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A Sip of Scripture
Daily Scripture:
PERSONAL PEACE
Blessed are the people of whom this is true; blessed are the people whose God is the LORD.
Reference: Psalm 144:15
Psalm 144:15 (New King James Version)
15 Happy are the people who are in such a state;
Happy are the people whose God is the LORD!
Related Blog
A Simple Desire
The weblog "a simple desire" provides brief commentaries on "A Sip of Scripture" from a Mennonite perspective, The commentaries are written by Carole Boshart, of Oregon; Will Fitzgerald, of Michigan; and others on occasion.
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a simple desireShort commentary on “A Sip of Scripture” from Third Way Cafe
Blessed are those who are blessed (or something like that)
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“Blessed are the people of whom this is true; blessed are the people whose God is the LORD.“ (Psalm 144:15)
Verse 15 of chapter 144 is the culmination of a list of wished for blessings that God’s people might and could have. Flourishing sons, beautiful daughters, well-filled barns, flocks in the field, and no enemy in sight. Sounds like a pretty blessed life to me. In fact, it sounds like the living conditions of a realized shalom.
It also sounds like the litany one would read in those Christmas letters that some people get: “Johnny just won top honors for being a star-athlete”; “Susie just got a full-ride scholarship”; “Sam was promoted to CEO of a Fortune 5000 firm”; “June’s garden got top honors in the horticulture show while also being the first woman chairman of the board at her company”. Blessings on top of blessings! And seasons greetings while you’re at it!
While the wishes of the writer of Psalm and the imagined Christmas letter are very nice, they are also treasures that are built up on earth. Because if one is cleared-eyed and reality-based one has to realize that these blessings are not the result of belief in God, but good fortune. Certainly, these are things that can be obtained with hard work . . . if one lives in a society where hard work will give you these benefits. However, followers of God and Christ are not guaranteed these joys of life.
I know I sound like some sort of “Bah Humbug” Scrooge at this time of year. But I have to compare this blessing with what Christ said in the Sermon on the Mount/Plain. I would encourage you to do the same.
It is my hope and prayer gentle reader that you are one of the twice-blessed. Blessed both with treasures of this earth, and a strong relationship with God. And if you are not so blessed, please consider which set of blessings will give you lasting peace. Selah!
Written by Carole
December 15, 2010 at 12:51 am
Related Website
Soul Space
You are invited to take some time each day for "Soul Space," written by Wendy Miller and posted on the Eastern Mennonite University website. Each day's guidance centers around a theme for reflection and prayer drawn from the lectionary readings for the week.
Morning-Week One
As darkness fades and dawn awakens
Lord, give me the joy of your saving help
And sustain me with your bountiful Spirit.
In the tender light of morning
Help me as I pray.
In the name of Jesus, bright and morning star. Amen.
Morning by morning God wakens–
wakens my ear
to listen
as those who are taught. Isaiah 50:5
Coming
Dear God,
The season is noisy
The world busy
Its voices insistent
I get caught
In the noise
The busyness
The lure of its voices.
Draw my soul into the hospitality of your inn
Still my anxious feet
Quiet my heart.
Help me to hear the call
which comes from the front desk of your heavenly inn.
Waken my heart,
Help me wait.
I want to be ready for Jesus’ coming.
Silence
Be still.
Open your awareness to God’s presence
Within and all around.
“Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10)
Being With-Fourth Sunday of Advent-Nativity of Jesus
Lord Jesus Christ,
You call us to come
To be with you,
To hear your voice
To listen deeply to what you say,
To see what you do.
By your Spirit help me
To hear your voice
To see you
In Jesus.
Amen
Fourth Sunday of Advent: Nativity of Jesus
The final days of Advent bring us to the Birthing. The long wait is over. The New Thing which God is doing is happening. God comes among us in Jesus, to rescue us from all that holds us captive and alienated: from God, from ourselves, from each other, and from creation.
This good news is easy to say (or read), but so much more difficult to see and recognize “on the ground”–both within our own soul, and in the world we live in. Hence, the Advent and Nativity narratives lead us inside the houses of those persons who struggle with this New Thing that is invading their lives.
Matthew leads us into Joseph’s house–as well as into the house of his soul. Mary has told him that she is pregnant–due to the presence and work of the Spirit of God coming upon her. She only knows what the angel Gabriel had told her: that she would conceive and bear a son, and is to name him Jesus; he is the Son of God. She bears the God-child within her. A Brand New Thing is happening! But Joseph can only hear that she is pregnant. The rest of the message he is unable to hear.
He staggers from the news. A baby! Mary is with child! And it is not his! What should he do? Faced with this dilemma he leans upon the rock bed of his faith tradition in the Hebrew scriptures. He had every right (he thought) to expose Mary before the people of the village at Nazareth. But they could stone her to death for committing adultery. Being engaged was considered as binding as marriage. But the thought of seeing Mary’s condition being exposed in public, and the ensuing results do not give him any peace. He feels caught between obedience to the Law, and his loving concern for Mary and the unborn baby. Finally, his goodness rules the day, and he decides that he will arrange for a private annulment of their engagement. That night he sleeps.
