws writing them on their hearts,
17 and I shall never more call their sins to mind, or their offences.
18 When these have been forgiven, there can be no more sin offerings.
19 We have then, brothers, complete confidence through the blood of Jesus in entering the sanctuary,
20 by a new way which he has opened for us, a living opening through the curtain, that is to say, his flesh.
21 And we have the high priest over all the sanctuary of God.
22 So as we go in, let us be sincere in heart and filled with faith, our hearts sprinkled and free from any trace of bad conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
23 Let us keep firm in the hope we profess, because the one who made the promise is trustworthy.
24 Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works.
25 Do not absent yourself from your own assemblies, as some do, but encourage each other; the more so as you see the Day drawing near.(New Jerusalem Bible)
John 6:1-15
1 After this, Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee — or of Tiberias-
2 and a large crowd followed him, impressed by the signs he had done in curing the sick.
3 Jesus climbed the hillside and sat down there with his disciples.
4 The time of the Jewish Passover was near.
5 Looking up, Jesus saw the crowds approaching and said to Philip, ‘Where can we buy some bread for these people to eat?’
6 He said this only to put Philip to the test; he himself knew exactly what he was going to do.
7 Philip answered, ‘Two hundred denarii would not buy enough to give them a little piece each.’
8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said,
9 ‘Here is a small boy with five barley loaves and two fish; but what is that among so many?’
10 Jesus said to them, ‘Make the people sit down.’ There was plenty of grass there, and as many as five thousand men sat down.
11 Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were sitting there; he then did the same with the fish, distributing as much as they wanted.
12 When they had eaten enough he said to the disciples, ‘Pick up the pieces left over, so that nothing is wasted.’
13 So they picked them up and filled twelve large baskets with scraps left over from the meal of five barley loaves.
14 Seeing the sign that he had done, the people said, ‘This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.’
15 Jesus, as he realised they were about to come and take him by force and make him king, fled back to the hills alone.(New Jerusalem Bible)
[Lydia, Dorcas & Phoebe]
Psalm 100
1 [Psalm For thanksgiving] Acclaim Yahweh, all the earth,
2 serve Yahweh with gladness, come into his presence with songs of joy!
3 Be sure that Yahweh is God, he made us, we belong to him, his people, the flock of his sheepfold.
4 Come within his gates giving thanks, to his courts singing praise, give thanks to him and bless his name!
5 For Yahweh is good, his faithful love is everlasting, his constancy from age to age.(New Jerusalem Bible)
Malachi 3:16-18
16 Then those who feared Yahweh talked to one another about this, and Yahweh took note and listened; and a book of remembrance was written in his presence recording those who feared him and kept his name in mind.
17 ‘On the day when I act, says Yahweh Sabaoth, they will be my most prized possession, and I shall spare them in the way a man spares the son who serves him.
18 Then once again you will see the difference between the upright person and the wicked one, between the one who serves God and the one who does not serve him.(New Jerusalem Bible)
Acts 16:11-15
11 Sailing from Troas we made a straight run for Samothrace; the next day for Neapolis,
12 and from there for Philippi, a Roman colony and the principal city of that district of Macedonia.
13 After a few days in this city we went outside the gates beside a river as it was the Sabbath and this was a customary place for prayer. We sat down and preached to the women who had come to the meeting.
14 One of these women was called Lydia, a woman from the town of Thyatira who was in the purple-dye trade, and who revered God. She listened to us, and the Lord opened her heart to accept what Paul was saying.
15 After she and her household had been baptised she kept urging us, ‘If you judge me a true believer in the Lord,’ she said, ‘come and stay with us.’ And she would take no refusal.(New Jerusalem Bible)
Luke 8:1-3
1 Now it happened that after this he made his way through towns and villages preaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. With him went the Twelve,
2 as well as certain women who had been cured of evil spirits and ailments: Mary surnamed the Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out,
3 Joanna the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, Susanna, and many others who provided for them out of their own resources.(New Jerusalem Bible)
John Chrysostom (date provisionally moved to Sept. 13)
Psalm 49:1-8
1 [For the choirmaster Of the sons of Korah Psalm] Hear this, all nations, listen, all who dwell on earth,
2 people high and low, rich and poor alike!
3 My lips have wisdom to utter, my heart good sense to whisper.
4 I listen carefully to a proverb, I set my riddle to the music of the harp.
5 Why should I be afraid in times of trouble? Malice dogs me and hems me in.
6 They trust in their wealth, and boast of the profusion of their riches.
7 But no one can ever redeem himself or pay his own ransom to God,
8 the price for himself is too high; it can never be(New Jeremiah Bible)
Jeremiah 42:1-6
1 Then all the military leaders, in particular Johanan son of Kareah and Azariah son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from least to greatest, approached
2 the prophet Jeremiah and said, ‘Please hear our petition and intercede with Yahweh your God for us and for all this remnant — and how few of us are left out of many, your own eyes can see-
3 so that Yahweh your God may show us the way we are to go and what we must do.’
4 The prophet Jeremiah replied, ‘I hear you; I will indeed pray to Yahweh your God as you ask; and whatever answer Yahweh your God gives you, I will tell you, keeping nothing back from you.’
5 They in their turn said to Jeremiah, ‘May Yahweh be a true and faithful witness against us, if we do not follow the instructions that Yahweh your God sends us through you.
6 Whether we like it or not, we shall obey the voice of Yahweh our God to whom we are sending you, so that we may prosper by obeying the voice of Yahweh our God.’(New Jerusalem Bible)
1 Corinthians 12:31–13:7
31 Set your mind on the higher gifts. And now I am going to put before you the best way of all.
1 Though I command languages both human and angelic — if I speak without love, I am no more than a gong booming or a cymbal clashing.
2 And though I have the power of prophecy, to penetrate all mysteries and knowledge, and though I have all the faith necessary to move mountains — if I am without love, I am nothing.
3 Though I should give away to the poor all that I possess, and even give up my body to be burned — if I am without love, it will do me no good whatever.
4 Love is always patient and kind; love is never jealous; love is not boastful or conceited,
5 it is never rude and never seeks its own advantage, it does not take offence or store up grievances.
6 Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but finds its joy in the truth.
7 It is always ready to make allowances, to trust, to hope and to endure whatever comes.(New Jerusalem Bible)
Luke 21:12-15
12 ‘But before all this happens, you will be seized and persecuted; you will be handed over to the synagogues and to imprisonment, and brought before kings and governors for the sake of my name
13 -and that will be your opportunity to bear witness.
14 Make up your minds not to prepare your defence,
15 because I myself shall give you an eloquence and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to resist or contradict.(New Jerusalem Bible)
2 Samuel 11:1-17
1 At the turn of the year, at the time when kings go campaigning, David sent Joab and with him his guards and all Israel. They massacred the Ammonites and laid siege to Rabbah-of-the-Ammonites. David, however, remained in Jerusalem.
2 It happened towards evening when David had got up from resting and was strolling on the palace roof, that from the roof he saw a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful.
3 David made enquiries about this woman and was told, ‘Why, that is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam and wife of Uriah the Hittite.’
4 David then sent messengers to fetch her. She came to him, and he lay with her, just after she had purified herself from her period. She then went home again.
5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, ‘I am pregnant.’
6 David then sent word to Joab, ‘Send me Uriah the Hittite,’ whereupon Joab sent Uriah to David.
7 When Uriah reached him, David asked how Joab was and how the army was and how the war was going.
8 David then said to Uriah, ‘Go down to your house and wash your feet.’ Uriah left the palace and was followed by a present from the king’s table.
9 Uriah, however, slept at the palace gate with all his master’s bodyguard and did not go down to his house.
10 This was reported to David; ‘Uriah’, they said ‘has not gone down to his house.’ So David asked Uriah, ‘Haven’t you just arrived from the journey? Why didn’t you go down to your house?’
11 To which Uriah replied, ‘The ark, Israel and Judah are lodged in huts; my master Joab and my lord’s guards are camping in the open. Am I to go to my house, then, and eat and drink and sleep with my wife? As Yahweh lives, and as you yourself live, I shall so no such thing!’
12 David then said to Uriah, ‘Stay on here today; tomorrow I shall send you off.’ So Uriah stayed that day in Jerusalem.
13 The next day, David invited him to eat and drink in his presence and made him drunk. In the evening, Uriah went out and bedded down with his master’s bodyguard, but did not go down to his house.