But his sleep is disturbed by an angelic visitor who appears in a dream, an angel who speaks God’s guidance to Joseph:
“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, (Oh, how he needed to hear those comforting words! He had been so kidnapped by fear!) for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit (Oh yes! That is what Mary had said wasn’t it. Now he can hear it!) She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:20-22)
God comes in all kinds of ways to help us recognize and enter into the New Thing that God is doing in and through Jesus. Joseph needed sleep, and to listen to his dreams. Mary (who knows her engagement to Joseph, and even her life could be at risk) needed safe haven in the house of Elizabeth where this older women named, affirmed and blessed the presence of God’s son within her. Only then can she begin to sing and voice what she has said “Yes” to. Zechariah needed solitude and silence in the safe haven of his home tucked away in the hills of Judea. Here he could wrestle with what Gabriel had told him, and give God time to dismantle the walls of grief, doubt, and tradition which held him hostage and unable to embrace this New Thing . Elizabeth needed five months of solitude in order to bask in the unexpected blessing of being with child—a child to be named John!—and to heal from the years of being shamed by the local community because she was barren. Each of these four persons were then able to be hospitable to each other, to the communities around them, and to the New Thing that God is doing!
God knows what each of us needs in order for us to truly receive the Christ-child, to be God-bearers in this world. The invitation here is for us to notice how God comes, and what God says (often not with words, but in many other ways), and to enter into the invitation of the kingdom, the New Thing God is bringing among us.
You come to us
In the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Help me to be present to you –
To be with you,
To listen –
With the ears of my heart.
Continue to free me from the stuff of this world, which holds me captive.
Lead me in your Way of life.
Amen
Prayer before reading:
Loving God
Help me to hear your call
Wake me up
Help me to wait
By your Spirit, may I hear
your voice
your invitation
Help me to be awake for the visitation of your messengers,
And ready for how you come
In Jesus
As a baby
As our Savior.
Read slowly. Listen deeply. Indwell the scripture.
Scripture Guide:
FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT
» 12/13 Monday: Matthew 1:18-19
» 12/14 Tuesday: Matthew 1:20-25
» 12/15 Wednesday: Psalm 80:1-7,17-19
King James Version (KJV)
Psalm 80:1-7
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Psalm 80
1Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth.
2Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up thy strength, and come and save us.
3Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.
4O LORD God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people?
5Thou feedest them with the bread of tears; and givest them tears to drink in great measure.
6Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbours: and our enemies laugh among themselves.
7Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.
King James Version (KJV)
Public Domain
Psalm 80:17-19
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17Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself.
18So will not we go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon thy name.
19Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.
» 12/16 Thursday: Romans 1:1-7
» 12/17 Friday: Isaiah 7:10-16
» 12/18 Saturday: Matthew 1:18-19
Responding
The third movement within Soul Space is Responding. Here we shift our focus towards outward engagement.
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Wednesday
Pray for the coming day. Pray for persons who are seeking God; persons who are sensing a need for “something more”, and for the work of the Holy Spirit who sheds Christ’s light on the path of those who are searching for the “way home,” especially for _____________________.
Lord Jesus, Shepherd who seeks,
By your Spirit, be present in our world today.
Companion those who are lost and seeking a way home,
Give light in their darkness, especially to _____________________.
Give them clarity and guidance in the fog of their restlessness.
As they ache for rest in God, lead them home to your loving and merciful Abba who yearns for their return, and waits on the front porch of the kingdom to greet them.
Shepherd me this day to be a patient listener, a hospitable companion, and a guide who helps others discover your presence and work in their lives.
In your great name, Amen
Pray the prayer Jesus taught his disciples:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial
and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours now and forever.
Amen.
CLOSING PRAYER
Loving God,
Help me to hear your wake-up call,
To listen deeply to your voice.
Awaken my mind and soul to your work
Within and among us through the Holy Spirit.
Help me not to run into busy avoidance,
Not to be caught in the trappings of this world.
Bend my heart to stay . . . to love . . . to wait
To embrace your coming in Jesus.
Amen.
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
» 12/19 Sunday: Matthew 1:20-25
Evening- Week One
Closing the day with gratefulness.
It is a good thing to give thanks to the LORD,
And to sing praises to your Name, O Most High;
To tell of your loving-kindness early in the morning
And of your faithfulness in the night season.
Psalm 92:1,2
As I come to the end of this day,
For what am I thankful?
How have I known God’s faithfulness this day?
What do bring to God . . .?
For confession . . .
For forgiveness . . .
For help . . .
For God’s holding.
Read the psalm for this week’s lectionary readings.
Silence
Closing Prayer
Living God,
In you there is no darkness;
Shed upon us through this night the light of your forgiveness,
Your healing and your peace.
Cover us with the blanket of your protection.
When we wake from sleep
May we know once the more the light of your presence,
Through Jesus Christ our Lord,
Amen.
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