14 Next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by Uriah.
15 In the letter he wrote, ‘Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest and then fall back, so that he gets wounded and killed.’
16 Joab, then besieging the city, stationed Uriah at a point where he knew that there would be tough fighters.
17 The people of the city sallied out and engaged Joab; there were casualties in the army, among David’s guards, and Uriah the Hittite was killed as well.(New Jerusalem Bible)
Psalm 51:1-10
1 [For the choirmaster Of David When the prophet Nathan had come to him because he had gone to Bathsheba] Have mercy on me, O God, in your faithful love, in your great tenderness wipe away my offences;
2 wash me clean from my guilt, purify me from my sin.
3 For I am well aware of my offences, my sin is constantly in mind.
4 Against you, you alone, I have sinned, I have done what you see to be wrong, that you may show your saving justice when you pass sentence, and your victory may appear when you give judgement,
5 remember, I was born guilty, a sinner from the moment of conception.
6 But you delight in sincerity of heart, and in secret you teach me wisdom.
7 Purify me with hyssop till I am clean, wash me till I am whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear the sound of joy and gladness, and the bones you have crushed will dance.
9 Turn away your face from my sins, and wipe away all my guilt.
10 God, create in me a clean heart, renew within me a resolute spirit,(New Jerusalem Bible)
Mark 4:26-34
26 He also said, ‘This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the land.
27 Night and day, while he sleeps, when he is awake, the seed is sprouting and growing; how, he does not know.
28 Of its own accord the land produces first the shoot, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.
29 And when the crop is ready, at once he starts to reap because the harvest has come.’
30 He also said, ‘What can we say that the kingdom is like? What parable can we find for it?
31 It is like a mustard seed which, at the time of its sowing, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth.
32 Yet once it is sown it grows into the biggest shrub of them all and puts out big branches so that the birds of the air can shelter in its shade.’
33 Using many parables like these, he spoke the word to them, so far as they were capable of understanding it.
34 He would not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything to his disciples when they were by themselves.(New Jerusalem Bible)
Friday, 27 January 2012
Friday of the Third week in Ordinary Time
Saint(s) of the day:St. Angela Merici, Virgin (c. 1470-1540)
Commentary of the day:
Saint Ambrose (c.340-397), Bishop of Milan and Doctor of the Church
Commentary on Saint Luke’s Gospel, VII, 179-182 ; SC 52
Christ sown in the earth
It was in a garden that Christ was both arrested and buried: he grew in this garden and there he was also brought back to life. Thus he became a tree… You too, then, should sow Christ in your garden… With Christ grind the mustard seed, tread it down and sow faith. Faith is hard pressed when we believe in Christ crucified. Paul pressed faith hard when he said: «When I came to you proclaiming the mystery of God, I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified» (1Cor 2,1-2)… Now, we sow faith when we believe in the Lord’s Passion following the Gospel or the readings from the apostles and prophets. In a manner of speaking, we sow faith when we cover it with soil that has been dug over and broken up with the flesh of the Lord… For whoever has believed that the Son of God became man believes that he died for us and believes that he was raised for us. Therefore, I am sowing faith when I set the sepulchre of Christ in the middle of my garden.
Do you want to know that Christ is a seed and that it is he who is sown? «Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies it bears much fruit» (Jn 12,24)… It is Christ himself who says so. So he is both a grain of wheat since he «fortifies the hearts of men» (Ps 104[103],15), and a mustard seed, since he warms men’s hearts… He is a grain of wheat when it is a matter of his resurrection, since the Word of God and the proof of his resurrection nourish the soul, increase hope and strengthen love – for Christ is «the bread of God come down from heaven» (Jn 6,33). And he is a mustard seed because there is no more bitterness or harshness in speaking about the Passion of the Lord.
1st Thought for Today:
My Utmost for His Highest
Reading for Friday 27th January 2012
LOOK AGAIN AND THINK by Oswald Chambers
Take no thought for your life.(Matthew 6:25)
A warning which needs to be reiterated is that the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust of other things entering in, will choke all that God puts in. We are never free from the recurring tides of this encroachment. If it does not come on the line of clothes and food, it will come on the line of money or lack of money; of friends or lack of friends; or on the line of difficult circumstances. It is one steady encroachment all the time, and unless we allow the Spirit of God to raise up the standard against it, these things will come in like a flood.
“Take no thought for your life.” “Be careful about one thing only,” says our Lord – “your relationship to Me.” Common sense shouts loud and says – “That is absurd, I must consider how I am going to live, I must consider what I am going to eat and drink.” Jesus says you must not. Beware of allowing the thought that this statement is made by One Who does not understand our particular circumstances. Jesus Christ knows our circumstances better than we do, and He says we must not think about these things so as to make them the one concern of our life. Whenever there is competition, be sure that you put your relationship to God first.
“Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” How much evil has begun to threaten you to-day? What kind of mean little imps have been looking in and saying – Now what are you going to do next month – this summer? “Be anxious for nothing,” Jesus says. Look again and think. Keep your mind on the “much more” of your heavenly Father.
Reflecting God-”Oh God, Restore Us!”
Friday, January 27, 2012
Scripture-Psalm 60
1 [For the choirmaster To the tune 'The decree is a lily' In a quiet voice Of David To be learnt When he was at war with Aram-Naharaim and Aram-Zobah, and Joab marched back to destroy twelve thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt] God, you have rejected us, broken us, you were angry, come back to us!
2 You made the earth tremble, split it open; now mend the rifts, it is tottering still.
3 You have forced your people to drink a bitter draught, forced us to drink a wine that made us reel.
4 You gave a signal to those who fear you to let them escape out of range of the bow.Pause
5 To rescue those you love, save with your right hand and answer us.
6 God has spoken from his sanctuary, ‘In triumph I will divide up Shechem, and share out the Valley of Succoth.
7 ‘Mine is Gilead, mine Manasseh, Ephraim the helmet on my head, Judah my commander’s baton,
8 ‘Moab a bowl for me to wash in, on Edom I plant my sandal. Now try shouting “Victory!” over me, Philistia!’
9 Who will lead me against a fortified city, who will guide me into Edom,
10 if not you, the God who has rejected us? God, you no longer march with our armies.
11 Bring us help in our time of crisis, any human help is worthless.
12 With God we shall do deeds of valour, he will trample down our enemies.(New Jerusalem Bible)
“Oh God, Restore Us!” by Gerald Crispin
Have you ever been angry at someone? Has anyone ever been angry at you? I know that may sound like an obvious question, but stop and think about it. No matter how angry you may have become, or how angry someone has become with you, how can it compare to the anger of a holy God toward those who willfully turn away from him–those who do not fear him. By “fear” I do not mean “being afraid” of God: I mean not respecting him.
David knew that truth all to well. God’s anger had shaken and torn the land. That is why David pleads to God, to “to restore us”(verse 1).
We all get angry from time to time, sometimes we have a good reason and sometimes not. One difference between God and us is that he always has a good reason. Another difference is God’s willingness to forgive us when we ask him in genuine sorrow for our sin. He will restore us and make us new. No one else can do that.
Let us call upon God, he will forgive us, with him we will gain the victory!
Hymn for Today:
“Revive Us Again” by William P. Mackay
1. We praise Thee, O God!
For the Son of Thy love,
For Jesus Who died,
And is now gone above.
Refrain:
Hallelujah! Thine the glory.
Hallelujah! Amen.
Hallelujah! Thine the glory.
Revive us again.
2. We praise Thee, O God!
For Thy Spirit of light,
Who hath shown us our Savior,
And scattered our night.
Refrain:
Hallelujah! Thine the glory.
Hallelujah! Amen.
Hallelujah! Thine the glory.
Revive us again.
3. All glory and praise
To the Lamb that was slain,
Who hath borne all our sins,
And hath cleansed every stain.
Refrain:
Hallelujah! Thine the glory.
Hallelujah! Amen.
Hallelujah! Thine the glory.
Revive us again.
4. All glory and praise
To the God of all grace,
Who hast brought us, and sought us,
And guided our ways.
Refrain:
Hallelujah! Thine the glory.
Hallelujah! Amen.
Hallelujah! Thine the glory.
Revive us again.
5. Revive us again;
Fill each heart with Thy love;
May each soul be rekindled
With fire from above.
2nd Thought for Today:
“First [God's] will and then [God's] work”(Neil B. Wiseman).
Prayer Needs:
Developing Christian leaders in the United Kingdom.
The Upper Room Daily Devotional
Friday, January 27, 2012
One Day at a Time
Suggested Bible Reading:
Read Lamentations 3:21-26
21 This is what I shall keep in mind and so regain some hope:
22 Surely Yahweh’s mercies are not over, his deeds of faithful love not exhausted;
23 every morning they are renewed; great is his faithfulness!
24 ‘Yahweh is all I have,’ I say to myself, ‘and so I shall put my hope in him.’
25 Yahweh is good to those who trust him, to all who search for him.
26 It is good to wait in silence for Yahweh to save.(New Jerusalem Bible)
Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.(Isaiah 41:10 (NIV))
Today’s Devotional
“One day at a time.” That is my favorite saying as I live as a cancer survivor. Whether I am working at my job as an assistant high-school principal or officiating on the sports field, living one day at time has many implications; but the most important is that I need God to get me through each day no matter what I am doing or confronting.
On difficult days at school, I may pray for help as I work with a problem student. On the sports field, I ask God to help me make the right call. And as a cancer survivor, I thank God each day for my life.
For Christians, “one day at time” can mean starting and ending the day with Christ, whether it is through prayer and reading the Bible or listening to others as they witness to their faith through meditations in The Upper Room. Nahum 1:7 says: “The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him.” Our Creator is present with each and every one of us, every day of our lives. by Peter Perich (New Hampshire, USA)
3rd Thought for the Day: To see a photo of Peter officiating on the sports field, go to www.upperroom.org.
Prayer: Healer of the sick, teach us to come to you continually in prayer. Be with us as we leave our worries with you, and give us the courage to face each day — one hour, one minute at a time. Amen.
Prayer Focus: Those living with cancer
The scripture quotation, unless otherwise indicated, is from the NEW REVISED STANDARD VERSION of the Bible, copyright © 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Copyright ©2012 by The Upper Room, a ministry of GBOD. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce or redistribute without written permission from the publisher.
Daily Meditation: Wisdom — January 27, 2012
Center for Action and Contemplation
WISDOM
“All that is hidden, all that is plain, I have come to know, instructed by Wisdom who designed them all.”(Wisdom 7:21-22)
The irony of ego “consciousness” is that it always excludes and eliminates the unconscious—so it is actually not conscious at all! It insists on knowing, of being certain, and it refuses all unknowing. So most people who think they are fully conscious (read: “smart”) have that big leaden manhole covering their unconscious. It gives them control but seldom compassion or wisdom. That is exactly why politicians, priests, CEOs of anything, and know-it-alls must continue to fail and fall (spiritually speaking) or they will never come to any real wisdom. The trouble is that we have to put up with them in the meantime and wait for another growth spurt. Sometimes that very power position makes failing and falling quite rare and even impossible for them. From A Lever and a Place to Stand:
The Contemplative Stance, the Active Prayer, p. x (foreword)
Starter Prayer:
Grant me wisdom. by Father Richard Rohr
4th Thought for Today:
Friday January 27, 2012
Healing Our Hearts Through Forgiveness
How can we forgive those who do not want to be forgiven? Our deepest desire is that the forgiveness we offer will be received. This mutuality between giving and receiving is what creates peace and harmony. But if our condition for giving forgiveness is that it will be received, we seldom will forgive! Forgiving the other is first and foremost an inner movement. It is an act that removes anger, bitterness, and the desire for revenge from our hearts and helps us to reclaim our human dignity. We cannot force those we want to forgive into accepting our forgiveness. They might not be able or willing do so. They may not even know or feel that they have wounded us.
The only people we can really change are ourselves. Forgiving others is first and foremost healing our own hearts. by Father Henri J. M. Nouwen
5th Thought for Today:
Friday 27 January 2012
Awakening the Beautiful
Power and strength can separate people; whereas weakness and recognition of weakness and the cry for help brings people together. When you are weak, you need people. It’s very easy. When you are strong you don’t need people, you can do everything on your own. So, somewhere the weak person calls people together. And when the weak call forth the strong, what happens is they awaken what is most beautiful in a human person–compassion, goodness, openness to another and so on. Our weakness brings people together. by Jean Vanier
Belonging: The Search for Acceptance
Windborne Production Video
1.27.12 – “Everything that has been created by God is good” from The Church of the Resurrection-United Methodist in Leawood, Kansas, United States
Daily Scripture: 1 Timothy 4:3 “they forbid marriage and prohibit foods which God created to be accepted with thanksgiving by all who believe and who know the truth.
4 Everything God has created is good, and no food is to be rejected, provided it is received with thanksgiving:
5 the word of God and prayer make it holy.
6 If you put all this to the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus and show that you have really digested the teaching of the faith and the good doctrine which you have always followed.”(New Jerusalem Bible)
Reflection Questions:
Some early Christians were tempted to adopt ascetic Greek philosophies like Stoicism, which forbade all sex, as a shield from impurity. The idea that unmarried, celibate Christians are automatically holier than others has continued through the centuries. Not so, Paul warned Timothy. Marriage is a good gift from God, one to honor, celebrate and enjoy.
Paul did not say “everything is good,” but “everything God created is good.” He was answering false teachers who forbade marriage, and imposed strict dietary rules. How can we tell the difference between good things God created, and behaviors or attitudes that may “feel” spiritual, but reflect our brokenness rather than God’s good purposes?
William Barclay wrote that, throughout the history of Christianity, some people have “tried to be stricter than God.” Which do you find to be more of a struggle for you: being too strict, or not being strict enough? How can gratitude for God’s gifts, and a commitment to live by the values in God’s word, help you grow past either struggle?
Weekly Prayer:
Lord God, “a man embraces his wife, and they become one flesh”? Wow—Genesis said the first human couple were really strongly attracted to each other! Sometimes I have that sense, too, but so many things (grief, illness, betrayal, unresolved childhood hurts, even just human brokenness in one or both partners) can go wrong. This week, teach me about the joy, bonding and sharing of life that “good sex,” sex as you intend it to be, can bring to our lives. Amen.
Friday 1.27.12 Insight from Darren Lippe
Darren Lippe helps facilitate Journey 101 “Loving God” classes, guides a 3rd grade Sunday school class, is a member of a small group & a men’s group, and serves on the Curriculum team.
As we consider today’s passage from Paul’s letter to Timothy, let’s play a little Family Feud, “old school.” Take it away, Richard:
First question: Roughly 8/10 adults are dissatisfied with what?
Survey says the number one answer is: Their physical appearance &/or weight.
Second question: Over 5/10 adults list this issue as a constant top concern.
Survey says: Their physical health.
Final question: 8/7 adults say this was the toughest subject in elementary school.
Survey says: Fractions.
As we reflect on the first 2 survey answers, it really isn’t surprising that, like the folks in Paul’s day, there is a tremendous temptation to view our physical bodies as creation’s weakest link.
This viewpoint is pervasive, regardless of age. Youngsters want to look more mature, want to be taller/shorter, want curlier/straighter hair, or want the latest smart phone. (Huh? – Editor. Well, not all teenage angst is limited to just physical appearance- they occasionally branch out to other areas just to mix it up.)
We adults aren’t immune to this temptation either. We miss the luxuriant hair of yesterday, we get frustrated when we can’t eat spicy foods late in the day, we get angry that our arms are too short to read a simple menu, and we’d love to see a re-make of a classic movie or TV show that was half as good as the original.
However, while our physical bodies fail to meet our expectations in many ways, we would be remiss to think that God agrees with us. It is no accident that God deliberately chose to have the Word made flesh and, as evidenced by the empty tomb, that God intends to redeem our entire being. God views our bodies as worthy of His kingdom & revels in the idea that we are made in His image.
While we see wrinkles, God sees laugh lines & great memories. While we struggle to keep the pace with the younger hikers, God lets us use these pauses to savor the journey. While we envy the energy younger colleagues bring to the work force, God relishes the experience we can bring to the table to help decision-making be more effective.
So what are we to do? Perhaps we could resist the temptation to worship our physical appearance and, instead, choose to honor God by properly caring for our body through diet, exercise & rest. As we submit our bodies to God & His Kingdom, we might just find that this helps put our health concerns in better perspective as well.
Bonus Question: How did God describe creation after the 6th day?
Survey Says: “God saw everything that He had made, and indeed, it was very good.” Good answer! Good answer! (Clapping.)
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, TODAY’S NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society®. Used by permission of International Bible Society®. All rights reserved worldwide.
